"Most surprising and far-reaching analogies revealed themselves between apparently quite disparate natural processes. It seemed that nature had built the most various things on exactly the same pattern; or, in the dry words of the analyst, the same differential equations hold for the most various phenomena." (Ludwig Boltzmann, "On the methods of theoretical physics", 1892)
"It [knowledge] is clearly related to information, which we can now measure; and an economist especially is tempted to regard knowledge as a kind of capital structure, corresponding to information as an income flow. Knowledge, that is to say, is some kind of improbable structure or stock made up essentially of patterns - that is, improbable arrangements, and the more improbable the arrangements, we might suppose, the more knowledge there is." (Kenneth Boulding, "Beyond Economics: Essays on Society", 1968)
"Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition."(Marshall McLuhan, "Counterblast", 1969)
"Without the hard little bits of marble which are called 'facts' or 'data' one cannot compose a mosaic; what matters, however, are not so much the individual bits, but the successive patterns into which you arrange them, then break them up and rearrange them." (Arthur Koestler, "The Act of Creation", 1970)
"To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to accumulate facts […]" (Robert H MacArthur, "Geographical Ecology", 1972)
"A pattern has an integrity independent of the medium by virtue of which you have received the information that it exists. Each of the chemical elements is a pattern integrity. Each individual is a pattern integrity. The pattern integrity of the human individual is evolutionary and not static." (Buckminster Fuller, "Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking", 1975)
"In everyday language, the words 'pattern' and 'symmetry' are used almost interchangeably, to indicate a property possessed by a regular arrangement of more-or-less identical units […]” (Ian Stewart & Martin Golubitsky, "Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?", 1992)
"With each pattern, small piecework is standardized into a larger chunk or unit. Patterns become the building blocks for design and construction. Finding and applying patterns indicates progress in a field of human endeavor." (Peter Coad, "Object-Oriented Pattern", 1992)
"The methods of science include controlled experiments, classification, pattern recognition, analysis, and deduction. In the humanities we apply analogy, metaphor, criticism, and (e)valuation. In design we devise alternatives, form patterns, synthesize, use conjecture, and model solutions." (Béla H Bánáthy, "Designing Social Systems in a Changing World", 1996)
"It is commonly said that a pattern, however it is written,
has four essential parts: a statement of the context where the pattern is
useful, the problem that the pattern addresses, the forces that play in forming
a solution, and the solution that resolves those forces. [...] it supports the
definition of a pattern as 'a solution to a problem in a context', a
definition that [unfortunately] fixes the bounds of the pattern to a single
problem-solution pair." (Martin Fowler, "Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object
Models", 1997)
"Complexity is looking at interacting elements and asking how
they form patterns and how the patterns unfold. It’s important to point out
that the patterns may never be finished. They’re open-ended. In standard
science this hit some things that most scientists have a negative reaction to.
Science doesn’t like perpetual novelty." (W Brian Arthur, 1999)
"Knowledge is encoded in models. Models are synthetic sets of
rules, and pictures, and algorithms providing us with useful representations of
the world of our perceptions and of their patterns." (Didier Sornette, "Why Stock
Markets Crash - Critical Events in Complex Systems", 2003)
"[...] when data is presented in certain ways, the patterns can be readily perceived. If we can understand how perception works, our knowledge can be translated into rules for displaying information. Following perception‐based rules, we can present our data in such a way that the important and informative patterns stand out. If we disobey the rules, our data will be incomprehensible or misleading." (Colin Ware, "Information Visualization: Perception for Design" 2nd Ed., 2004)
"Exploratory Data Analysis is more than just a collection of data-analysis techniques; it provides a philosophy of how to dissect a data set. It stresses the power of visualisation and aspects such as what to look for, how to look for it and how to interpret the information it contains. Most EDA techniques are graphical in nature, because the main aim of EDA is to explore data in an open-minded way. Using graphics, rather than calculations, keeps open possibilities of spotting interesting patterns or anomalies that would not be apparent with a calculation (where assumptions and decisions about the nature of the data tend to be made in advance)." (Alan Graham, "Developing Thinking in Statistics", 2006)
"It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not its completeness. Indeed, you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent pattern." (Daniel Kahneman, "Thinking, Fast and Slow", 2011)
"Randomness might be defined in terms of order - its absence, that is. […] Everything we care about lies somewhere in the middle, where pattern and randomness interlace." (James Gleick, "The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood", 2011)
"Finding patterns is easy in any kind of data-rich environment […] The key is in determining whether the patterns represent signal or noise." (Nate Silver, "The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t", 2012)
"Another way to secure statistical significance is to use the data to discover a theory. Statistical tests assume that the researcher starts with a theory, collects data to test the theory, and reports the results - whether statistically significant or not. Many people work in the other direction, scrutinizing the data until they find a pattern and then making up a theory that fits the pattern." (Gary Smith, "Standard Deviations", 2014)
"Graphs can help us interpret data and draw inferences. They can help us see tendencies, patterns, trends, and relationships. A picture can be worth not only a thousand words, but a thousand numbers. However, a graph is essentially descriptive - a picture meant to tell a story. As with any story, bumblers may mangle the punch line and the dishonest may lie." (Gary Smith, "Standard Deviations", 2014)
"[…] regard it in fact as the great advantage of the
mathematical technique that it allows us to describe, by means of algebraic
equations, the general character of a pattern even where we are ignorant of the
numerical values which will determine its particular manifestation." (Friedrich
A von Hayek, "The Market and Other Orders", 2014)
"Remember that even random coin flips can yield striking, even stunning, patterns that mean nothing at all. When someone shows you a pattern, no matter how impressive the person’s credentials, consider the possibility that the pattern is just a coincidence. Ask why, not what. No matter what the pattern, the question is: Why should we expect to find this pattern?" (Gary Smith, "Standard Deviations", 2014)
"We are hardwired to make sense of the world around us - to notice patterns and invent theories to explain these patterns. We underestimate how easily pat - terns can be created by inexplicable random events - by good luck and bad luck." (Gary Smith, "Standard Deviations", 2014)
"A pattern is a design or model that helps grasp something. Patterns help connect things that may not appear to be connected. Patterns help cut through complexity and reveal simpler understandable trends. […] Patterns can be temporal, which is something that regularly occurs over time. Patterns can also be spatial, such as things being organized in a certain way. Patterns can be functional, in that doing certain things leads to certain effects. Good patterns are often symmetric. They echo basic structures and patterns that we are already aware of." (Anil K. Maheshwari, "Business Intelligence and Data Mining", 2015)
"When visuals are applied to data, they can enlighten the audience to insights that they wouldn’t see without charts or graphs. Many interesting patterns and outliers in the data would remain hidden in the rows and columns of data tables without the help of data visualizations. They connect with our visual nature as human beings and impart knowledge that couldn’t be obtained as easily using other approaches that involve just words or numbers." (Brent Dykes, "Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals", 2019)
No comments:
Post a Comment