Yesterday I saw Gavin Freeguard post/skeet on Bluesky about Ishmael Burdeau comparing data to plastic:
“Too often, our data collection is single-use and disposable, with no regard to the environmental consequences”
There is too much plastic around, so we try and recycle it, so it’s not a waste. This is a good idea
But it would be much better to not create as much in the first place. That’s a better idea.
And it got me thinking – Is data more like the stuff we put in recycling bins?
We hope that most of it could be put to good use, but that takes considerable time and effort.
Perhaps we shouldn’t produce so much stuff that needs recycling in the first place?
We have digital mountains of data piled up from all the things we do. But instead of trying to reduce the data we create, we try and recycle it – find some purpose for it – surely it must be useful somehow?! It’s often interesting, all that data, but is it really useful?
The latest way to recycle data is by using AI. We can analyse mountains of data, find patterns, learn trends. We have machines that throw petabytes of data-mud at a digital wall to see what sticks.
But that just creates more data.
Because you can’t really recycle data, that idea is a lie. You can just use it to create more data.
We need to nurture a world with less plastic. When plastic was created, it was such a versatile and exciting material. But did anyone guess that it would infiltrate the oceans and delicate ecosystems the way it has?
The creation of data is like a pyramid scheme. We need to nurture a world with less data. When online services. personal devices and IoT technology was created, they were such versatile and exciting technologies. And people did guess how it would influence and become integral to our daily lives.
But how do we create less data?
We focus on quality, not quantity. (This is the Product Manager bit of my thinking).
When we build an online service, we collect only the data essential to deliver that service, and we define the true measures of how that service delivers value. Just because we can measure something, should we? Hoarding data just because it might be useful one day is just creating problems for future teams. Building a data efficient service is about maximising the data not collected.
How many photos fill your cloud storage that will never be seen? How many apps can track your location, personal interests and activities? Pretty soon we’ll need a digital Stacey Solomon (or Curtis, Joanna & Marianne – h/t to Andy Parker) to visualise our data warehouses in a horrendous VR reality TV show where every photo, email, WhatsApp message, Google maps directions, step count, wordle score, news article, car park space, spotify tune. Netflix show, amazon purchase, Alexa command and facebook post is laid out for all to see.
And then a grand purge annihilates the lot, only leaving a thumb drive of meaningful content that’s really worth keeping.
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