In this posting I would like to contrast insight and data. I’ve chosen this topic because freedom comes from having profound insight, not raw data (which does not help drive action) or banal or trite interpretations of that data (which are irrelevant). I’ll use the Philosopher’s Stone as a metaphor for insight, something that transforms data into advantage.

Raw data is simply the most basic form of information. Raw data surrounds us. We receive numerous emails, people give us their opinions, we observe someone walking down the street. We need to filter it to make any sense.

What is insight, and how is it obtained? Well firstly, I’ll tell you what it isn’t. You don’t get insight from MSN or a woman’s magazine. You don’t hear it on the evening news or pick up a newspaper and read it in there. It is not found in the lyrics of Britney Spears’ songs. It isn’t conventional wisdom, or how things have always been done. It isn’t stock tips published in a daily paper or on a forum site.

Insight is what makes sense of all the inputs we receive. Insight is similar to the Philosopher’s Stone in alchemy. The Philosopher’s Stone was developed after many years of painstaking work by the alchemist, called the Great Work. It had the power to transform a basic, low value item like lead or mercury into gold, or heal any disease. It transformed the banal into the valuable by purifying it of its base nature.

To use the alchemy metaphor, raw data is lead or mercury, a low value base metal. It has no inherent value in alchemy except for its ability to be transformed into something more valuable.

An example of raw data is the stream of price data that come from the world’s financial markets. Put them into a spreadsheet, and all that that is there is some numbers. They don’t offer any insight, or aid you to increase your life or help to drive action.

In this example, insight is the Philosopher’s Stone that is applied to the base metal. The skilled analyst applies a proprietary algorithm, and patterns emerge from chaos. The application of the Philosopher’s Stone suddenly transforms the crude data into valuable gold – profitable trading rules. Whilst the data is almost worthless, the insight is worth a great deal.

So how does insight apply to the problem of finding and realising your freedom?

The unfree person either doesn’t process any data, and blindly blunders through life based on emotion and feeling, or does not value true insight, and accepts the trite and banal pseudo insight provided by others. Similarly, when confronted with insight, the unfree person doesn’t value it, hence the expression “casting pearls before swine”.

The unfree person confuses advertising with analysis, informercials for information and unfounded opinion for insight. The unfree person will not pay for insight in the mistaken belief that it is not worth the investment.

Conventional wisdom is like a false philosopher’s stone. It promises to make sense of the streams of data that surround us, but it isn’t true insight – it has no power to transform lead into gold.
The free person understands the value of true insight. In fact, insight is the beginning of freedom, insofar that it opens the person’s eyes to their enslaved state, then lights their way out of their prison of the mind. The free person invests into insight, and thereby creates their own philosopher’s stone, which transforms data into knowledge and power.

The free person researches for themselves and pays well for the best professional assistance. The free person will search for books that will give them the edge and actively learns new skills. They will buy the ingredients for their own philosopher’s stone.

How does this apply to you? Well, firstly understand the distinction between data, opinion, advertising and insight. Of these, pay only for insight, but be discerning – research carefully. Secondly, learn to think critically. Read widely and learn how to evaluate information from different sources.

When you do, you’ll find your own Philosopher’s Stone.

Tags: data, information, insight

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Practical freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.