My Digital FootPrint

Data would indicate that our global interest in purpose is growing. In truth, searching on Google for purpose is probably not the best place to start, and I write a lot about how to use data to frame an argument as this viewpoint highlights that the gap between purpose and how is filled with paradox. Source: Google Trends The Peak Paradox framework can be viewed from many different perspectives.  In this 3-minute read, I want to focus on the gap between “Purpose” And “How.” For example, Robin Hood's (as in the legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film - not the stock trading company) purpose was “The redistribution of wealth.”   He and his band of merry fellows implemented the purpose by any means, mainly robbing the rich and giving to the poor (how they did it).   The Purpose was not wrong, but How was an interesting take on roles in society.   Google’s Purpose is to “ Organise the world's inf...

Ethics, maturity and incentives may not appear obvious or natural bedfellows.  However, if someone else’s incentives drive you, you are likely on a journey from immaturity to Peak Paradox.  A road from Peak Paradox towards a purpose looks like maturity as your own incentives drive you. Of note, ethics change depending on the direction of travel.   ---- In psychology, maturity can be operationally defined as the level of psychological functioning one can attain, after which the level of psychological functioning no longer increases with age.  Maturity is the state, fact, or period of being mature . Whilst immature is not fully developed or has an emotional or intellectual development appropriate to someone younger, I want to use the state of immaturity , which is the state where one is not fully mature.  Incentives are a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something. Peak Paradox is where you try to optimise for everything but cannot achieve a...

We continually move towards better data-led decisions; however, we can easily ask our dataset’s wrong question. Without understanding “What is the purpose of data” on which we are basing decisions and judgements, it is easy to get an answer that is not in the data. How can we understand if our direction, Northstar or decision is a good one?  Why am I interested in this? I am focusing on how we improve governance and oversight in a data-led world.  I wrote a lengthy article on Data is Data. It was a kickback at the analogies that data is oil, gold, labour, sunlight - data is not. Data is unique; it has unique characteristics. That article concluded that the word “Data” is also part of the problem, but we should think of data as if discovering a new element with unique characteristics.   Data is a word, and it is part of the problem.  Data doesn’t have meaning or shape, and data will not have meaning unless we can give it context. As Theodora Lau eloquently p...