Exalting Data, Missing Meaning (2017)

Excellent article.<p><i>Worse, it [data obsession] deprives us of truly meaningful insights that are available via philosophy, intuition, and stories, but not yet fully explicable through quantitative systems.</i><p>This is why the lack of scientific evidence is never sufficient to discredit a fact. If there are no scientific studies about something, it&#x27;s OK to rely on intuition and stories, and act upon them, until sufficient data is gathered for scientific inquiry.

The problem business faces when looking for a competitive advantage is that anything well understood ... is no advantage. Take double entry bookkeeping. Clear evidenced based link between good accounting and good results, so every business does it. There is basically no advantage gained over the competition from good accounting.<p>So companies are fighting over the scraps of advantage at the margins where there might, or might not, be an advantage in doing things a certain way. Trouble is very few people can actually evaluate evidence (everyone says they can, evidence is not many people are right). The situation quickly becomes absurd.

Distilled: Meaning before metric, measure before method (2MBM) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.agendashift.com&#x2F;2mbm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.agendashift.com&#x2F;2mbm</a>