Data has been hailed as the new gold, oil, and soil, out of which invaluable products, services, and progress shall arise. That may be true, but the fact of the matter is that data is just symbols, mostly numbers: zeros and ones. This applies even to the most complex algorithms, and most of what we mean when we talk about AI is classification software that assigns zeros or ones to match different variables or predict patterns at scale. To be sure, in most relevant areas of life, we still need human expertise to translate data into insights, and the willingness to act on those insights is what ultimately makes someone data-driven. Data without insights is meaningless, and insights without action are pointless.
Are You Still Prioritizing Intuition Over Data?
When you decide to buy a product that Amazon has recommended to you, watch a movie that Netflix has suggested, or listen to a song that Spotify matched to your preferences, you are making data-driven changes to your life. Along the same lines, if you use Waze or Google Maps to decide what route to take when you are driving (or biking), check the weather forecast before you get dressed, or scan a wine bottle with Vivino before you decide what to drink, you are being data-driven. But while the average consumer of 2020 is significantly more data-driven than her counterparts were even 20 years ago, there are still many areas in which being data-driven is more of a hope or an illusion than an actual reality. One of these areas is work, as human intuition, serendipity, and bias are still stronger currencies than data. Indeed, there are few signs that the world of work has become much more evidence-based or fact-driven than it was just 20 or even 50 years ago.