Data is for Application

Data is best understood when looked at as a collection of tools to be used towards a desired end.

Data doesn’t have to be looked at like that. Data is, after all, just facts. Packets of information. Data can be learned for fun, or mere “interest”. But true purpose of data is accomplishment. Data is only useful when applied.

In the same way a handyman has a toolbox filled with hammers, screwdrivers, cutting instruments, fasteners, and all the rest, a well educated individual should have a toolbox of data ready at his disposal to handle whatever problems may come up.

In the same way that a handyman would use a hammer to bang in a nail when hanging a picture frame, and not use a screwdriver, the well educated person should be able to sort through his “toolbox” and find the tool which is best suited for the job.

However, in the situation in which a hammer is needed, but not available, one has two options — either find a hammer (learn the data that applies), or figure out how to best use another tool which is perhaps not the most compatible to the task but nevertheless will get the job done.

It is in this aspect that the analogy really shines — often people who know related data do not use it in situations which could be greatly improved by it. Instead, they wait for another who has “more specialized” information or set out to learn this information themselves before taking any action. Learning specialized information for specialized tasks is not a bad thing, but there is the important cost of time and resources involved.

The society at large is programmed to encourage this way of thinking — as we live in an under-skilled but overeducated society, with endless degrees and licenses required to participate in even the most basic fields, and trust itself hinged on the legitimacy of a signed and framed document hanging on a professional’s office wall.

But despite the broad insistence on “knowing before you do”, there are many situations which will arise in both personal and professional life, in the public sphere and private, where a the backend of a screwdriver can be used to drive a nail into the wall. And although it may not be pretty, or elegant, or easy, the nail will get driven in with that not-perfectly-applicable-but-good-enough tool. And, very often, its much easier to have that nail driven in the wall now than wait for a hammer to come along later.

And don’t think you need a degree in hammer manufacturing or off-label tool application before taking action and driving that nail in the wall. When the nail is in the wall, people stop asking for degrees.