A life in symbols
Statistics are a very efficient tool in business. They provide control panels that are extremely useful to decision-makers and make it possible to optimize processes in order to maximize profit, or any other organization’s main – or higher, purpose. Statistics in business rely on metrics – quantified data. This data is obtained through a body of techniques known as “operationalization”, or how to convert the organization’s daily life’s deemed interesting deeds into manipulable numbers. It then transforms that data to produce figures that will eventually affect the organizations processes in a (hopefully) positive way.
This process is really all about numbers; however, statistics, in its noblest acceptance as a mathematical discipline, is this formidable body of techniques which create relative certainty out of near absolute uncertainty. It has its roots in probability, which itself arose from our fascination for gambling. But in common parlance, what we mean with “statistics” is very often something much simpler, which tells more about our fascination with numbers then our sheer passion for mathematical abstraction. “Show me the statistics” could as well be put as “show me the figures”: we want to see the charts, what’s on top, what’s in and what’s not.
Wired magazine’s latest cover story, “living by numbers”, is about the many means by which to track various data about ourselves and utilize that information to improve our workouts, nutrition and health. The statistics are basically inexistent and the basic premise here seems to be that personal improvement is all about getting more performant according to some body of standards put together by leading insurance companies. A very depressing perspective indeed.
Business Intelligence is much more subtle nowadays and some of its methods rely on hardcore statistical maths. In some cases, some almost “magical” technology is at hand, which really augments our cognitive abilities and let us uncover patterns that we weren’t aware of.
Now, as individual human beings, there is probably no good reason why we wouldn’t be subjected to hidden patterns, just as organizations. But there’s an additional difficulty: we are complex entities, so what areas of our lives should we focus on? Wired’s article suggest that accumulating performance indicators and relying on algorithms to cut bad habits such as smoking or overeating are a good starting point. Businesses, up to a certain level, can be compared to machines, because we like to think of them as organizations serving a specific purpose. But we human beings cannot be likened to eating/exercising/self indulging mecanisms. There are other dimensions of an individual than its sheer capacity to maintain itself in an arguably “optimal condition”, which are presumably more important for us to know about; they are probably the driving forces that motivate us to entertain any desire on these particular subjects in the first place as well (if at all). We take any business’ purpose for granted, but a human being is a whole different class of affairs. Our motivations in life are ever-changing; we set ourselves different objectives at different times of the day, goals of all sorts ranging from immediate, practically unnoticeable tasks, to aspirations of an almost spiritual nature. Our projects then get mixed up with our bad habits, and long matured destinies vanish instantly at the advent of an unmissable opportunity. Sometimes, a certain sense of absurdity emerges from our shattered existences. Yet, in many cases, we are probably just missing perspective.
To capture this information, we need a symbolic representation system that is capable to reproduce the complexity of human existence. While our various electronic devices deliver a constant flow of digital information – mail, browser history, social networks, …, this still has to be transformed into a meaningful material, one that is sufficiently rich to provide us with the many facets that need be exposed by any sufficiently powerful model of human affairs. We will then be able to look at our life and the many ways it connects with various events, the lives of our entourage, our environment, even the weather… all at one glance. We will have a life in symbols.