Gutfeel advice: Make space for intuition in a data-dazzled world
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. I am often confronted by my data-loving friends with the question: “How can you trust just a feeling or go with anecdotal demonstration of an idea?" They are experts in their respective fields, trained to analyse data with precision, and use it as the bedrock of their decision-making processes. As a statistician myself, I understand their reliance on data.
Yet, I find myself wondering: Where do we, as data enthusiasts, get it wrong? Is it the quality of data, its insufficiency, or various data points collected failing to offer a meaningful picture? In today’s world, data is produced at an unprecedented scale. Humanity generates around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. A quintillion, to put it into perspective, is a one followed by 18 zeroes.
Despite this overwhelming ocean of information, many decisions still go wrong. Why? Are we relying on the wrong data-sets, misinterpreting correlations, or erroneously assuming that more data equals better decisions? Sometimes, I try to step into the shoes of my friends who have fully embraced data as the essential basis of every decision, from their work decisions and daily meals to calorie intake, travel plans, exercise routines and sleep cycles. They meticulously track every aspect of their lives with gadgets designed to measure things, count stuff and deliver data points.
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