The Rise Of The Datarati

Steven Levy profiles Google's chief economist, Hal Varian. Worth reading:

Varian believes that a new era is dawning for what you might call the dataratiand it's all about harnessing supply and demand. "What's ubiquitous and cheap?" Varian asks. "Data." And what is scarce? The analytic ability to utilize that data. As a result, he believes that the kind of technical person who once would have wound up working for a hedge fund on Wall Street will now work at a firm whose business hinges on making smart, daring choicesdecisions based on surprising results gleaned from algorithmic spelunking and executed with the confidence that comes from really doing the math.