Data and AI · 2026-08-10 · 2 min read
Data This, Data That
We often say data tells a story, but the story that gets heard depends on who is looking, what they choose to compare, and the questions they know to ask. The numbers may stay the same, while the meaning changes completely.
We say it all the time: data tells a story.
I am not sure it is that simple.
Data can tell many stories, sometimes at the same time, and the story that eventually gets heard often depends on the person looking at it.
Take something as straightforward as growth. Revenue is up 15%. Good news, surely. But compared with what? If one part of the business grew by 40% while another declined, the story changes. If costs rose faster than revenue, it changes again. If the market grew by 30%, that same 15% suddenly feels very different.
The numbers have not changed. The story has.
This is where experience matters.
Someone who has spent years around a business, a service or a particular kind of data usually knows where to look. They know which movement is unusual, which comparison is meaningful, which spike is probably noise and which small change deserves a much closer look.
In that sense, the experienced person does not simply wait for the data to speak. They already know the questions that might make it say something useful.
There is another side to this, though.
The same experience that helps someone find the right story can also help them shape one.
Change the date range. Change the denominator. Group the numbers differently. Compare this month with last month instead of the same period last year. None of that necessarily makes the analysis wrong, but it can make the conclusion feel very different.
That is why I am always slightly cautious when I hear, “Just show me what the data says.”
Because the data rarely says only one thing.
The real work is understanding what matters, what is missing, what is being emphasized and, sometimes, why this particular version of the story is the one being told.
Data this, data that.
Yes, data tells stories.
But the person holding the pen still matters.
← Back to all notesI am not sure it is that simple.
Data can tell many stories, sometimes at the same time, and the story that eventually gets heard often depends on the person looking at it.
Take something as straightforward as growth. Revenue is up 15%. Good news, surely. But compared with what? If one part of the business grew by 40% while another declined, the story changes. If costs rose faster than revenue, it changes again. If the market grew by 30%, that same 15% suddenly feels very different.
The numbers have not changed. The story has.
This is where experience matters.
Someone who has spent years around a business, a service or a particular kind of data usually knows where to look. They know which movement is unusual, which comparison is meaningful, which spike is probably noise and which small change deserves a much closer look.
In that sense, the experienced person does not simply wait for the data to speak. They already know the questions that might make it say something useful.
There is another side to this, though.
The same experience that helps someone find the right story can also help them shape one.
Change the date range. Change the denominator. Group the numbers differently. Compare this month with last month instead of the same period last year. None of that necessarily makes the analysis wrong, but it can make the conclusion feel very different.
That is why I am always slightly cautious when I hear, “Just show me what the data says.”
Because the data rarely says only one thing.
The real work is understanding what matters, what is missing, what is being emphasized and, sometimes, why this particular version of the story is the one being told.
Data this, data that.
Yes, data tells stories.
But the person holding the pen still matters.