Good decision-makers are driven by the data, experts tell us. They cast their preconceptions aside. Indeed, as the venerable Sherlock Holmes famously uttered in Scandal in Bohemia,...
Show More
Good decision-makers are driven by the data, experts tell us. They cast their preconceptions aside. Indeed, as the venerable Sherlock Holmes famously uttered in Scandal in Bohemia, "It's a capital mistake to theorize before one has the data." Then, with clear eyes, the most rational of decision-makers follow the evidence wherever it may lead.
It sure sounds like good advice and, in an era where we are inundated with data at every turn, seemingly more relevant than ever. But is it?
Frankly, upon closer inspection, it's not even clear, really, what the guidance even means. Here I am, sitting in front of a large spreadsheet, wondering: how could this lifeless matrix filled with inert values ever take me anywhere? I can't download it directly into my brain like I do apps onto my iPhone. Nor can I scroll through it, absorbing its contents like some hacky speed reading infomercial from the 90s.
No, instead I must decide. I must choose which cells to look at, which queries to write, and what charts and graphs to generate. None of those decisions are driven by the data; they're driven by me. More specifically, they're driven by my theories and guesses about what is happening in the world behind the data. Guesses that originate in my own mind. Indeed, humans are only ever able to make sense of data in light of their existing guesses. As the philosopher Karl Popper pointed out, all observations are "theory-laden."
