Big Data is a Tool for Creative Thinking.

In modern society, data abounds. This results from the rapid development of data processing capacity, storage devices, and communication speed over the past 30 years. However, we are often faced with situations where we cannot find enough information to find an answer or even clarify the question to find an answer. After all, it is no longer the amount of data itself that matters, but whether we can use data efficiently and reliably.

Big data analysis can be viewed as a thinking tool that can discover new business opportunities in this era of data flooding. Traditional data analysis seeks answers to a given question within a limited scope. A model is constructed by reflecting the prior relationship for a limited variable, and the parameters are estimated. And if the estimated statistic is suitable, it is explained with the model.

However, big data analytics does not place these limitations. Instead, consider complete, non-sampled data, including new data sources. In doing so, we do not only analyze “what we did” but rather “what is happening around us” in a very broad and detailed manner. And while grasping a relationship that has never been experienced before, you can refine the question to find an answer quickly. In addition, we can obtain more insights accurately by considering more data.

The discovery process of such big data is similar to a metaphor, a tool of thought. A metaphor expresses a meaning that the original idea cannot convey by adding auxiliary ideas with different original ideas. As the French philosopher Ricoeur stated that “metaphor contributes to discovering and illuminating a field of reality that is different from that revealed in everyday language,” big data, like metaphor, help us discover the world anew as a tool for creative thinking.