(This article
is opinion as a professional with 10+ years experiences, not a mean to thus bring
down any company/person, thus the title CMIIW)
Technology
has been growing immensely, especially after millennium, and it affect our life
directly or indirectly. Most people, whether they admit it or not, were depending
on technology in their daily life. And the thing that technology has in common
is the data that they got from every single aspect of life. In the era of
machine learning, it is important to notice the pattern of certain segment and
give notes to develop better understanding and enhancing the machine learning. Yet
even then, there bound to be things that deviate from the user need and
therefore the profession related to data processing emerge rapidly.
Data. A
simple word yet very powerful tools if someone know how to use it. Nowadays, businesses
are busy finding personnel who has experience or expertise in the field of data,
be it Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Data Management, and other title related to
it. Many claims to be an expert, yet there are also discontent from the
employers that the people they hired could not fulfil the said role.
From the experience
gained with many companies I’ve worked and my other clients, there are similarities
of problems that the companies encounter. Majority of them are the inability to
translate the management need with the actual condition, or the inability to
read the trend for future use, or the lack of understanding of what is
important for other divisions to deliver their best performance/KPI.
Although the
education nowadays was giving chances for being a professional in data
processing industry, yet there are things that people forgot to get enough
exposure of which is data about people itself. Things are easy to read once it
was written down in data language, be it in a table form or journal or many
other things. Yet people are not that easy to read, because there are certain
aspects that may influence the decision someone take from the other. Some ethnicities
may do certain things when they are introduced to new exposure, some religion
may have certain habit at certain period compared to other, or someone that grew
up in a single-parent household might also decide things differently from those
with big family background.
Therefore,
the journey to make a map of data is truly a fascinating subject that has no
limit if you have immense creativity and curiosity. Enough pattern may also lead
to the change of how business will develop in the future, due to the habit of
the customer and people in overall. This is what the business is aiming for, to
hit the jackpot of riding the trend people are doing or be the trendsetter and
stay in the front of the game from other businesses.
Developed countries
are already up their game in the data-related profession, and yet they are also
still need some more breakthrough to keep on the top of their game. Whereas the
developing countries are still struggling in introducing the importance of data
in most aspects of life. However, the problem is not only stop there, but it
just started. The reason I said Data is Life Story is because of in anything we
do, people are generating data.
In daily
example, person A woke up daily in average on 6.30-7.00 am. This implies that
there are things that might be triggered afterwards like making coffee, how
much electricity used while making coffee, breakfast, bath, etc. Then there’s
the habit of smoking and its impact in the health of the person, whether it is
a habit or just for socializing and it may also affect the trend whether this
person will retain this habit in the future or not. When person A work, how
long does he sit, call, check emails and so on. There are plenty of data in
even the minutes detail, which evoke the study on human behavior, consumer behavior
and many other things. This data also became the trigger of why the influencers
also picked up certain themes at one moment and other in the other, evoking
debates and this also collecting many other supporting data. That is why I say
that data is a fascinating subject because it touches many things and can
igniting much other.
Another
example, Company B is using 2kgs coffee bean in average, however during June
and December the usage is only 1kg beans due to holiday, or in March the usage
is 4kgs due to some other reason. Although it is a simple habit of coffee bean
usage, this data can also affect many other things for Company B, and other companies
that have cooperation with them. Therefore, data is not really a simple 1+1=2 but
a myriad expression within that may make 1+1=100
Data-related
profession is not only touching the aspects that can be easily seen like those
habits, but it also digging deeper into the decision of why such things happened,
and what will be the impact if certain things change. Management called it Plan
A, Plan B, etc., some will say it as scenarios, and it all depend on the
language each person use. Yet, it is coming from the same source, data that
were taken from
Some people may
say that data is fascinating, while others may have an indifferent attitude about
it, or maybe some even find it boring. It all depends on the perspective of the
people who are dealing with it. For business to thrive in this era and further,
they need to be interested and delve even deeper than what they are doing right
now. Because after all, there is one common thing each business has, which is their
customers are people.
People are
trying to develop Artificial Intelligence and each of the result breaking through
its predecessor, it is in truth comprised of boxed information that interlinking
each other in a seamless manner. Yet there are much more possibilities that
have yet to be found even up to today. The algorithms itself is still
calculating each possibility there in their designated box of expertise. Sometimes,
the findings can cause someone to scrap the knowledge they have known for their
entire life to be unbiased in accepting the new revelation.
Same as biography
or autobiography that supposedly share certain person’s life story, it only
zoomed in into chosen part of that person life that are worthy to be told of
instead of all the nitty gritty. However, is that enough to know the person in
deep? Definitely not. Because it is designed to let people know what they allow
you to know. That is why in the title it is said that data is equivalent as a
life story. Because you are only allowed to know what the presenter wanted you to
know. Be it the process or other things that may or may not affecting the
result, it is another different perspective.
= AS =
July 29,
2022
