I have a device that tracks my sleep. I look at the app every morning, happy when it tells me I slept well, bothered when it says otherwise.
Last night the gizmo stopped tracking in the middle of the night. I slept in. Checking the app, it told me I had slept very poorly. I was actually kind of depressed. Not because it was an accurate portrayal of my lived experience, but because I wasn’t going to get credit.
Madness.
I have a heart rate monitor that connects to an app connected to my rowing machine. I’ve rowed enough to know that if I’m on a certain pace and stroke rate, my heart rate will be right where I want it to be.
But I still hook everything up every time I row.
The other day, I discovered the app wasn’t writing to my Apple Health app. Again, agita, not because of a real problem, but because I’m not getting credit from Apple!
Madness.
This is a first-world problem. It’s also a lesson in (low) quality decision-making.
The data we most readily consult is the data we can most easily get. The problems begin when the data doesn’t give us helpful insight into the choices we mean to make. The arrow needs to point in the other direction.
First, determine the decision you need to make.
Second, identify the options from which you will choose.
Then, and only then, look for the information that will help you a) tell the difference between your choices and b) help you make trade-offs.
In my case, the data these apps throw off have almost no impact on my decisions.
So, tell me again, why do I care?