More Judgment Than Data: Data Literacy and Decision-Making

More data has been produced in the 21st century than all of human history combined. Yet, are we making better decisions than yesterday's generation? Do we believe that poor decisions tend to result from the absence of data? The existence of an overwhelming amount of data has affected how we make decisions, but it has not necessarily improved how we make decisions. To make better decisions, people need good judgment based on data literacy--the ability to extract meaning from data.

This book opens with cautionary tales of what can happen when too much attention is spent on acquiring more data instead of understanding how to best use the existing data. Including data in the decision-making process can bring considerable clarity in answering our questions. Nevertheless, the book explores many examples in business and politics in which too much data resulted in bad decisions. Human beings can become distracted, overwhelmed, and even confused. Data is not generated in a vacuum. The book's primary thesis is that people who possess data literacy will understand the environment and incentives behind the data. With this understanding in place, good decisions will follow.

More Judgment Than Data introduces the principles of data literacy. Readers will learn what questions to ask, what data to pay attention to, and what pitfalls to avoid. As an application, a chapter expounds upon these data literacy principles in a COVID-19 era. Readers will not only learn how to make better decisions, they will become less vulnerable to others who manipulate data for misleading purposes.