Absurd Thoughts for the Day

I have an idea for a book or a play. The tentative title is Sweating to the Metrics: A Tragicomedy about Living in an Era of Data Science. The idea came to me while I was cutting the grass this morning. I was trying to think of something clever to say about an app or the latest research that could inform people about efficiently cutting their way to a lush lawn. But I moved on from that quickly. Some people care a lot about the appearance of their lawns. There are worse obsessions.

Then I was thinking about metrics and algorithms and whatever else is part and parcel of our BIG DATA-Data Science era. I like data and all but sometimes I feel like we have jumped the data shark. Notice I said "feel" in the previous sentence. I don't think we're supposed to feel anything anymore about anything. I think we're just supposed to coldly collect the data, make decisions, rinse and repeat. Some of this is overstated. I occasionally make sociologically snarky remarks.

So all I have is a title for a book or a play and a dream of someone overpaying me to write a manuscript. The big money people will surround me with a superstar public relations team and bring forth the influencers and stylists. I'll receive a boatload of money and retire with my family to who knows where.

I'm off to crowdsource for ideas about where to retire.