Data is the world's most potent, flourishingunnaturalresource. Accumulated in large part asthe byproduct of routine tasks, it is the unsalted, flavorless residue deposited en masse asorganizations churn away. Surprise! This heap of refuse is inherently predictive. Thus beginsa gold rush to dig up insightful gems.Does crime increase after a sporting event? Do online daters more consistently rated asattractive receive less interest? Do vegetarians miss fewer flights? Does your e-mail addressreveal your intentions?Yes, yes, yes, and yes!We’ve entered the golden age of predictive discoveries. A frenzy of number crunching churnsout a bonanza of colorful, valuable, and sometimes surprising insightsPredictive analytics' aim isn’t limited to assessing human hunches by testing relationshipsthat seem to make sense. It goes further, exploring a boundless playing field of possibletruths beyond the realms of intuition. And so it drops onto your desk connections that seemto defy logic. As strange, mystifying, or unexpected as they may seem, these discoveries helppredict.Welcome to theRipley’s Believe It or Not!of data science—theFreakonomicsof big data.Below are nine colorful discoveries, each pertaining to a single predictor variable—from thelikes of Walmart, Uber, Harvard, Shell, Microsoft, and Wikipedia. These examples are new inthis year's Revised and Updated edition of my book,Predictive Analytics: The Power toPredict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, bringing the book's more extensive "BizarreInsights" table up to 46 total. (For more information about the examples below, access thebook's Notes PDF—provided at no charge at–- and search byorganization name.)InsightOrganizationSuggestedExplanationPop-Tarts before ahurricane.
