The crux: As we move towards a quantified society, one shaped by data, we start to dismiss things that are unquantified. Empathy, emotion and storytelling — these are as much a part of business as they are of life. Here is why.

Emphasis mine — from an article by Om Malik.

The problem with data is that the way it is used today, it lacks empathy and emotion. Data is used like a blunt instrument, a scythe trying to cut and tailor a cashmere sweater.

[…] What will it take to build emotive-and-empathic data experiences? Less data science and more data art — which, in other words, means that data wranglers have to develop correlations between data much like the human brain finds context. It is actually not about building the fanciest machine, but instead about the ability to ask the human questions."

Whenever a client or a colleague asks for data to prove a thesis, I cringe a little on the inside. Because in many cases, especially related to social anything, it is a matter of preference — and you don't dictate preference, you choose.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at
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