Читать книгу Decision Intelligence For Dummies - Pamela Baker - Страница 36

In the beginning, there was data. From the ticking of fingers and toes to stones stored in crude pouches and sticks bundled in vine, the early humans collected and recorded information. This recording of information continued throughout time unabated. The media that was used to record that data changed over the years, according to the technologies of the time. Eventually, however, the data outgrew the number of devices set aside to collect and store it, as well as the number of people using those devices. That’s when we started calling it big data, in a nod toward its bigness overshadowing the capabilities of modern computing.

Folks tend to look in amazement at this growing trove of data, but the truth of the matter is that what seems like an immense resource is merely a mirror we humans are holding up to our world. And therein lies the problem: Possessing information that reflects the world back to us isn’t the same thing as being able to use that information in a practical, real-world sort of way — let alone to do so with any sort of consistent accuracy.

Putting it another way, decision intelligence arrived as a movement when it became evident that mining data is like mining for any other valuable substance: The value lies not in the crude form, but in the polished gem. The goal now is to identify the gem you seek and then go find it. The trick here is do so with the understanding that the work isn’t finished until you have achieved a high level of clarity in the decision-making process — a level of clarity seen only in the rarest of diamonds.