Beware The Drowning — An Analytic Analogy
Data Can Be Just As Dangerous As Deep Water
Drowning is a extremely violent thing. It is actually dangerous to save someone who is drowning. Whether they are drowning in data, decisions, or water only matters metaphorically. It is accompanied by the realization of a lack of control, of utter desperation. Drowning victims grasp desperately for anything that might present some sense of hope or control. What they most often come away with is just handfuls of water.
If our analytic analogy compares water to data, you can visualize this pretty clearly. Those drowning in data often reach out in their desperation for control. For what? Why more data of course. Not that it will help… much like drowning.
When drowning, it can often be helpful to do the exact opposite of what you might expect. Floating is a much more zen-like effort than the flailing limbs and splashing we associate with someone who is drowning. It goes against our nature.
Of course, floating only goes so far, it buys you enough time for someone else to save you. The only real way to save any drowning person is to get them out of the water. I guess that is a bit obvious… until you come back to the data.
It is really the same. Someone drowning in data needs to calm down long enough for help to arrive. In the end though, the fix is to get them out of the data entirely.
Drowning is far more common than most people realize. That is true of both the literal sort and the data version. There are simply too many ways to do either. And much like water, people just feel too safe around data.
Of course, people rarely intend to drown. Unintentional is key to why this is all so, so dangerous. Again, true of water and data. Each of these are resources. Each of these flow. Each of these fill the world around us. The Earth is 71% water … but what percentage is data? When it comes to the business world, it may be so, so much more.
This means they are each forces you need to come to grips with. They are everywhere. A good bet is to learn to swim, but even that is no sure fire proof against drowning. It does help, a lot. You could wear a life preserver 24/7 … is there an analogue in data? I am not sure.
If we wanted to carry this analogy a bit too far, we would start to delve into the five phases of drowning. We won’t take it to that extreme. We will call out the first phase.
Surprise — this comes back to unintentional, people don’t expect this. They don’t see it coming until it is all too late. Then comes the thrashing and desperation. The fact is they probably weren’t overly aware of the water in the first place. They were swimming in calm pool on a sunny day. They were canoeing in a spot they had been many times before. Maybe they were boating in the local bay. But something unexpected happened…
The same is true with business and data. It was a normal day. Perhaps it was a familiar report. It might have even seemed safe… until the storms came. In the business world, undertow, rough weather, and the like have their analogies too. Right now Corona (SARS 2) is looking a lot like Hurricane Katrina (which drown a few people in reality and metaphorically).
We seemed to have arrived at phase five — clinical death. This is always a sign the analogy has gone too far. Just know that people end careers and businesses drowning in data. It is serious… maybe not deadly in the literally sense but devastating all the same. And like drowning, this can be just as dangerous for those who attempt to save them. Don’t jump in the deep data alongside a data drowning person unless you are a trained professional. You are liable to find yourself next to them in the unemployment line!
As always — thanks for reading! Stay safe. But most importantly stay informed.
Learn to swim:
