Google Chief Economist Hal Varian on Data Analysis
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian Answers Questions on the Freakonomics blog:
Q: What jobs would you recommend to a young person with an interest, and maybe a bachelors degree, in economics?
A: If you are looking for a career where your services will be in high demand, you should find something where you provide a scarce, complementary service to something that is getting ubiquitous and cheap.
So what’s getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data. And what is complementary to data? Analysis.
So my recommendation is to take lots of courses about how to manipulate and analyze data: databases, machine learning, econometrics, statistics, visualization, and so on.
(HT: Newmark’s Door)
A few more:
Q: PC or Mac?
A: Linux.
Q: How close to “perfect information” can you get in your position at Google?
A: I sit one office away from our CEO, so I would say “about 12 feet.”
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