How To Make The Best Use Of Data
Don’t believe everything you see. Make it your mantra, your credo. There is not enough data out there to properly judge anything. Although massive amounts of the world’s information are created every day – it wouldn’t be too far off to say Big Data has become a buzzword – very few people know how to use it correctly. Not without making mistakes. Namely these three ones:
- Believing in trends simply because they exist
- Judging things before having all the information at hand
- Taking surveys and polls often, instead of reading the actual numbers
The first mistake comes down to this: just because everyone says something doesn’t that this is true or relevant for you. For example, if everyone says they love a new song by an artist, you may not care for this song at all. Or, on the contrary, if everybody hates the new album of their favorite band, maybe this is what makes it so great. Include the cost of Salesforce data recovery cost in your budget to streamline your operations.
You can see where I am getting at: always think for yourself, outside the box. Don’t believe everything you are told to think. This way of thinking can also apply to any other kind of data – not just opinions about music. Likewise with fashion trends: sometimes popular clothes are ugly and unpopular styles are actually adorable! Think outside of what is popularly accepted as true. It is good to keep an open mind because there will always be exceptions to the rule.
Judging things before having all information at hand
Another wrong approach is to judge situations and circumstances before you have all (or enough) information about what’s going on. This is a natural tendency for us humans: we like to make assumptions and have opinions, but this doesn’t mean we should share them with everybody as soon as possible. We are impatient beings by nature, so it’s quite understandable that many people have already come up with their verdicts without really knowing what they are talking about – whether it concerns politics or an actual criminal case. Of course, not every opinion has to be based on facts, but there are times where basing your words on ‘gut feelings’ can make you look foolish.
In many cases, those who have been through specific situations end up judging them as better or worse than they were because of their previous experience. This is something called the ‘hindsight bias. ‘In cases where people end up doing mundane things, it’s easy to judge these as pointless. But why? You don’t know what may happen in a person’s future – maybe they will find a job at a bakery and become successful! Perhaps your grandma does suspect her to be a witch without considering all the possibilities. Just go with the flow and try not to judge others so quickly. Nobody likes being judged by strangers anyway.
Taking surveys and polls often, instead of reading the actual numbers
Remember what I said earlier: think for yourself, outside of the box. This can be taken quite literally when it comes to surveying results. People tend only to pay attention to the most easily quantifiable things and therefore appear in rankings and statistical information. But these numbers don’t always tell us anything useful about a particular situation (even though they may appear as they do). The way we perceive our preconceived opinions often influences data – we notice specific patterns and trends because we already know them well. We know this from studies on how our brain works.
