Evaluating Sources – Forty Years of Data Gathering and Analysis

Every day we are inundated with a deluge of new data and “perspectives.” Perspectives are a crude, often very crude, form of analysis. The average person is way too busy with the demands of the consumerist treadmill to deal with that deluge. Jobs, cars, the new iPhone 200, the 700 inch TV, the $2000 whizbang outdoor grill, demand so much attention. All so that they can spend their weekends with friends, glued to the TV watching sports games, drinking alcohol to self-medicate, and arguing over millionaire sports player’s stats. They don’t have time or the resources to learn and gain the experience to better their lives and those around them. It is also a lot of work to maintain vigilance, situational awareness, and risk management/assessment in order to be safe and secure. That’s what we have a bloated government and armed law enforcers for, right?

Take the best interest of you, your family, your close circle, and tribe/community into your sphere of management. Don’t leave your peace of mind, safety, security, liberty, or freedom in the hands of others. No one will put your needs (not wants) first, except you.

I offer this advice when you select sources of analysis:

1. Trust but regularly verify (everyone needs to trust someone)
2. Reject those who consistently offer negative analysis.
   1. Nothing is always right or always wrong.
3. Select someone who provides direct empirical data and source points for the in-depth data.
4. A genuinely skilled analyst is able to wade through the muck of negative data and decern a positive direction and plan of action to not only survive it but grow and prosper through it.

Once you have found a few of those trusted analysts, you have a baseline from which to work. Having them does not mean that you don’t need to work. The trusted analysts will provide a jumping-off point, a guide, a poke in the side for your own research. Your experience, place in life, work, etc. will give you a unique perspective. When you search and go down the rabbit hole to find, verify, or clarify data, you may find things that the source would never look at. The information that you find should be logged and then shared with others for them to refine wherever possible. You will own the data because you will be part of its development.

The fuel for the machine of self-determination and personal responsibility is wisdom.

(See the articles under the category – Forms of Reasoned Thought.)

I have linked to each relevant article in my suggested order:

True Preparedness Demands Effort

Liberty, Freedom, and Sovereignty

Reactive Response Forfeits Liberty and Freedoms

Survival, Altruism, and Self Interest

How to Handle Raw Data from Sources

Beware Pseudointellectualism

Fact Checking & Data Processing

When facts are not the whole story

Knowledge is NOT Power

Normative Data (Subjective)

Empirical Data (Objective, Verifiable, Reproducible)

Data Sharing versus Analysis

How Visual and Audible Inputs Alter Perception

Motivation, Manipulation, Coercion, and Enticement

Hegelian Dialectic -Manipulating People for Power & Profit

Civil Protest and Reasoned Civil Discourse

Why are people brutal?

Survival Is Rarely Pretty or Peaceful – Ask Nicolo Machiavelli

Will’s Universal Maxims – Tips for Life

Language – The Glue That Binds a Society

Perspectives in Leadership and Group / Cohesion Survival

The Power of Civil Dialectic and Conversation

Dunbar’s Number

Data Sharing versus Analysis

Every modern form of communication, “news”, shows, social media, etc. endlessly inundate Westerners with information. It is repetitive conditioning from the minute you rise until you lay your head down at the end of the day. Unfortunately, we are not taught how to differentiate data sharing from an analysis. If you have not already read the article “Fact-Checking & Data Processing”.  You should probably read it first.

Data sharing is the presentation of information without a conclusion. In other words, data sharing lays out raw data or Information (Filtered Data) without telling you what to think of it. It leaves the analysis to the recipient. See the article “How to Handle Raw Data from Sources”

Data Analysis is the assertion of an opinion or analytical assumption of the meaning of the data. In other words, Data Analysis is the assertion of a purported expert’s opinion after reviewing the data presented.

Nearly everything that you are presented is an analysis. Most content purveyors do not want to risk you coming to a decision other than their desired one. They won’t take that chance. So, they tell you what to think. They do not present you with useful empirical data that you can use to validate them. Instead, they generally offer globs of drippy normative hyperbole to activate your emotional response.

The first sign of a reliable analysis is that the analyst provides reproducible empirical data. Empirical data; knowledge – information proved through real-world trial and experiential data. The recipient should always test the asserted conclusions utilizing both the empirical data presented and other data that the recipient finds when crosschecking.

All peer-reviewed professional research gains notoriety and respect because their peers (often who disagree) test the initial analysis of data on their own with a critical eye. The goal for a top-notch analyst is to vet their theorem enough to attain a point of REPRODUCIBILITY. Reproducibility is the hallmark of a skilled analyst. As you repeat the process of validating analyst’s work, you will rapidly learn how to spot lazy, narrow-minded, biased, or outright shills. Once you verify a few analysts who always “get it right,” you can relax a bit to trust them. An analyst proves themselves trustworthy and reliable after a series of sophisticated analyses are presented, and the recipient can validate the conclusions. You should regularly test their analysis just to assure that they are still reliable.

