Making A Mess

In the 1930's and 40's Oliver Hardy of the slapstick comedy duo, Laural and Hardy, was fond of saying: "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into", after some calamity befell the pair.

And so it is that: "life imitates art far more than art imitates life"--Oscar Wilde

Recently, I've been discussing strategy formation and decision making in the context of data.  It would appear that with the advent of the digital age our society is obsessed with data.  There's BIG DATA, and little data.  There are entire academic and professional fields of  Data Analysis and Data Visualization.  How on earth did the human race make any progress prior to data?

Here's how--intuition.  

Intuition is that human ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning, or data. Thomas Edison had this ability.  He claimed that his invention of the phonograph was an act of pure intuition.  Other masters from antiquity to the modern age also possessed this great capacity--as do we all.

We've become so data-driven that we often get stuck in the paralysis of analysis.  I will submit that nothing significantly innovative, creative, or entrepreneurial was ever accomplished by analytical, deductive reasoning.  By definition, an act of creation is one of inspiration, not perspiration (except in bed, when it is both ;-))

People may ask: "how am I to decide without data?"   The answer is: meditate.  The mind is like a glass of water with dirt in it (notice DIRT = DATA).  Stir it up (analyze) and you can't see clearly.  Let it settle (meditate), and the mind becomes a crystal clear pool of water from which right action emerges.

More often than not, we make a mess of life when we do not listen to our intuition, or our inner knowing of what is right.  When this happens and a decision goes sideways or south, I offer the advice my mom often shared with me in my youth: "clean up your #mess!"