Accuracy Ain't Always the Truth

"Hi, Jin. You deleted a lot of numbers from the executive summary we're presenting tomorrow. I wonder why ... We spent almost a week digging up those numbers from our operational data lake," Tommy was a little upset.

"Right. But don't worry, all those numbers are safely stored away," I replied with a chuckle. "What do you think of the new version, though?"

"Well, it's simpler I suppose, easier for an outsider to understand," Tommy admitted hesitantly. "But we've also lost many details that we painstakingly collected for the report. It's not as accurate as before without all the numbers. That's my concern. Aren't we supposed to be data-driven?"

"Absolutely. But that doesn't mean that more numbers are always better. Data or numbers have to help us tell a story. Accuracy is only relevant to the story we want to tell," I paused for a moment before continuing, "When we talk about 'accuracy', we're referring to precise, detailed, and exact information. On the other hand, 'truth' is about the essence, the heart of the matter, the core message. For example, if someone asks you about your day, do they really want to hear about every single detail like how many minutes you spent brushing your teeth, or the exact amount of coffee you poured into your mug? Absolutely not! They're looking for the highlights or lowlights: you aced a presentation, had a flat tire, saw a cute dog – the stuff that actually matters.

"The same principle applies to storytelling or document writing, whether you're presenting a project update, pitching a business idea, or writing an executive summary. Imagine you're trying to convince your boss to invest in new software for the team. Would you inundate them with every tiny specification, code, and feature of the product? Unless your boss is a software fanatic, that's probably a 'no'. Instead, you should focus on what the software can do for your team: save time, increase productivity, improve customer service – that's the real essence, the truth they need to know. You see, when we're too focused on accuracy, we might lose sight of the story we're trying to tell. We might forget about the meaning, the message, the truth that we want to communicate.

"So, our data collection effort was not in vain. It helped us form our ideas. We used some data to communicate our ideas in the summary. But we didn't use all the data. Data itself isn't information. We have to process data into information, then transform that into knowledge, insights, and wisdom.

"In the end, we're not saying accuracy isn't important. It certainly is! It's all about not getting so caught up in the details that you miss conveying the real message. The truth might not always lie in the finer details, but in the broad strokes that color the canvas of your story. After all, it's the Mona Lisa we want to see in the picture, not just a pile of pixels from a 16th-century painting, right?"