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by deafbybeheading 4886 days ago
Sure, I was being facetious. Even with actions that are simple to execute, I'm somewhat skeptical that a black box with a single recommendation is the best answer. I think that presenting the analysis as "do this, and here is why" would be a nice alternative for more complex systems--frequently dashboards and such throw data at you and completely punt on helping you interpret it.
1 comments

Your suggestion is one often made to me so I didn't realize it was facetious.

The truth is that many of the big data systems we build are starting to make complex decisions based on subtleties in data a non-expert human can't understand. We of course try to give reasoning along with the decisions, but it's often easier and cheaper to get decisions from a computer and then hire a domain expert as a consultant to write down the reasoning for the client in a monthly report.

As long as the actions your software tells your clients to take will save them money they don't really care about seeing the reasoning beforehand. And if they choose not to take action, you can tell them how much money they lost by not implementing the advice of the computer. It's a surprisingly effective way to do business.