John James Cowperthwaite was born in Scotland in 1915 but spent most of his life as the financial secretary in Hong Kong for the British government, laying the foundations for what became its economic miracle.10 He is one of the 20th century’s unsung heroes, on par with Norman Borlaug of the Green Revolution in agriculture. Having lifted tens of millions out of poverty, his ideas continue to ripple outward. And he is the only reason no official data on Hong Kong’s economy was ever compiled from 1961 to 1971. Cowperthwaite batted away request after request. As he explained it to the economist Milton Friedman, he was convinced that “once the data was published there would be pressure to use them for government intervention in the economy.”11 Another time, once asked what the most important thing poor countries could do to develop their economy, Cowperthwaite quipped, “They should abolish the office of national statistics.”12 Sometimes, it seems, no data is better than big data.

Michael Gibson, Paper belt on fire: how renegade investors sparked a revolt against the university, New York, 2022, p. 187