Thursday, September 15, 2016

Data is Both Number and Value

What kind of data would make me want to tell stories?

In answering this question, I need to first understand why we tell stories. Does it always need to have a meaning or a moral? If it is argued that it doesn’t need this kind of purpose, is there any good reason for telling a story? Is this, perhaps, the difference between unnecessary noise and valuable information?

I think that stories are influential in any sense because they impact our emotions. They cause our reaction. It touches our values – the core of our personhood.
If this is the case, I want to deal with data that impressed upon values. Then, some values are subjective; others still, are objective. I have my personal set of beliefs and values and you surely do to. These are three questions I’m challenging myself to understand when deciding to tell stories:
  1. What things make me come alive?
  2. What cause(s) can I imagine myself, if not now but in the future, excellent at living in defense of?
  3. What is the problem in the world that I am meant to solve?


It’s not easy to answer these questions and it takes, as I’m learning, a life time of searching, experiencing, self-awareness, anticipating, reacting, forgetting, and re-learning.
__

Now, in the direction of becoming more concrete:

I read a quote recently that described people as “drowning in information while starving for wisdom.” This is where I will begin my discussion of what kind of data would make me want to tell stories.

No comments:

Post a Comment