Great Post! But i wonder ultimately how much willingness anyone will have to use such "versioned analytics" system? In my experience business owners don't really care plus their could be so many confounding factors that these versions on its own might become useless to use for anything. In the end it would be one poor data analyst logging all these decisions and sharing which would be similar to screaming into the void. It sounds useful theoretically, but I am skeptical about its practical use cases.
This is awesome. You are so spot on with "We excuse our lack of organization because it’s defined by its disorganization". To combat this, I have been keeping a running google doc for each squad with each ad-hoc request I get. I include the question, the objective, the results and reccos, and links to code in Github. This certainly doesn't solve the problem of sharing/storing results via a central repository but it does allow you to keep records of what you have learned so far, so you can remind stakeholders when they ask you the same question again :). It comes in handy come review time so you can remind your manager of all the knowledge you have developed for your squads. Finally, It will also make inputting results to a hypothetical central repo easier if that time comes :)
Great post. It made me think of Ursula Le Guin and the power that comes from knowing the true name of things in her EarthSea stories. "Ad-hoc analysis" would be just a use name, and we are still searching for its true name.
Maybe it is a name that reminds us that what it finds is itself precious, and therefore should not be discarded? Ben Shneiderman once said that "the purpose of visualizations is insight, not pictures". And visualizations are a big part of exploratory data analysis, so the theme fits. "Insight analysis" doesn't rolls out of the tongue, but how about "insight discovery"?
Great Post! But i wonder ultimately how much willingness anyone will have to use such "versioned analytics" system? In my experience business owners don't really care plus their could be so many confounding factors that these versions on its own might become useless to use for anything. In the end it would be one poor data analyst logging all these decisions and sharing which would be similar to screaming into the void. It sounds useful theoretically, but I am skeptical about its practical use cases.
Saw a typo quoting a newyorker article from the future :) 2103! Great read and still so relevant.
Sticking with the Latin, revelatio (unveiling). Great post Benn. “Words mean things”. A phrase I tire of hearing myself say.
This is awesome. You are so spot on with "We excuse our lack of organization because it’s defined by its disorganization". To combat this, I have been keeping a running google doc for each squad with each ad-hoc request I get. I include the question, the objective, the results and reccos, and links to code in Github. This certainly doesn't solve the problem of sharing/storing results via a central repository but it does allow you to keep records of what you have learned so far, so you can remind stakeholders when they ask you the same question again :). It comes in handy come review time so you can remind your manager of all the knowledge you have developed for your squads. Finally, It will also make inputting results to a hypothetical central repo easier if that time comes :)
I like “deep analysis”
Great post. It made me think of Ursula Le Guin and the power that comes from knowing the true name of things in her EarthSea stories. "Ad-hoc analysis" would be just a use name, and we are still searching for its true name.
https://notionparallax.co.uk/2020/the-true-name
Maybe it is a name that reminds us that what it finds is itself precious, and therefore should not be discarded? Ben Shneiderman once said that "the purpose of visualizations is insight, not pictures". And visualizations are a big part of exploratory data analysis, so the theme fits. "Insight analysis" doesn't rolls out of the tongue, but how about "insight discovery"?
https://interactions.acm.org/blog/view/the-purpose-of-visualization-is-insight-not-pictures-an-interview-with-ben