Nassim Taleb on forecasting

The bonus quote today is from Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan, on page 163: 

"There are those people who produce forecasts uncritically. When asked why they forecast, they answer, “Well, that’s what we’re paid to do here.” My suggestion: get another job."

I hear a lot about predictive analytics and the like, but it's not clear that new fads made possible by big data and machine learning are more useful to complex organizations than earlier techniques. Most perniciously, attempts to supply the data and make use of the analysis injects so much rigidity that organizations are robbed of their vitality and initiative.