Your data is worth nothing. No, really. When there is so much data available every bit of additional data has diminishing returns.
For all the times that new information provides meaningful clarity, there are more times that more information is really just more noise and muddle.
Information does not, in and of itself, have any value. It is how the information is used that creates value.
Storing information in a database is not necessarily valuable. Is information in a database more valuable than unstructured data that exists in someone’s mind and spread across multiple sources?
If you need to create regular status reports, information from a database is incredibly valuable. But if you are trying to create something that the world has not seen before, more structured data is not necessarily going to help.
We have a wealth of information and a whole bunch of beliefs about information.
We make all kinds of decisions with varying amounts of information with different degrees of confidence. Do we have enough information that we believe is accurate to make a decision?
Because humans process so much information all the time, we all take shortcuts. We make assumptions, we look at broad patterns, but miss small details. Sometimes the details really tell us something important, but other times the details are just distractions.
And as far as I can tell, there is no way to make decisions objectively with perfect information. In isolation, good decisions can be made on existing information. But in an infinite universe, it is hard to make any decisions in isolation.
Data is helpful, but more data is not necessarily more helpful. Curbing the appetite for data is the first step toward data recovery.