Supportive Details:

The internet, social media, and generally ubiquitous electronic communication has fueled the modern media’s insidious Yellow Journalism to new heights. The incident that I highlighted in the article, Yellow Journalism, was a landmark because it blackmailed USA President McKinley into war with Spain. As significant as that event was, it is only one of the countless others that have shaped the minds and ideologies of nations.

Writers and the media practiced Yellow Journalism against the USA’s Appalachian People during the early 1900s. They targeted them again in the late 1960s with the “rural purge” from television. CBS terminated every show in their line up that reflected rural America; Jim Nabors, Mayberry RFD, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, and more.

See the video on YouTube, “Do You Remember The Rural Purge? CBS Showed NO MERCY to Granny!”

Empirical Data (Objective, Verifiable, Reproducible)

Hunt for the Objective/Empirical data, it is the foundation of accurate decisions and analysis.

EMPIRICAL DATA is generally KNOWLEDGE (see Maslow hierarchy). If correctly identified, it is reproducible even by dissenting parties.

• RAW DATA
  • Untested, unverified data presented, found, or extracted directly or indirectly.
• INFORMATION
  • Raw data verified through careful testing and review by multiple independent peers
• KNOWLEDGE
  • Information proven by multiple independent sources. It may be applied as base knowledge later to aid the understanding of more complex activities and decision making.

See the “Normative Data (Subjective)” article for the opposite data type. Normative data is almost always analysis, not data. It is commonly emotional, reflexive, and unsupported.

Most source’s data may provide varying levels of usefulness. Each additional data point can move you closer to the truth by turning your attention to things that you would not necessarily have known about or considered. The more data points that you log, the more granular your answer will be. More quality KNOWLEDGE in the data set, the better your analysis at the end. As a skilled gatherer, you must hone your skills to parse the normative from the empirical. You must rapidly test and validate the empirical data, and discard any that fails the test.

No matter what your inherent biases are, if you stick to the facts, the truth will always shine through. About ten years into my career as a professional information gatherer, my ideas about “facts” evolved. I realized that the only reliable “facts,” the evidence was derived from the compilation of an abundance of empirical data points. Those data points, not always duplicated, would inevitably establish a particular pattern of data that builds, in my mind, “a preponderance of evidence.” The empirical data, if gathered under strict methodologies, is as close as possible to unbiased “fact.”

Forty years of investigative “fact-finding” has taught me that the closest that we will come to “facts” is repeated, clearly identifiable patterns. Those patterns betray even the most carefully laid attempts to hide or obscure the truth. Those patterns also reveal a more profound truth, “intent,” “willfulness,” and premeditation. A professional information gatherer can present the totality of the empirical data and then allow others to witness the “facts” and test them on their own. They don’t fear their peers testing their conclusions, and they relish the opportunity to better themselves.

Normative Data

Normative data is subjective data, information that is not based upon tangible fact, repeatable proof, not reproducible. Feelings, emotional perceptions, and conjectures are also normative input.

The danger is that depending upon the source, many people will accept normative data as validated objective/empirical data without a question. That is why you must always verify the data, not the source. No matter how nice, honest, or forthright a person is, they are still human. They will make errors and/or fail to check their personal bias. It is not an insult to verify someone’s data. If the source is good it will validate them.

As I have noted many times, the two most destructive things in decision making are anger and fear. I might add one more, sexual attraction. If you make any decision based solely upon one of those normative “facts” “you will live to regret it, if you are lucky”.

Subjective data is based upon personal perceptions or parroted from another. Assumptions, interpretations, beliefs are subjective. You find subjective data all over print media, social media, blogs, vlogs, YouTube, etc.

Hunt for the Objective/Empirical data, it is the foundation of good decision and analysis.

Fact-Checking & Data Processing

 As humans, we have many means of obtaining, processing, testing, verifying and vetting information. Human communication skills allow us if we are trained, being careful and respectful, to attain a much higher level of understanding, awareness of our environment and even some of us may become enlightened.

The key to processing raw data reliably and effectively is to glean the raw data, log it and plot a course forward; a process of vetting. You can't remain at the beginning; simply excepting the data and parroting it. You must learn, absorb, and develop supporting facts and experiential data that allow you to refine your initial perceptions with logic (not emotions) and facts in order to assure your direction is accurate and reliably balanced. Thorough research prior to embarking upon a course is advisable; i.e.: make sure that what you picked on the side of the road was really a pretty flower and not poison ivy.

