"the moment you measure"

This blog's title is my next and yet to be written book.
Usually, if I blog about a topic, I get a vision for a book so maybe that's what's happening here.


Over 25 years ago I was heavy into data analytics before it was cool. I started a company called DataVentures that performed advanced analytics on retail scanning data to get a more insightful view of consumer behavior.

Having a Masters in Math and spending several decades in applying data technologies to business problems, I became increasingly aware that human behavior was the end game of all of this work. If somebody didn't do something differently in a value creating way, then what was all the data fuss about anyway.

Throughout the years I bumped into business professionals who are steeped in trying to develop and apply metrics to their processes, products and markets. I continue to see the same attempts to "do science," but for what purpose? Today I witness an entire society going in so many different directions because the caretakers of metrics use their data to manipulate the behavior of the public in ways that meet their needs.

There is one thing for sure:

the moment you measure, people will behave in a direction that the metrics suggest

What's happening? How do benign metrics taken from impersonal data have such a huge behavioral influence? Well, that's what the book WILL one day be about.

For now, let me share the subtitle. The book will ultimately be titled
"The Moment You Measure: The intersection of science and faith"

What does the subtitle add to the conversation? The end of the story is that the science of measuring things must ultimately be interpreted or understood. The secret to this is that what a person believes deep down in their soul forms a set of biases or lens by which the processing of metrics occurs inside the person. It's ultimately not what you know that maters, but who/what you trust.

I mentioned I had a Masters in Math, but I also have a Ph D in Organizational Psychology. Here I learned that the final authority on perceiving and interpreting events (data) lies with biases or assumptions people have they generally don't even know they have, but trust.

I eventually saw that these deep seated biases are actually one's faith (assurance of unseen evidence). Too often "faith" is left to the theologians. I think that is a mistake. Faith is not subordinate to science. Faith does not compete with science. Ultimately, science is man's attempt to use physical senses to confirm their faith. This is true for every human person.

Data tells you what has happened, your biases tell you WHY and WHAT to expect in the future.

This is the intersection of science and faith and occurs THE MOMENT YOU MEASURE.

I'll leave you to ponder this until I write the book. My guess is, however, the book will add to your pondering, not reduce it (unfortunately) .....