A divergence begins…
A few years ago I was encouraged to write around my thoughts towards how The Wisdom of Crowds, diverse teams & groups of individuals, and data/AI are able to be all intertwined for the better. It was prompted first by an introduction to the Diversity Prediction Theorem from a very close friend of mine & flourished after conversations with my friend & mentor Beth Rudden.
That was in 2019 and this isn’t that.
What this is though is an introduction to who I am and what I will be focusing on with this blog. Now if you have come to this you may already know some things about me and no two people who read this will know the same things. Instead of giving a lengthy 31 year long tale on who I am lets go over the highlights of my identity.
I am a 31 year old, cis, white, male.
Who is a gay 🏳️🌈, neurodivergent (or a phrase I enjoy, Neurospicy), millennial, late in life (age 30) community college graduate, socioeconomic class migrant, and empathetic introvert
Whose working life started as a JCPenney Catalog Associate and is now a Data Enthusiast/Analyst/Evangelist, DEI Advocate, Tableau Social Ambassador, Tableau User Group Leader, and DataFam Con Co-Lead.
Who loves people, sci-fi & fantasy (🖖🏼), data, hockey(Go Red Wings!), logic puzzles (Wordle, NYT Crossword, Jeopardy), learning, and music.
That has spoken on topics such as data and diversity, managed projects & products, lead teams, built Employee Resource Groups & community groups, and built strategies around LGBTQ+ allyship & analytics.
All while processing trauma & living with mental illness, learning self-reflection & self-love, building healthy boundaries, losing safety & security, and adapting after being diagnosed with ADHD.
Each identity I have noted informs how I approach problems, projects, and understanding of the world. The majority of them also can be defined in the two words that I have titled this site & more upon:
The use of data was simple to decide upon. I chose it based upon my career, current roles, projects, and focus on using data to help people not hurt them. Divergent on the other hand, took a bit of thinking to decide on.
Before I go into the why I chose Divergent I want to acknowledge that I am a cis, white, male and I have privilege & power because of that. A lot of what I do is around Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and I work to amplify & give space to the voices who are marginalized. I am not a perfect ally. I have err’d & failed. Yet, I will continue to work on learning and growing as an ally to work in the ways needed. That is one of the reasons why I chose Divergent. Because I work to change what has been the “status quo”.
That was only one of the reasons. I also chose Divergent because I don’t fall within the cookie cutter of Western society. My sexual orientation, neurodiversity, weight, career history, training, mental illnesses, and more are major divergences from the societal “norm”. It also helped give voice to that “loner” feeling I’ve had for most of my life all because I was different.
These two words define what this all will be about.
I will be writing on both words in different ways. There will be posts around data & different aspects of it such as Data Visualization, SQL, Analytics, tips & tricks, and Tableau. I will also talk about the divergent focusing on ERG’s, Allyship, building inclusive cultures, neurodiversity, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Yet the majority of the time these two things will be combined.
DataDivergent will be focused on how diverse & inclusive teams can make for better data analytics, removing biases from AI, changing data cultures to be more inclusive, the ethics behind AI, and even non-traditional paths to data. I already have half drafts on these & other topics ready to be finalized and put into the void. I hope you join me on this journey & stay tuned for more!
