FACTS AND DATA BEAT OPINION

It is said that "Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but only if it is based on facts."

Unfortunately we live in an era where opinions seem to matter more than "the DATA" shows. The consequence is really IRRELEVANCE, like it or not.

Opinions are great in story telling but unfortunately incorporate bias, preferred solutions, uncorroborated "facts", perceived trends and conjured perceptions which cause much confusion.

This era is saturated with fake news, straight intentional lies and gets mixed with selected data that suits an opinion or is deliberately discarded if an inconvenient truth as it were.

The more relevant data available, in strict conformance with the Laws of Physics, the more our thinking must be based on solid knowledge and defensible facts.  This will be much more valuable for progress and innovation especially when it involves different disciplines or perspectives.  

Often data from different disciplines can lead to new ideas and innovations when seen within a bigger picture, or systems thinking context. This often crosses multi-disciplinary bridges and creates new solutions to existing problems.

It certainly would not be based on opinions, although it would also not necessarily guarantee success as the Laws of Physics cannot be falsely applied. Hence the shifting of "scientific" viewpoints are also occasionally changed. Mainly because all the facts, or DATA wasn't in yet.

However, it is clear that before an engineering design (aircraft, bridge, process) is validated based on facts and measurements, it would certainly not be operated simply on "opinion". The same should be true on chemical, biological and even financial grounds.

Think about it:

Would you operate a new process, device, machine based on your opinion or would you prefer having real DATA? The more complex the situation / innovation, the bigger the potential risk where you should prefer FACTS to an OPINION.

Think about it in the context of medical protection from pandemics and children diseases for example. Inoculations or not are very topical today. Or Climate Change, or .........

Think about it when observing opinionated CFOs as they spin the financial numbers of last year to suit imagined future performance. The imagined financial future is almost never the case if you have any experience of the practical world. The financial world especially.

Think about it.
The CFO is story telling based on an opinion - not based on reliable DATA.

The Past is past, there is no accurate / reliable financial DATA forecasting. Economists and Financial officers seldom factually predict the future; especially not in a volatile, speculative, fast moving type environment which is dominated / manipulated by a large array of persons with unknown motives.

The question is: what do you trust more?

Knowledge, Insight, Research, reliable DATA

or

self-appointed experts with great OPINIONS?


Think about it.