Software Is Not Insightful: Distinctions Between Data And Insight

Differences between “what happened” and “why it happened.”

Anthropology teaches us that people, regardless of their cultural background, experience life in ways that can’t always be recorded and measured.

Yes, you can shadow someone and observe their moments and interactions with others — but the observations will not describe the experiences in the same ways as the observed would describe it.

In other words — you observing what a person is going through, is not the same as how the person observes it for themselves.

Your observations of what happened and the information you choose to capture — that’s your data.

Your perspectives on the reasons why it happened and any conclusions drawn, based on your experience in the matter — that’s your insight.

Software is not insightful.

I think of this relationship between data and insight, and I wonder about all the analytics software that exists and the designers who claim that these products provide “insights”.

Perhaps it’s just me, but that seems to be a misleading sales pitch, because software, like artificial intelligence for example, is not innately…