Life, Religion(s), Advertising, Music, Whisky, & Whatnot

06
Mar

Is “Big Data” Killing Creativity?

By Brock Ward|Digital Advertising|Be the first to comment!

The other day I was reading this post which suggests that “big data” is the enemy of creativity. First, big data is a hot term these days; it’s thrown around a lot and it’s used in many different ways. I won’t go into the individual nuances of what is and what isn’t big data, but suffice to say that big data is any data set that allows you to make sweeping, actionable decisions and forecasts based on the big picture of various market sectors, user behavior, and so on.

The post discusses how big data and creativity intertwine; the simplified basis of the argument being that Netflix created the show House of Cards based on data collected from their user base, and by doing so somehow surrendered creativity in return for the known unknown. Whatever.

To an extent this is true. Yes, they’ve examined what they know performs well and used that information to create something new. But just then I used the words “create” and “something new”. Of course, the show wasn’t exactly a shot in the dark, an is expected to be a success because it’s based on the behavior and interests of those who use the service, but that doesn’t mean it’s not creative simply because it was based on data…

…and what’s so wrong with giving people what they want?

In my line of work we use data every day to create a multitude of things that benefit our customers.  We also use data to develop tools that allow us to be more efficient at serving our customers. From the outside looking in, it’s easy to say “oh, these things just came out of the data”, but in reality the data  is just a bunch of arbitrary information that only comes to life when analyzed and used — and it’s all about how you use it.

First, one must not only know how to extract insights from data, but must also have an idea to create something useful as a result. This could be a tool, an advertising strategy, or even a show.  I know there’s a lot of profit to be made with this sort of stuff, but…

…the end goal is to create a better experience for the customer.

We’ve used big data to create many things. For example, matching a home-buyer to a home based on the alignment of search intent, history, and activity with attributes of current inventory. In the past this sort of stuff was messy (see search engine results), but today it’s extremely accurate and in real time. Data didn’t do that. People did, through creativity.

…but this is nothing new.

We’ve always been able to do these things, it’s just that the scale is larger and the response time is, well,  immediate.

Because of this, our potential to create new things grows exponentially. Creation also depends on and breeds inspiration. As we continue to use data to create new things that people actually want, we inspire others to to create ideas that may or may not be realized later on. And you know what those ideas generate?

…more data, more ideas, and more amazing things.

The positive side of better understanding the intricacies of our users is that they ultimately end up with a better experience that is tailored to them. I think they appreciate that.

Also, I think House of Cards is great.

 

30
Jan

The Ox Mountain Parable of Meng Tzu

By Brock Ward|Religions|Be the first to comment!

i
There was once a fine forest on the Ox Mountain,
Near the capital of a populous country.
The men came out with axes and cut down the trees.
Was it still a fine forest?

Yet, resting in the alternation of days and nights, moistened by dew,
The stumps sprouted, the trees began to grow again.
Then out came goats and cattle to browse on the young shoots.
The Ox Mountain was stripped utterly bare.

ii
Our mind too, stripped bare, like the mountain,
Still cannot be without some basic tendency to love.
But just as men with axes, cutting down the trees every morning,
Destroy the beauty of the forest,
So we, by our daily actions, destroy our right mind.

Day follows night, giving rest to the murdered forest,
The moisture of the dawn spirit
Awakens in us the right loves, the right aversions.

With the actions of one morning we cut down this love,
And destroy it again. At last the night spirit
Is no longer able to revive our right mind.

Where, then, do our likes and dislikes differ from those of animals?
In nothing much.
Men see us, and say we never had in us anything but evil.
Is this man’s nature?

iii
Whatever is cultivated rightly, will surely grow.
Whatever is not cultivated rightly must surely perish.
Master Kung (Confucius) said:

Grasp it firmly and you will keep it.
Grasp it loosely, and it will vanish out of your hand.
Its comings and goings have no fixed times:
No one knows its country!

Of man’s right mind, of this only does he speak!

19
Dec

A Love Poem by Kathleen Raine

By Brock Ward|Religions|Be the first to comment!

Yours is the face that the earth turns to me,
Continuous beyond its human features lie
The mountain forms that rest against the sky.
With your eyes, the reflecting rainbow, the sun’s light
Sees me; forest and flower, bird and beast
Know and hold me forever in the world’s thought,
Creation’s deep untroubled retrospect.

When your hand touches mine it is the earth
That takes me–the green grass,
And rocks and rivers; the green graves,
And children still unborn, and ancestors,
In love passed down from hand to hand from God.
Your love comes from the creation of the world,
From those paternal fingers, streaming through the clouds
That break with light the surface of the sea.

Here, where I trace your body with my hand,
Love’s presence has no end;
For these, your arms that hold me, are the world’s.
In us, the continents, clouds and oceans meet
Our arbitrary selves, extensive with the night,
Lost, in the heart’s worship, and the body’s sleep.

17
Nov

Bertrand Russell Quotes from BBC Interview 1959

By Brock Ward|Religions|Be the first to comment!

Bertrand Russell – Face to Face Interview, BBC 1959

[11:45] Mathematics, Philosophy, and Religion

Until I was about 40, I got the sort of satisfaction that Plato says you can get out of mathematics. It was an eternal world, it was a timeless world, it was a world where there was a possibility of a certain kind of perfection. And, I certainly got something analogous to religious satisfaction out of it.

[12:38] The First World War, Nazi’s and Communists

I thought, as a politician, and I still think that it would have been very much better for the world if Britain had remained neutral and the Germans would have won a quick victory. We should not have had neither the Nazis, nor the Communists if that had happened, because they were both products of the first World War. The war would have been brief, there would have been nothing  like so much destruction.

[22:45] Argument(s) Against War

Scientific man cannot survive if he is going to continue to make war.

The worst possibility is that human life may be extinguished, and it is a very real possibility — very real — and that is the worst. But assuming that doesn’t happen, I can’t bear the thought of many hundreds of millions of people dying in agony, only and solely because the rulers of the world are stupid and wicked. I can’t bear it.

[26:40] Message To The Future

I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral.

The intellectual thing I should want to say [to them] is this: When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you’d wish to believe, or by what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed. Look only and solely at what are the facts. That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say.

The moral thing I should wish to say [to them] is very simple: Love is wise, hatred is foolish.  In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things we don’t like. We can only live together in that way. But if we are to live together, and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital, to the continuation of human life on this planet.

08
Nov

David A Smith – Sign Artist

By Brock Ward|Miscellaneous|Be the first to comment!

David A Smith is a name that has become synonymous in Sign-Writing and Glass gilding circles, with high quality, hand crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors.

In this short documentary, we reveal behind the scenes work, techniques and visions that Dave uses when carrying out his passion as a glass embosser – One of the few remaining traditional UK glass artists.

A short follow up film of one of two mirrors recently completed. The mirrors were hand made using the traditional embossing and brilliant cutting techniques from over 100 years ago.

 

07
Nov

Empty Space

By Brock Ward|Religions|Be the first to comment!

Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub;
It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.

We make a vessel from a lump of clay;
It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.

We make doors and windows for a room;
But it is these empty spaces that make the room livable.

Thus, while the tangible has advantages, it is the intangible that makes it useful.

06
Nov

Self

By Brock Ward|Religions|Be the first to comment!

One of the aims of Zen is to let go of this thing we invent every day, which we call ourselves. If you can do that, then Zen will tell you where to go the rest of the way. This is not true of psychoanalysis, which insists that you liberate the ego and hence become yourself. But of course, that self is also a construct.