Every day there is another example that crosses my path of how people have never developed the ability to maintain a balanced perspective. Every challenge and piece of information that people are presented in life tests their skill of critical thinking. Those who have some level of skill generally have a much better experience in life than those who have not. The ability to be broadminded, not stupid, but balanced enough to know that there is more than one way to do something right, even if some are better than others can save you much aggravation and broaden your skills and knowledge. What is comfortable and possible for you is not always the same for someone else. Having the skill to understand that there are many points of view that create differing assessments of the same scene depending upon the person's perspective.

Beware Pseudo Intellectualism

Pseudo intellectualism is dangerous. Like the idea of assumed authority which I explore elsewhere in this text, pseudointellectuals come at you with the nomenclature and arrogance of well-studied wisdom, it is fraudulent. Most often they are merely parroting the words of others. Fortunately, if you are aware of this problem you will find that most of them cannot endure more than 3 levels deep in the questioning regarding the topic.

Unfortunately, like with assumed authority, their general modus operandi is to sweep in hard, fast, and take charge before anyone can question the thrust or ideas.

Didactic learners are great but if they are satisfied, like most people are, with “the basics” then their proper nomenclature and rhetoric are simply a front. You don’t necessarily need a formal scholarly (institutional) education, but you do need deep study and understanding of repeatable facts.

The simplest example of a pseudo-intellectual is a 15-year-old who is absolutely convinced that he knows everything that he will ever need to know and that you are an idiot. Bolstered by “facts” and perspectives presented by a few “expert” teachers using textbooks that were designed to teach one set of thoughts.

Beware the danger of pseudo-intellectuals, always question, trust but verify.

Knowledge Is a Good Beginning

But You Are Only Half Way There

Knowledge Is Only Half Way There. I am so sick of hearing people parrot each other with the colloquialism, "Knowledge is Power". I say hogwash!

Knowledge is great, but it is like having a book. You can read it and come away with nothing or the message in the book can change the direction of your life. You can have it, read a little bit, set it on the shelf and never use it again. What value does that hold? None.

You must hone that knowledge, fashion it into wisdom. Carefully directing knowledge, tempered by reason causing a positive action is how you attain true wisdom. Simply brushing across information, education or experience is not an end. Practice and careful study of the wisdom culminate in a final, often life-changing moment when you attain enlightenment.

I am not talking about some hippie existentialism crap, I am talking about reaching a level of understanding, knowledge, a wealth of well-vetted information, knowledge. Knowledge which you have put into action with reason; Wisdom. Wisdom, that you are able to easily and powerfully pass on to others in a way that they can apply it for the betterment of themselves and all of us; Enlightenment.

Facts, they are sticky things. Facts, what are facts? Well, according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Facts are “the Knowledge or information based on real occurrences.”

For years I have told people that a real investigator is a person who gathers empirical data. Back in the day, Dragnet (a 1960s TV show) drummed the words, “just the facts” into the collective minds of the populace. So why did I not say gathers facts? Because facts are perceptual. (See the article on perception.)

No matter what your inherent biases are, if you stick to the facts, the truth will always shine through. About ten years into my career as a professional information gatherer, my ideas about “facts” evolved. I realized that the only reliable “facts”, evidence, was derived from the compilation of an abundance of empirical data points. Those data points, not always duplicated, would inevitably establish an undeniable pattern of behaviors and actions which build, in my mind, “a preponderance of evidence.” The empirical data, if gathered under strict methodologies, is as close as possible to unbiased “fact.”

Forty years of investigative “fact-finding” has taught me that the closest that we will come to “facts” is repeated, clearly identifiable patterns. Those patterns betray even the most carefully laid attempts to hide or obscure the truth. Those patterns also reveal a more profound truth, “intent,” “willfulness,” and premeditation. A professional information gatherer can present the totality of the empirical data and then allow others to witness the “facts” and test them on their own.

Once you have the facts, the story does not end. Public law enforcement is under substantial stress to “resolve” open cases. Many jurisdictions are overwhelmed with the backlog of open cases. Unfortunately, humans will, by nature, take the easiest way out. If the “facts” appear to support a particular outcome, law enforcement will charge those implicated, and they will move on to the next case. If the case goes to trial and the accused is found innocent, that is often the end of the matter. Not because law enforcement is wrong, but because they have moved on to other cases that are equally pressing.

Sadly, the same series of events are duplicated in nearly every portion of our lives. Whether it is in relationships, work, projects, etc. people act upon perceived “facts.”

Avoid Normative Data (Subjective). Search out Empirical Data (Objective, Verifiable, Reproducible) they will serve you well in all analyses and decision-making processes.