Thoughts on data.

Data data everywhere, and not a drop to drink.

I have that belief about data.

News commentators talk about data, industry people talk about data, candidates say “I love data”.

I have developed rules about data:

1. Don’t trust, always verify.

2. What you see is not all there is. (HT Ed Powers for that one)

3. One person’s proof is another person’s conspiracy.

4. People who use data because it pays, will manipulate the data because it pays.

I may have mentioned that I am studying statistics — I need it for work. The more I learn about statistics, the more I don’t trust anything or anyone with any high degree of certainty (alpha = 0.05).

Question everything.