Analyst’s Pendulum (Gemology)
Cutting through the optics and the uncut data
I can’t think of a science that is either farther from or closer to analytics. Therefore, it is hard to imagine a better subject for a series inspired by the pendulum. For starters, gemology doesn’t get a lot of scientific street cred. I am not going to spend this article debating that, I am just noting an important facet of this story. For gemologist readers — lets face it… and have a little fun with it.
Do a little research on gemology and you are faced with a highly faceted industry. The optics aren’t exactly brilliant or clear. It is difficult to determine which inclusions are most valuable. It requires someone to cut through the material. Is this really science or engineering? But I digress… or do I?
Read my recent article on diamonds, or write it — like I did, and you quickly realize that the terminology of gemology and data science & analytics is not very far apart. In my case, it was more of a rediscovery. My degree was in Earth Science. I didn’t study gemology but it is a subset of geology. I have made this leap before… it wasn’t that hard.
More directly, it is one concerned with engineering optics. Avid readers will recall that optics and analytics have traveled hand-in-hand since the dawn of civilization. Read more here:
But these articles tend to focus on a two-sided (occasionally — multi-faceted) concept from another science. Which gemology term are we choosing? There are so many.
Call me old fashion, better yet — make me one, but it used to be a common practice to talk about “cutting the data”. Google this now and you will struggle finding that reference. In fact, it seems to be re-emerging as a reference to actually turning off or limiting data… Better make that a double!
Why do analysts cut data?
To improve the optics, of course!
You see the gemology references aren’t such a stretch… not semantically, though perhaps you need to go a little old school. I went there years ago… sigh.
Gemologists take uncut stones and cut them. They produce facets — little faces, if you haven’t caught on. This improves the optics. It is an exercise in engineering.
Gemologists are also referred to as faceters.
DSA professions take uncut data and cut it (I think the more common term is now slice… how shallow… sigh). They produce faceted views of the underlying data. It is an exercise in information engineering. When done right, it is brilliant!
Cut or Uncut — that is where we have arrived. The pendulum swings… but how could this article NOT be multi-faceted? It couldn’t.
Now, we are going to conflate a second concept here. Gems today can be natural, synthetic, or imitation. This introduces a new facet to the story of cut or uncut stones. A natural stone is valuable, if only because they are both rare and difficult to find. Synthesized stones are only valuable once cut.
This has DSA implications too. I only wish we better embraced the synthesis facet of the analytic process as openly as the gem industry. Raw (uncut) data has little value. But in DSA, the real value comes from synthesizing it… not cutting it.
Hmmm… that was a twist. But pendulums do that too. So take some inspiration and guidance from gemology. Like all the other sciences, there are core concepts that apply just as well to Data Science & Analytics — if you are aware of them. So stay multi-faceted and feel free to “cut the data”, the old fashion way. Thanks for reading!
