We homo sapiens seem overwhelmed by information, technology, and choices. We sadly struggle to manage the daily deluge, cycling through frustration, indignation, anger, and melancholy. A simple scan of news headlines, op-eds, and online comments can fuel a sense of despair, even on the brightest, sunniest day during this era of peak human achievement and prosperity.

Now that I’ve cleared my throat on our societal condition with a sweeping generalization, I will transition to a few practical matters intended to ground our thinking and even the score.

Data

Data, like a socket wrench, is useful if you have something to do with it. The value of data increases with a framework to apply or basic question to answer. How we collect and analyze data, and ultimately communicate results, profoundly affect understanding and insight. In The Effective Executive, the late Peter Drucker wrote about the problem of production data getting averaged out and “translated” for accountants:

“Operating people, however, usually need not the averages but the range and the extremes….”

This applies to investing, medicine, rocket science, and research. In forest economics, for example, there is no such unit as an “average timber market.” Timber markets are uniquely local, though the inputs for analyzing them, as with the ingredients for baking bread^[1], are basic and known. Since having the necessary data and knowing how to apply it are two different things, we sometimes look to frameworks, models, and technologies.

Technology

Recalling what the dog said when dating the skunk, with technology “you gotta take the good with the bad.” Technology, like all things human-borne, can prove miraculous and curative or horrific and destructive. Consider technology a two-sided coin: nuclear bombs and nuclear energy; carbon emissions and carbon capture; radiation poisoning and radiation treatments. 

While technological applications support accessible education, they also facilitate misinformation conspiracies, and hate speech. In this dizzying relationship, we use technology in ways that create problems, and then we return to technology to mitigate and solve those problems. Ultimately, technology is an agnostic tool; its use and consequences depend on judgment.

Judgment

Judgment, like trust and good relationships and bonsai, takes time to nurture and develop. Mistakes are okay. Bad judgment, however, is a virus that never leaves. Bad judgment leads to bad decisions and poor results. As Jim Rohn said years ago, 

“Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day.”

Across professions, from medicine to education to consulting, the assessment of competence, whether qualitative or quantitative, tests versions of, “Do you have the experience, knowledge, and judgment to improve the situation or help us make a better decision?” In other words, and in the end, do you know when or how to apply the information and technologies at hand?

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^[1] For reference: flour, yeast, water, and salt, in addition to and quoting a good forest economist friend, love. “Got to have love. Most important ingredient, Brooks.”