The Myth of Objective Data

Objectivity is an elusive and valuable product because what constitutes knowledge itself is always in flux. Modernity is defined by there being more to know than you can ever learn, and the fact that there is no final say on what is true. What you think is right and true has a lot to do with who you are and where you’re from. No matter how many fac... See more

Generally speaking, quantification and the logic of optimization which it encourages tend to transform our field of experience into points of aggression, as the sociologist Hartmut Rosa has aptly put it. Data-driven optimization is, in this sense, a way of perceiving the world. And what may matter most about this is not necessarily what it allows u... See more

Data, on one end of the spectrum, is separable, objective, linear, mechanistic, and abundant. Wisdom, on the other end of the spectrum, is holistic, subjective, spiritual, conceptual, creative, and scarce. [...] Today we are drowning in a raging flood of new data and information and the raft of wisdom to which we desperately cling is breaking

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