The tech is not bad, obviously. It’s not my point here. I’m a heavy AI user and a productivity geek in my daily life. But I genuinely believe that we're outsourcing the part of the work that actually creates real understanding of what matters.

We keep optimising for speed, nowadays even more with AI. We have transcription tools, AI summaries, and automated reports generated in a few seconds. However, each of these automations removes a critical step that used to require us to think critically.

Ask yourself: when did I last change my mind because of data? If you can't remember, you're not data-driven either.

Real data-driven culture means changing your mind when the data contradicts what you want. Most teams can’t afford that.

So we keep the language and optimise the data selection instead.

Teams decide first, then look for the data that supports the decision. The deciding happens on intuition, internal politics, or constraints no one can say out loud. The data comes after, because "my gut says so" doesn’t get budget.

No productivity app will tell you what’s important in your life. That answer only comes from within. Figure it out. Everything else is just details.

"Based on this data, we need to implement X because..." = The strategic driver whom others turn to when clarity is needed most.