What is data and Why is it important?

Data are units of information, often numeric, that are collected through observation. In a more technical sense, data are a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables about one or more persons or objects, while a datum is a single value of a single variable, wikipedia.

In simpler terms data is basically collected information on a particular person or certain focus such as a company or study. Having a diary in which you plan your day and also write information about your day is regarded as data, “data entry” to be more specific.

A series of information or facts to understand a particular question one would have to document their results and those results are known as data.

In order to have progress in anything valid in life a regiment of data is needed to asses where we are lacking in improvement and where we can update and develop. Information as a whole gives an understanding of what we have and what we lack. This gives us the opportunity to find solutions to certain things we have not solved yet. It gives us a clear indication of how we can basically look at a problem and an understanding of how we can approach this problem. Preventions to this specific problem are then tackled through data depending on how good the data collected is.

Memory

Our levels of thinking are escalated through remembrance, repetition and experience this is then regarded as memory. Memory comes from our brains recording/storing information, that we process to our best understanding, such as the first time you are hurt, your memory helps you become cautious about how to not get hurt again in that similar process. This type of situation is regarded as experience, wikipedia states “Experience is the process through which conscious organisms perceive the world around them.”. Immanuel Kant argued that “we can only have knowledge of things we can experience.” Wikipedia also states that “Memory is the faculty of the brain by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action”.

So in a nutshell data allows us to be able to progress our understanding on anything such as systems, concepts, laws and specifics. So the next time you think of creating or starting a business/project remember that in order to know how long it will take for that idea to grow, it will depend on the level of research you put in and the level of data that specific project has. This will help you gage the amount of time and efforts it will require for you to do it right, because information is there to help you reach your goals and also prevent yourself from making unnecessary mistakes that could be prevented by just doing the research the right way and documenting your every step in order to understand what and how you approach each step. It allows you to keep track of your progress and also the accurate information of what not to do in future.

Doing things without the right information is quite challenging, because it is easily described as trying to walk in the dark with no light. Or for a simpler analogy it is like you trying to drive a car with no wheels. You will waste your time placing your efforts and energy on things that don’t improve your progress, and in order to improve the first step is always understanding what it takes to make progress and that understanding is what we call data.