Anderson, who focuses on operations, and Cooper, who works with users and partners, brought this analytical mind-set to the challenge of helping make Philadelphia a friendlier place for newcomers.

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Mr Snower complains that most of his colleagues' thinking about the economy has been conditioned by the Industrial Revolution, and that he and Assar Lindbeck, the Swedish economist with whom he has been studying this change, have had to come up with a new set of analytical tools to examine it.

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The 150, 000 applicants each year must first pass exams in chemistry, physics and mathematics before they can sit for a second set of grueling analytical tests.

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These creative and analytical business types are ruled by a different mind-set, known to often risk it all for a good idea.

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The goal is to extract a smaller set of data that can be analyzed, using any of the same visualization or analytical tools that would be used for other data types.

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