# Exhausted Analysts By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-02-08 Many believe data, science, and analysis are solid, rigid, and stable. Depending upon one's perspective, this is either an illusion or a delusion. Data is relative and only collected when someone decides to collect it. The decision to collect it immediately skews how it is collected and prioritizes it over other data that might be more relevant or valuable. Data never exists outside our conception and biases. Science definitively proves nothing. As a field, it can only provide evidence that something might not be valid until an exception is found. This is still valuable as perfection is not needed to make progress. For example, science cannot say all swans are white. It can only be said that we believe all swans are white until one finds a black swan. Scientific theories such as these are disproven all of the time. Analysis combines the worst aspects of data and science. It leverages relative and biased data while attempting to provide a conclusion that something is not true until an exception is found. Additionally, the process of doing this exists within the bubble of the human condition with all its flaws, dynamics, and shortcomings. None of this would be a problem if organizations and people understood the situation. Instead of embracing the uncertainty and limitations of data, science, and analysis as an asset, most believe data is objective evidence, science reveals hidden truths, and analysis is the infallible guru. As a professional in these fields, one is likely exhausted. Some are exhausted because they are fighting the universe to uphold these misperceptions. Others are exhausted because nothing is more draining than pretending to be something one is not. The fall of analysis as broadly conceived today is coming. Hopefully, when this happens, everyone can nap and awaken with fresh ideas to make a real difference. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Beliefs]] [[Paradigms]] [[Science]] [[Data]] [[Truth]] [[Exhaustion]] [[The Human Condition]]