Numbers are just a proxy for the things that really matter. They’re meaningless apart from their potential to help us understand the human condition. Numbers without skin are worthless.

How do we put skin on numbers? How do we make the data look and feel like the human experiences they represent?

Try this. Set a timer for seven minutes and push yourself away from your desk. Zoom your thinking way out. Spend a little time looking across the ecosystem that your data set is connected to. Get abstract. Do some concept synthesis. Explore the edges of what you think is most relevant.

Then zoom back in and bring the connections you saw with you. I’ll bet money you generate new insights.

If you don’t generate new insights, write to me, I owe you a drink. If you try this and it works, write to me; I’d like to interview you. Over drinks, of course.