Data is power- But it aint that sexy.. yet

Its supposed to be a bye week but i guess i should dedicate one blog post to the video by Dr. Rosling.

Hans Rosling reminds me of a prof back from school so it was surreal watching the video.  Just like my economics professor, Hans Rosling talks about numbers like i talk about sports.  Its almost funny.  His fascination with numbers of course after watching his video is well-founded.

I guess what really struck me about the video was how he had showed us that what we think we know and what really is are usually very very very far apart.  The whole concept of pre-conceived notions and ideas struck me as I probably would have scored lower than the chimpanzee myself.

As an economist we are taught to use numbers to explain phenomena of human behavior.  Somewhere in the midst of all the data and econometrics i drowned.  But what i did know was that data can tell a compelling story, we just need to know HOW to get it across.

Data is power no doubt.  It can tell us what works and what doesnt.  It can debunk all that we used to think we know and more.  It can change the lives of the people of the world.

But data isnt sexy.  Heck I need to work with numbers for a living and to this day numbers scare me.  They're so hard to work with and they tend to overwhelm me no matter what software application is developed to make handling the stuff easier.  But data is power and this i feel is a great point he made.

If we knew how to sell the idea.  If we knew how to package it and make people know just how powerful data is, then we'd come up with the right solutions to the problems of the world.  But since people are stuck with bad data and their pre-conceived notions, we usually end up with political solutions that don't quite fit the problem in the first place.

Data is power.  Now we need to make it sexy. With Dr. Rosling, hopefully it will be.