INS IDE STO RY
What I learned today
One of the advantages of editing
Analytics (as well as OR/MS Today, the
membership magazine of INFORMS) is I
learn something new every day, thanks to
the wide array of contributed articles we
receive. For example, just in preparing
this issue, I learned:
• Nearly 20 years ago, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that Amazon intended
to sell books at or near cost as a way
of gathering data on affluent, educated
shoppers, as reported by George Packer
in The New Yorker. The implication: The
data, once analyzed, had more value
than the loss-leader books, which proved
absolutely correct when Amazon began
selling everything under the sun to welltargeted consumers.
Drawing on Packer’s article, as well
as a couple of books (“Who Owns the
Future?” and “The Ethics of Big Data”),
Vijay Mehrotra explores the dark side
of technology, big data and analytics –
and the perceived and/or potential threat
it poses – in his Analyze This! column.
Don’t miss it.
• A Formula 1 pit crew, working in an
optimized, well-coordinated fashion, can
change a set of four tires in less than two
seconds. That means that unless you’re
2
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A N A LY T I C S - M A G A Z I N E . O R G
Evelyn Wood, that crew can change
12 tires in the time it takes you to read
this sentence. For the story behind the
motorsports magic, check out Andy
Boyd’s Forum column. Seeing is believing, so don’t miss the amazing videos
referenced at the end of the article.
• We all know the digital/technical
world will come to a wordy end without
acronyms, but do you know what MOOC
stands for? I do (“massively open online
course”), thanks to an interview I did with
executive search honcho Linda Burtch
regarding the red-hot analytics job market.
• Finally, I also learned from Linda
that in today’s dynamic world, young
people should plan on three or four careers during their lifetime. “It’s not good
to specialize in one thing and try to stick
with one company or one industry or one
vertical application for your entire career,” she says in the Q&A. “It’s incredibly
dangerous, and it likely won’t carry you
through a 35-year career. You need to be
continuously learning something new.”
I got that last part going for me,
every day.
– PETER HORNER, EDITOR
peter.horner@ mail.informs.org
W W W. I N F O R M S . O R G