To Hypothesize or Not to Hypothesize

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." Data Science is in the early stage of development and needs to develop canons to guide us. There is a brewing debate about the use of established scientific methods in the practice of data science. Some suggest traditional scientific methods must be used while others assert new scientific methods must be developed - especially considering algorithms, machine learning and future artificial intelligence. Part of that debate includes whether it is necessary to form a hypothesis. I suggest the answer is it depends. .