Forget about your data, goals and targets
Why messing around can take you places a spreadsheet can’t
We measure everything. The effectiveness of our business efforts. Engagement on our social channels. We measure our personal fitness goals. The amount of sleep we get. Thanks to data-driven tech we know and want to know about every single detail of our lives and our work.
As a result, everything becomes goal driven. Results from the past become a starting point for the future. Everything is weighed on the scale of apparent effectiveness.
Wandering and experimenting are essential to happiness in both work and life.
But somewhere in that immense pile of data lies danger. Endless fiddling with the machine and its controls can trick you into working for the stats. You’ll become the data’s slave instead of its master.
Our machines today, especially in business, are powerful. But it’s the fuel that drives the machine that’s essential. That fuel consists of ideas and stories. Of silly initiatives and insane quests. And in a desperate hunt for metrics, that fuel is often overlooked.
I’m not saying one should ignore data and smart machines altogether. I am saying that combining data-driven tools with a creative instinct and guts will make any individual or business invincible.
There’s value to be found in the cracks of the learning machines. So step back from the spreadsheets and dashboards and mess about every once in a while. Try stuff. Experiment. Go.
Wandering and experimenting are essential to happiness in both work and life. It will take you places where you’ll determine what to measure.
