LEAN ON YOURSELF NOT ON DATA

We cannot be overburdened by what the society wants us to do, what the school or the future work sector we want to work for wants us to be, or the future employer we are targeting wants us to have. Amazon didn't even ask us, the consumers if we want to buy things online. They just did it!

The industry data and the employer preferences are mere signals, either we can allow it to shape our actions  or allow ourselves the latitude to create our own path way. Organizations with boiler-plate plans, visions, and mission statements are suffering from lack of originality  for the sake of being in the 'in' group. This is at the expense of their own business value. 

Use your best judgement knowing that you have these data in front of you and can have more data if you so choose. There will be more data by the way I end this blog! 

I was in an Advanced Data Analysis course last year and it made me more assured that data will not make us think better. It will make us think less! It is us, humans who will interpret and use the data to have a best-guess of what is to come. 

We have our senses, our experiences, and life-long learning, and appreciation for practicality to guide us. Before AI and machine learning, we used a lot of those and our wisdom carried us through. Now, there is so much noise we can't have the silence we need to think and meditate on our situations. 

Do we want data to do the thinking for us or give the data its rightful place- as part of the tools in our modern toolkit?