http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/08/25/big-data-too-many-answers-not-enough-questions/

One of my favorite examples of why so many big data projects fail comes from a book that was written decades before “big data” was even conceived. In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a race of creatures build a supercomputer to calculate the meaning of “life, the universe, and everything.” After hundreds of years of processing, the computer announces that the answer is “42.” When the beings protest, the computer calmly suggests that now they have the answer, they need to know what the actual question is — a task that requires a much bigger and more sophisticated computer. This is a wonderful parable for big data because it illustrates one quintessential fact: data on its own is meaningless.