Category: Blog
Our team of experts explores interesting topics relating to data analytics, industry news, and more!
post: Buzzwords & Bullsh!t: Machine Learning
“In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, there’s a land that’s fair and bright….” In this song about a distant, magical place, not only is the land fair and bright, but it never rains or snows, the wind is never blowing, eggs come out of hens already soft-boiled, work never has to be done, and, among […]
post: Buzzwords & Bullsh!t: SEO
“You have a lot of strong feelings, don’t you?” This was something a professor said to me in grad school. To be honest, he’s right. There’s a lot of things that I think are super annoying. I cannot stand Los Angeles, I don’t like capers, I think that e-books hurt your eyes and I also […]
post: Buzzwords & Bullsh!t: Proformas
Not all of the “buzzwords” in this series are about technology. As a CFO, my most hated buzzwords are “proforma financials.” (I’ll tackle its less attractive but equally annoying cousin “budget” in another post.) Don’t get me wrong, they are valuable, but they are definitely not the end all be all in decision making. One […]
post: Buzzwords & Bullsh!t: KYC
Buzzwords. I heard them while I was a banker and I hear them now working in fintech. There are PLENTY of tech terms that make my skin crawl, but the one that I hear thrown around the most is infamous for anyone who has ever worked in a financial institution. It’s something that is engrained […]
post: Buzzwords & Bullsh!t: Big Data – Understanding the Myth
“Big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.” This all-too-true analogy is attributed to Duke Professor Dan Ariely. Big Data, its connotations, and its often-incorrect implications, also are a pet-peeve of […]
post: Buzzwords & Bullsh!t
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they have to say something.” -Plato The goal of the NCS blog series has been to give the reader unique insights, be it into the startup life through “Founders Corner” or a better understanding of a specific methodology or treatment through “Nerding […]
post: Take a Snapshot: Using Vector & Raster Data in Mapping
Spatial relationships have been and always will be a relevant part of life; any piece of data which can be observed in space and time can be mapped and visualized. This geospatial data is typically stored in one of two forms: raster and vector. Raster data is organized as a grid, every square of which […]
post: Some Models Don’t Tell the Truth – Using Statistical Models Realistically
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” This quote, well-known to statisticians, comes from one of the most influential figures in statistics, George Box. The point that Box was making is one that is misunderstood by many data analysts, from novices to experienced researchers: every statistical model is an approximation to reality. To understand […]
post: How to Tell if You’re Banking a Pot Business
Though established over 70 years ago, Salal Credit Union in Seattle only began exploring business banking in 2012. And at first, it took clients at their word. “We were still in the infancy of our business banking growth,” said Russell Rosendal, chief executive and president of the $594 million-asset credit union. “They might say that […]
post: How to Use Regression and Classification in the Regulatory Space
When it comes to analyzing data there are a variety of methods that can be used. But most applications of data analytics today fall under one of two categories: regression and classification. Regression is the process of using past data to predict the future value of a continuous numerical variable. This can include anything from […]