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HOW TO BUILD WISDOM AND PROSPER IN AN
‘INFORMATION AGE’
2
By A. J. Schuler
You always hear it said that we live in an “information age.” But
what does that mean, and how should we understand the challenges of

the so-called “information age?” More importantly, given that we are all
flooded with more information that we can possibly process (have you
ever wanted to run screaming from your television, radio or email box?),
how can you turn the special circumstances of this “information age” to

your advantage? You’ll have to climb the “Wisdom Ladder.” Here’s
how:

Bottom Step on the Wisdom Ladder: Data
“Data” means raw counts of things. Data can be useful or not
useful. In and of itself, data has no meaning. If I count the number of
cars that stop at the stop sign on my block per hour for a week, that’s

data. It may be useful or not, depending on the context. It has no
meaning until it is placed in a context. Data can be accurate or
inaccurate. It can also be reliable or unreliable, valid or invalid. What’s

the difference? Imagine a target at which I shoot arrows using some
machine. If I shoot ten arrows and they all cluster around one spot in the
lower left corner of the target, I have a reliable machine, but not a very
accurate (“valid”) one. If I shoot ten arrows that scatter all over the

target, but whose hit points all average out to the middle, I have a pretty
accurate (“valid”) machine, but it’s not very reliable. When we collect
data, we want to use instruments that are both reliable (they get

consistent results within a reasonable spread of error) and valid (they
really measure what we intend them to measure). The differences are
subtle, but important for anyone who collects - and seeks to interpret –
data. Data is only as good as the measurement device we use to collect

it: and if I fall asleep watching my street corner, I’m not a very good
data collector!

Second Step on the Wisdom Ladder: Information
When you put a whole lot of data together that is related toone
subject, it can be collected to yield information. In other words, (sets of
data) + (collection of related data sets) = information. Let’s say I want

2
Schuer J. A. How to Build Wisdom and Prosper in an ‘Information Age’? / J. A.
Schuler. – Available at: http://www.schulersolutions.com/information_age_wisdom.html.