Outsiders and data analysis

Here's a nice little article from the NY Times Sports section, describing the role outsiders -- who are not acculturated to an organization's biases or mindset -- can play when they take large datasets and start thinking about them. The article hook is a freelance analyst (and FedEx truck driver) who predicted at the time of the 2010 draft that Jeremy Lin would be a good point guard. Two things to keep in mind: the more data sets out there, the more people there are who can look at them. And if more people looking at them, more good ideas are bound to appear.