Comic Book Lessons in Analytics — Cypher
What would you give to understand… everything?
We’re going to talk about a relative unknown from the comic world today: Doug Ramsey, Cypher of the New Mutants (and other X-teams over time).
Doug Ramsey was introduced to Marvel comics as a friend of Kitty Pryde. They were both into computers and were constantly digging through other peoples’ computer systems for interesting information.
As it happened, Doug’s impressive skills in computer hacking were explained when his mutant ability was revealed by Charles Xavier. Doug instinctively understood anything stated, written, or otherwise related in any type or form of language, including binary notation, computer code, or encryption.
Xavier revealed Doug’s abilities to the New Mutants (and Doug) when the team encountered an alien and needed to communicate quickly. When Xavier’s telepathy could not make sense of the alien’s thoughts, Doug managed to start a conversation without understanding how he was doing it.
Doug managed to start a conversation with the alien, Warlock, and even teach him English overnight. Doug and Warlock also became friends.
Worst X-Man Ever
Not my words. Doug Ramsey, Cypher, often appears on comic blog and magazine lists of the worst and most useless X-Men ever. His power contributed nothing in a fight. He usually just stood in the background and tried not to get hurt.
Doug did form an unusual physical partnership with the alien Warlock, wherein the two would ‘merge’ into one being and join the fight. This was intended to decrease the constant criticism directed towards Cypher.
But Cypher’s most important action scene had nothing to do with Warlock or with anyone’s mutant power.
Doug Ramsey was shot. He jumped in front of bullet to save his teammate, Rahne Sinclair (Wolvesbane, the team werewolf).
That was Doug’s first life. Since this is a comic book, it wasn’t his last.
We’ll come back to his next life momentarily.
Communication
Doug was always teased, even pitied, for his ‘lack of a useful talent’. But think about what that ability would mean in our world.
Data literacy is everywhere these days. The phrase, I mean, not the actual knowledge. That’s the point. There is an intense emphasis on learning how to understand and work with data. Cypher wouldn’t have had that problem; he can look at anything on a screen or in a report and immediately understand not only the content but the context.
Executive comprehension is also everywhere. Having the best and most informative reporting/analytics in the world accomplishes precisely nothing if the decision-makers can’t understand the material at a glance, because that’s how long you have to make an impression.
What would it be worth to you to be able to translate between the two?
If you answered anything other than “everything”, please tell me your secret.
Translation
This has always been one of my skill sets, and I truly believe it’s undervalued.
I see articles every day about the importance of data literacy and executive presentation, but no one seems to put those pieces together. No one seems to consider the missing piece.
I’m not the best analyst you’ll meet, and I’ll never be the best statistician.
In the past, I designed software for healthcare management. I’m not a doctor, and I was never a developer. But I could sit in the room and allow those two very different groups to communicate fluently. And I wrote the specifications that helped the developers give the doctors the right tools for the job.
Cypher Reborn
Through a series of events involving Warlock’s death, cremation, alien techno-plagues, evil machinations, and slumping comic sales, Doug was restored to life. At the same time, his mutant abilities had evolved.
I’m skipping a lot of steps there, but it really is for the best.
More importantly, Doug now understands everything as language. Body movement, facial expression, posture, pheromones, even fighting styles.
He uses this ability to beat trained experts in hand-to-hand combat. He once reprogrammed his own mind as a powerful telepath was trying to erase it. He caused a powerful techno-organic alien monarch to revert to infancy by reverse engineering its equivalent to DNA.
It gets a bit ridiculous, and he’s actually become a bit of a jerk. At the same time, it does show the power of language taken to an extreme.
In conclusion
This is getting a bit wordy. The whole article is starting to insist upon itself.
No one expects you to understand everything, but most analysts are truly specialized in Analytics. Your clients, your audience, are specialized in Strategy (or they’re bad hires- I don’t know your company).
Specialization involves knowing more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing. I don’t know who said that first, but I heard it from David Lee Roth (yes, that David Lee Roth).
Having someone in the middle who can walk through both worlds but doesn’t completely belong to either? Powerful asset if you can find one.
