Grade Point Median

Before dropping out of graduate school, I did my B.S. in Statistics with a minor in business administration. My real focus was computer science, however, and I was learning programming when I could have been doing better homework. I graduated with a 3.1 gpa, but I argue that a GPM(grade point median) is a better way to calculate an aggregate of academic performance. In my case, two F's during one bad quarter in 2005 during a breakup with my fiance are high influence points unrelated to academic ability. I think even a 5% trimmed mean would put me above a 3.3 gpa.

The point is, although some academics are pretty good at analyzing their student population, along with individual track records, and grading accordingly, few students are going to print a stable performance history. Life is too volatile. For the few who are regularly outstanding, they won't lose anything by cutting a few of their worst and best grades. But for the unfortunate students experiencing the turbulence of life, a GPM or trimmed mean provides a more accurate representation of typical performance.

Data mining gets a bad rap

Yes, the business landscape is very competitive. Every day we hear about new business intelligence solutions and advancements in computer technology that make us wonder just what the heck is going on in some of the nations largest corporations with the data they gather from us. When I hear another appraiser complain about how data mining is destroying their livelihood, I feel sympathetic to their struggle in this horrible market, but I also feel the urge to shed some light on the virtues of data mining.

Data mining and artificial intelligence in general may give someone the resources to be evil, but the same thing has been said about computers(remember apple's 1984 commercial about big brother?). I don't see big brother cracking down on the masses, in fact, isn't google cracking down on china for censorship? Many people have gotten a call from their credit card company about fraudulent activity on their accounts. Guess how the credit card company found out about the fraud? Yep. More than likely, Data mining. Guess how some important advancements in technology, including medical advancements, are discovered? Data mining.

So next time you hear someone extolling the evils of data mining and how its ruining their livelihood, ask them why they haven't yet built a web crawler to put google out of business, or designed a low overhead online financial institution. Maybe they just need a nudge in the right direction.