We live in a world in which data convey authority. But authority has a way of descending to certitude, and certitude begets hubris.
Interpretation
Data can create a sense of authority, but this often leads to overconfidence and arrogance.
Bret Stephens suggests that in our current society, where data is often seen as the ultimate authority, there is a danger that this reliance on data can lead to an unwarranted certainty in our beliefs and decisions. This overconfidence, in turn, can breed hubris, where individuals or groups believe they are infallible due to their reliance on data, potentially leading to negative consequences.
In practice
In a business meeting discussing analytics, one could quote this to caution against overconfidence in the numbers.
I routinely interview college students, mostly from top schools, and I notice that their brains are like old maps, with lots of blank spaces for the uncharted terrain. It's not that they lack for motivation or IQ. It's that they can't connect the dots when they don't know where the dots are in the first place.
The most interesting conversation is not about why Donald Trump lies. Many public figures lie, and he's only a severe example of a common type. The interesting conversation concerns how we come to accept those lies.
The more afraid we are of the shadow of racism, the more conscious we might become of our own unsuspected biases.
The American birthright belongs, potentially, to everyone. This is unprecedented. Other countries accept migrants on the basis of economic necessity or as a humanitarian gesture. Only in America is it the direct consequence of our foundational ideals.
The man of the future who will redeem us not only from the hitherto reigning ideal but also from that which was bound to grow out of it, the great nausea, the will to nothingness, nihilism; this bell stroke of noon and of the great decision that liberates the will again and restores its goal to the earth and his hope to man; this Antichrist and anti-nihilist; this victor over God and nothingness - he must come one day.
Places have charisma, in short, as much as people do.
Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.
We can know a person by observing his behaviour, understanding the reasons for his actions and ascertaining his intentions. If we do this, how can we not know him?
To get back up to the shining world from there My guide and I went into that hidden tunnel, And Following its path, we took no care To rest, but climbed: he first, then I-so far, through a round aperture I saw appear Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears, Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.
A Church that has lost its voice for justice is a Church that has lost its relevance in the world.
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