Beware of Single Data Points

"What gets measured gets managed."
- Peter Drucker

The world has become a pretty sophisticated place. Airplanes have thousands of real time data points they’re ingesting during flights. Pilots take into account things like altitude, and wind direction as they work on going from point A to point B.

Now imagine if they only had one data point. “You are here”. No speed, no altitude, nothing but precise coordinates on the location of the plane. Would you step aboard that plane? Not a chance.

One data point isn’t useful, it’s deceiving. Even worse, it can be demoralizing. And yet we judge ourselves by single points of data. The number on the scale, the dollars in the bank account, the number of likes on a post.

The altitude, trajectory, speed of your life boiled down into a single location. If you’re feeling frustrated with your spot on the map, measure more.

The last three books I read…
The Bomber Mafia
Impact Players
Essentialism