Data.

If I were my own best friend I would tell myself…

Data can be manipulated.

(data… being manipulated… still data)

sometimes it is good to be skeptical.

***Data is a tricky thing. Numbers are just numbers. And facts are just facts. But they can be put into a context and pulled and prodded and massaged and grouped and any other number of action words. At the end the data does not always resemble what you started with and sometimes that seems to be the point.

We live in a world where we have to be skeptical about some things for our own safety. We are expected to read and receive information, then assess and determine for ourselves if the information “holds water.” I get tired of this. And for this reason I am sometimes accused of being naive or trusting. I do not want to live in a world where I have to constantly question the veracity of every fact that comes my way.

I guess the important piece is knowing what to question and what to take on faith. Are you trusting? Are you skeptical? How do you know when to turn one off and the other on?