The Terroir of Data
No, not the terror… well, sometimes it is.
Terroir has a certain mystique among vineyard and wine enthusiasts. It has a strong element of the unknown, the uncontrollable, and even a little sense of torture (ah, the French). It is a certain je ne sais quoi that influences the taste of the wine.
Only it isn’t really that mysterious. It is just chemistry, biology, and physic. It is layered. It is complicated. It is difficult to fully define. And it can certainly taste magical, it just isn’t.
Terroir has been analyzed, synthesized, and popularized so intently — it even inspired a video game. Terroir — a wine tycoon simulator — just released its latest version in December. Terroir is no longer so mysterious as much as it is just fun.
Data Has Terroir
It may not have climate, but it has seasonality. Rather than soil, one must consider the systems, platforms, and technology where it grows. Rather than topography — it is influenced by recency, frequency, resolution and other scaling factors. It is surrounded by competitors, people, other systems, and any of a myriad of other influences. Data’s terroir may be more complex — take that sommeliers!
Goût De Terroir
Among wine connoisseurs, terroir matters a lot. Put the wrong grape in the wrong soil and climate and … wait, that is actually the story of Chilean Malbec! Put an otherwise right grape in the wrong soil and climate — things never seem to work out. Wine producers must learn to match their grape with their climate / land / terroir. It changes how they cultivate their crops, how they distill, and how they bottle it.
Data & analytics producers are likewise engaged in cultivation. They also distill and store (not truly bottle… per se). At the heart of their process are things comparable to chemistry, biology, and physics — data has a science (which is not really what is meant by Data Science — although I wish it were). Much like terroir, the nuances of data are developed via experience and even tradition (simply a shorter one than the wine industry draws on).
So what happens when data terroir is ignored? Sample data and open data sets — data’s equivalents of Eastern US Cabernet and box wine. Is it good in a pinch? Sure. But no one is getting excited about it. Certainly no one is going to pay for it.
It May Be Subtle, But It Is Unavoidable
The subtlety of wine is lost on many. It just isn’t their thing. And that is fine, unless they buy a vineyard and start bottling swill. Data isn’t most people’s thing either, but far more of you are likely to find yourself in a situation where you need to cultivate data. Or at least hire someone who will…
A better analogy may be the bar owners, who is likely able to get away without knowing nuances of their wine selection — but they better know something about their best selling products (beer, vodka, whiskey, etc). All of which have their own version of terroir, by the way.
Business owners will likewise have a hard time without some knowledge OR hiring an individual who they trust to have it. That is a subtle distinction and an unavoidable one.
Finally, Data Is Organic
If, at the close of this article, you keep wondering why people compare data to organic things like terroir and grapes — you are failing to see an important fact. Data is Organic. It is made by living things or the things made by living things. It is indirect but it is NOT inorganic. In other words, these organic analogies are the very ones that advance a science into an art… or a craft, if you prefer.
Great wine was never produced by someone looking to process some grapes into alcohol. It is produced by someone who cares enough to study the land, the weather, the grape, the process, and ultimately, the experience. Data & analytics is no different.
You may not believe that data’s terroir is important. You may think all data is the same. You may think all wine tastes the same. You may prefer to spend as little as possible so long as it contains alcohol.
Well, good luck with that. It is likely to be fun for a little while. But wine or data, the cheap stuff, the over processed stuff, the stuff that is simply produced and not crafted — packs a wallop of a headache. I hope you have plenty of aspirin.
Data With Terroir:
