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  • JSM
    July 28, 2012 - August 02, 2012
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    August 12, 2012 - August 16, 2012
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    October 01, 2012
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At Salford Systems we take pride in pointing out that much of the work of modern analytics can be automated using our advanced technology. And indeed, our process of going from raw data to high quality predictive models is vastly faster than it was when we used classical statistical models some 20 years ago. But not everything that needs to be done in model construction is 100% automatable, and this is especially true when it comes to the avoidance of certain common blunders in model construction. In this article our focus is on the inadvertent use of information which in fact should never have been used in the model construction. Although we can provide some rules of thumb and some management advice to protect against this type of blunder, at present it appears that avoidance of these errors requires specific knowledge of the details of all of the potential fields in the database. In other words, there are some errors which are probably always going to be avoided only by the exercise of good judgment and vigilance exercised by human experts. This article is devoted to one such problem: the use of predictors which should never be used even though they appear on the database.

Published in Dan Steinberg