What is Data? Data is a Black Bean

What is data? For most of the people I talk to, the word “data” is synonymous with the word “boo!”; it’s a topic to avoid like that thing that hides in my closet at night. Trust me, there’s nothing to fear except perhaps a couple of wire hangers and a dust bunny. To keep it simple, for this article, we’ll look at what data and a black bean have in common.

Does data feel daunting because it’s so technical? That’s the perception of a lot of uneasy business partners I’ve worked with. Then again, when I’m working with my technical partners, software engineers, they’re just as uncomfortable with data, and prefer that someone else manage it. In fact, A lot of the software engineers I’ve worked with think that I’m a geek, and that’s saying something.

FROM THE TOP

So, what is data? let’s start from the beginning. The word “data” was coined back in the mid-seventeenth century by a philosopher in the age of Descartes whose famous quote, “I think therefore I am,” really does peg him as a “data nerd.” These guys were truly rocking the philosophy back in the 1600’s and it was necessary that they be able to differentiate between reality and conjecture. Data was defined to mean, a fact, or a thing that is proven to be true.

“Data” as they used the term, wasn’t technical. It didn’t represent buckets of bits or bytes rattling around in a database somewhere. How could it when databases wouldn’t even be invented for another 400 years. Data was, and still is, bigger than databases.

Philosophers came up with the concept of “data” because they needed to be able to formally break the world down and think clearly about it. They used their minds to process data. After all, the human mind is the original, and to date the most powerful, data processor.

Even a simple decision about what to have for dinner relies on data:

  • lunch size
  • last night’s dinner
  • location
  • available ingredients
  • dietary restrictions
  • budgetary constraints
  • available time…

When you think about what to have for dinner, so many things can come into play. You process data so fluidly that you may not even be aware that you’re doing it. The reality is that you’re processing data all of the time.

DATA = NOUNS

Of course, no one sits around thinking of their mind as a data processor, but I do think it’s helpful to recognize how close data is to us in our day-to-day lives. Let’s get back to the data itself. In the example, lunch, dinner, location, ingredients, restrictions, constraints and time all have one thing in common – they’re nouns.

And, we’re back to the question, “what is data”? I am going to tell you the most important thing you need to know about data. This is it, period: data = nouns. That’s right, every piece of data you encounter will represent a person, place or thing (this also includes ideas, but let’s leave that for another day). Again, data = nouns.

DATA IS A BLACK BEAN

As an example, let’s focus on a single noun, a black bean, to better understand how data operates in the real world.

fig. 1

Look at it this way, what a noun is to a sentence, data is to a process. You can’t have one without the other. Consider the sentence, “Jen went to a grocery store to buy black beans” (fig. 1). ‘Jen’, ‘store’, and ‘beans’ are all nouns (i.e., data) while ‘went’ and ‘go’ represent verbs (i.e., processes). The nouns are essentially the data in the process of going and buying.

Data = nouns. Look around you, it’s everything you see.

NOUNS = DATA

It’s a pretty straightforward statement, and widely agreed, that all data are nouns, but what about the reverse? It’s unlikely that I’ll convince everyone that all nouns are data, but I will make my case regardless.

We already discussed the fact that data existed before databases, but if saying that all nouns are data still feels like a bridge too far – that to be data, it has to be in a database – I would offer this: The more we learn about what can be done with data, the more nouns that didn’t previously live in databases are being sucked in. So, if nouns aren’t in a database, it’s probably just a matter of time.

Think about it, where previously retailers might have only cared about what you purchased, they now want to know what you think about the product. You’ve always had an opinion, but now someone cares to capture it.

Likewise, while some people still look at a map for directions, calculating travel times themselves and praying for light traffic, most of us want our maps to tell us the fastest route. Traffic has been a fact since the second car hit the road, but it took a good reason to figure out how to capture it in a database.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, data is just a formal way of looking at the world around us. It enables us to think more clearly, assess our situation and make choices. Regardless of whether or not it’s in a database, you use it every day.

Likewise, every piece of data is a noun, and every thing, every noun, represents data. They are two sides of the same coin, in the same way that a sentence requires nouns, processes require data. It’s really just that simple. Well almost. Tune in next time!