ABSTRACT
In Chapter 19, we discussed the importance of mathematical models. Recall that we mentioned the success of astronomer, Johannes Kepler, was largely due to the huge amount of observation data gathered by his teacher, Tycho Brahe. Similar to models, data is also crucial, but people ignored its importance for a long time. If someone proposed a new model, an effective algorithm or a new approach, he would easily gain respect from his peers. A new model is often seen as a significant breakthrough, or even a epoch-making contribution (depending on the specific contribution). However, improvements from gathering and processing a huge amount of data were less valued as people thought that those works lacked creativity. Even just a decade ago, it was comparatively difficult for researchers who use data-driven methods, or empirical methods to publish papers than those who do purely theoretical research. Overall, most people in academia overemphasized the importance of new approaches while underestimating the role of data.
