A conversation recently got me thinking about data. Now, I love data. I work in digital marketing, and the data is endless. But in this conversation, I realised that not everyone shares this philosophy. So I’m wondering, do you love or hate data?
The benefits of Data
Any kind of data gives us a measurement. Whether it be for our health, our business, our finances, etc. It’s how we can know if we’re improving.
If you want to lose weight, for example, a very basic measurement is your weight. If it’s going down, you’re doing great.
In business, it might be revenue, or total sales, if it’s going up you know things are going well.
For advertising online, there’s a long list of metrics that are measured, all of which help us to figure out how well an advert is performing.
Why do people hate data?
Data can cause issues. Let’s be honest, sometimes, only focusing on the data can leave you missing certain nuances or other important factors that surround what you are doing. But I know a lot of people that don’t want to live their lives by measures, and I respect that.
Today, pretty much everything in our lives is measured. From fitness tracking, total steps each day, where we’ve been, how we spend our money, pretty much everything has been designed for people that love data. If you hate data, you’re probably fed up of every single app you use, or system you work on, tracking everything you do.
Maybe hate is a strong word?
From the conversations I’ve been having, maybe I’m too harsh using the word hate. Maybe it simply comes down to having no interest in a world dictated by numbers, statistics and percentage increases or decreases.
I mean I love that stuff. I pretty much live for it.
But I can understand why lots of people don’t want to, or simply have no interest in it.
Why care about the data?
Well, one of my favourite quotes is from Peter Druker:
“What gets measured, gets improved”
For me, it’s a great way to improve. Every day, 1% a day, is an incredibly powerful way to make huge changes in your life. Making a huge shift all at once is hard, near impossible. But making a lot of small changes, each and every day is very manageable.
The results I’ve seen from this compounding effect have been unbelievable. If I wasn’t personally living it, I’d struggle to believe just how powerful it can be.
Do you love or hate data?
I’d love to understand more from you. Do you love or hate data? Are you completely indifferent? Are there some things you do track, but others you don’t care about?
Let me know in the comments. I’m really curious as to how people interact with and use data.
