Infinity War: meet the superpowers of Data Science
Continuing our series of posts about Avengers: Infinity War, let’s go back to the dawn of the universe, when everything was one. In Marvel’s story, the Infinity Stones appeared even before the Big Bang. After the explosion, they spread, each with the power to control a specific aspect of our dimension: Time; Space; Reality; Mind; Soul; and Power. That was the Collector’s explanation, in the first Guardians of the Galaxy, remember?
“Wait, but what does this have to do with Data Science?” Calm down, we’ll get there. In MJV, the infinity of the universe is represented by the amount of data we generate every day. It’s Big Data itself! After all, when we say we produce hundreds of zettabytes of data annually, we’re talking about something as abstract as the infinity of the universe, aren’t we?
We generate so much data today that we’re barely able to process all this – we’ve analyzed less than 5% of that volume. And don’t think that organizations evade this rule, they have also lost the operational ability to analyze important external and internal data related to their processes, customers, market, among other things.
So the question that remains is: how do you master this data universe and use it to your advantage? This is where the infinity gaunt… I mean, Data Science comes in.
Data Science and the powers of the infinity gauntlet
The Infinity gauntlet is the most powerful tool in the entire MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). It is able to gather the power of the six stones in one place, giving extraordinary powers to its user. With it, you have the ability to control the universe in your hands, literally. Just remember the snap of Thanos’ fingers in the last movie.
Ever wondered what you could do with that power? Well, just like the gauntlet, Data Science also has six basic skills, used by data scientists to control the entire universe of unstructured data. After all, as we saw in our first post, it is a branch of multidisciplinary knowledge.
The Venn diagram for Data Science, created by Drew Conway, shows these skills very well:
Now, we are going to explain how this all relates to the Infinity Stones:
Power Stone: Computer Science / IT
Information Technology (IT) has transformative power, right? Computer Science / IT skills help design and use algorithms for data processing, storage, and visualization. As you can see from the diagram, this is one of the macro areas of knowledge in Data Science.
Space Stone: Mathematics and Statistics
With mathematics and statistics, we have the ability to understand the dimension of the data. This ability helps to model and summarize large datasets. In the diagram, it is also one of the great areas of knowledge that support Data Science.
Soul Stone: Business knowledge
Business knowledge is the “soul” of Data Science. The use of this expertise enables the creation of more aligned insights. It is a more intuitive process, able to ask the right questions and put all the answers that we obtained in the most appropriate context. It is also a macro area that needs to be considered.
Reality Stone: Traditional Research
It happens when we join expertises in mathematics and statistics with the knowledge of the business. It is in the research that we have been able to collect this data for future analyzes, mainly from the perspective of the know-how of the area of knowledge explored. It collaborates with the understanding of the reality that surrounds us.
Time Stone: Development
This competence comes from the combination of Information Technology (IT) and business expertise. We can create systems to automate the entire process, optimizing and accelerating analysis. This task is crucial because, as we saw in the first post, organizations have lost the operational capacity to process so much data.
Mind Stone: Machine Learning
To close, we also have the Machine Learning stone. Artificial intelligence, in addition to being “producible,” is also widely used in Data Science solutions. Pattern identification helps not only data scientists, but also the creation of smarter systems with fewer flaws.
The war for the infinity stones
You may not have noticed it, but it has already begun. Silently, film by film, the war for the infinity stones is heading for its climax. At first we thought the big villain was Loki, then Ultron, but it was Thanos who was behind the scenes, feeding an intergalactic war.
Returning to our reality, the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) is dictating the new rules for the market, all because it realized, from an early age, the potential of data analysis and a data-driven culture and 100% digital. They were pioneers in using them as the digital side of their business.
It is necessary to abandon the analog mindset urgently and choose the right side. Fintechs already noticed that. Companies like Nubank and Uber also soon noticed. The time has come to promote digital transformation, data-driven mindset and, above all, Data Science in your organization.
In a market where the study of the science of futurism is already a reality and decisions are made based on data and setting scenarios, we can no longer afford to run companies with the blindfold. You need to position yourself strategically and know exactly where your organization goes. This is the secret to winning!
The entry of Thanos: A Look Under The Analog Mindset
You can be sure: if you are losing this war, you need to not only adopt Data Science in your business strategy, but also promote a change of mindset in your organization. To triumph, we need to defeat the analog mindset, which will be represented by Thanos in our series of posts, and move towards digital transformation.
Follow the scenes of the next chapters to find out more about this villain who can hurt your organization and figure out how to defeat it.
Did you like our post today? So check out our blog post on Data Science!
