Let’s Talk Data

I can’t post, therefore I am not?

So, I had all these great plans when I first set up this blog.

I spend so much time talking with colleagues about what is happening out there in our little data-driven world, that I thought I could spend some time every night jotting down something pithy. For what its worth, anyone with a few spare moments and a browser can comment on anything.

Was I ever wrong.

Seems like everytime things slow down a little bit — I get some stupid brainstorm about how I’m going to improve myself and my business. (Yes, as a consultant, you live your life pitching projects, waiting, then scrambling when they come through only to sit on the bench again in between assignments, with time to dream up new things to do, only to just get started on one of these new brainstorms and then have 5 projects drop at once.)

(Sigh.)

Anyway, dear sporadic reader, if indeed anyone is out there… do you think we’ve gotten to the point where you can define who who are by what you’re not?

I started thinking about that a long time ago, working on a project that involved a bank. They were starting a new debit card for people who didn’t have traditional accounts. As we tried to figure out how to find these people and learn their characteristics, it became increasingly obvious that we weren’t going to find surveys that said “are you unbanked”??

Once I was able to talk through the definition of what we were looking for we were able to use a big, national, syndicated survey to find the population that was “not”. Did “not” have credit cards, did “not” have lines of credit, etc. etc. And sure enough, when we finished creating this definition, we wound up with what we wanted. The project was a smashing success because we gave up looking for the obvious answers.

Sometimes, we’re so focused on looking for a specific list of characteristics that we forget that there is more than one way to peel the apple. (I hate saying “skin the cat”…we used to have 5 felines living with us.)

People have been using the negative to find the positive in data modeling and mining for years. And, on a personal basis (when dating for example, or hiring new employees) you have certainly heard someone rattle off what they didn’t want — as if experience showed that what you aren’t can be almost as important as what you are.

Am not sure if I am a better business manager, client service person, wife, mother because of the things I’m not. Right now, I’m not exactly profilic with my writing. Am certainly going to try to spend a little more time waxing poetic on something in this blog — hopefully, about data. It’s one of those things I think about. (God, I feel like such a geek when I say that.) And when I’m silent, its not because I don’t have anything to say…

Makes me think of one of my favorite Ani DiFranco songs… “Asking too Much”

I want somebody who sees the pointlessness
and still keeps their purpose in mind
I want somebody who has a tortured soul
some of the time
I want somebody who will either put out for me
or put me out of misery
or maybe just put it all to words
and make me say, you knowI never heard it put that way
make me say, what did you just say?
I want somebody who can hold my interest
hold it and never let it fall
someone who can flatten me with a kiss
that hits like a fist
or a sentence, that stops me like a brick wall
because if you hear me talking
listen to what I’m not saying
if you hear me playing guitar
listen to what I’m not playing
and don’t ask me to put words
to all the spaces between notes
in fact if you have to ask, forget it
do and you’ll regret it
I’m tired of being the interesting one
I’m tired of heving fun for two
just lay yourself on the line
and I might lay myself down by you
but don’t sit behind your eyes
and wait for me to surprise you
I want somebody who can make me
scream until it’s funny
give me a run for my moneyI
want someone who can
twist me up in knots
tell me, for the woman who has everything
what have you got?
I want someone who’s not afraid of me
or anyone else
in other words I want someone
who’s not afraid of themself

do you think I’m asking too much?