Weekly Journal
Wild Data
The further we wander beyond the city walls, the more we find things we do not understand. Customs, beliefs, and artefacts of all sorts that just don’t make sense to us given where we’ve come from.
This sort of data is rarely welcomed inside the walls. Inside the walls, the markets require certainty. Descriptions we can understand.
Exotic is fine, as long as it comes with an explanation.
It is the stuff of the synthetic approach to understanding; the process of combining the results of multiple primary research studies aimed at testing the same conceptual hypothesis. Find something you want to prove and test it till you find it.
Domesticated data.
But the data that is really valuable is the sort we need to observe without judgement or hypotheses until we get a grasp of what it is trying to tell us.
Wild data.
The more we surround ourselves with the familiar, the more we become domesticated, reliant on others and vulnerable to unexpected changes.
Wild data is scary, but essential, and is best dealt with in community, with those we trust.