It’s often said that “technology is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.” The same can be said for data.
I recently downloaded a third-party app that gives me more detailed information about my heart rate and other metrics related to my workouts and recovery.
The app purports to tell me how much I’ve recovered, what my “battery” charge is, how much I exerted myself during the day, and whether I’m ready for my next training session.
The problem is that the app’s conclusions don’t match my lived experience.
For example, after one particularly intense workout last week, the metrics showed that I should have been depleted; my “battery” was low.
But that workout left me more energized than I’d felt in weeks. I felt great in my body, my mind was clear, and I was able to focus well for hours after finishing my training session.
The Lived Experience Can’t Be Quantified
It’s easy to get seduced by the metrics, especially when it comes to our personal performance.
In a world with so many unknowns, data appears to give us something objective on which to base decisions — whether in our workouts, businesses, or other parts of life. Data has no feelings, no stake in the outcome. It’s just the cold hard numbers.
But it’s a trap.
Human performance — whether in the weight-room or the boardroom — isn’t just about biomechanics and objective metrics.
We are complex systems influenced by both inner and outer factors, not all of which can be quantified.
Data can be a starting point for understanding a situation, but the full complexity of the human experience can’t be quantified and reduced to an algorithm.
When we try to outsource our decisions to data, we lose connection to our lived experience.
There’s no app, AI, algorithm, or metric standard that can replace somatic and kinesthetic intelligence.
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