The most revealing big data quotes

Over the years of working in the field of analytics and big data I have collected thousands of quotes and snippets highlighting both the transformational nature of the phenomenon as well as many of the perils.

A client has recently ask me to send him my top 10 big data quotes of all times and this is the list I came up with:

“Big data is at the foundation of all the megatrends that are happening today, from social to mobile to cloud to gaming.” – Chris Lynch, Vertica Systems

“Big data is not about the data” – Gary King, Harvard University, making the point that while data is plentiful and easy to collect, the real value is in the analytics.

“There were 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days.” – Eric Schmidt, of Google, said in 2010.

“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.” – Peter Sondergaard, Gartner Research

“I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians, and I’m not kidding” – Hal Varian, Google

“You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.” Daniel Keys Moran, computer programmer and science fiction author

“Hiding within those mounds of data is knowledge that could change the life of a patient, or change the world.” – Atul Butte, Stanford School of Medicine

“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.” Charles Babbage, inventor and mathematician

“To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more than asking him to perform a post-mortem – he may be able to say what the experiment died of.” – Ronald Fisher, biologist, geneticist and statistician

“Without big data, you are blind and deaf in the middle of a freeway” – Geoffrey Moore, management consultant and theorist.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with Forum:Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Bernard Marr is a Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and Consultant in Strategy.

Image: An internet cable is seen at a server room in this picture illustration taken in Warsaw January 24, 2012. REUTERS.