Big Data: New oil in the wrong engine

This article argues that big data can either inspire or hinder creativity depending on it is used.

Big Data: New oil in the wrong engine

Richard Shotton and Richard ClayZenithOptimedia

Does Big Data inspire or hinder creative thinking?

This essay was entered into The Admap Prize 2015. For more information visit the Prize page.

The debate over the impact of Big Data has been characterised, ironically, by a lack of data. Big or small. Without the ballast of evidence, the opposing camps have drifted off into either eulogising or cynically dismissing it. Neither attitude is helpful.

Big Data, like all technologies and techniques before it, can either help or hinder creative thinking. A...

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