This is true, but I think the real benefit of the “Big Data” paradigm (scare quotes included) was the spreading the idea that you should actually measure things

This is true, but I think the real benefit of the “Big Data” paradigm (scare quotes included) was the spreading the idea that you should actually measure things, and then make a decision. You’d think this was obvious, but apparently it wasn’t. (Think back to the book Lean Startup, whose premise is, “A/B test hypotheses.”) Similarly, the “AI Revolution”, could be boiled down to, “run a regression.”