Introducing Connecting Dots

A space to explore the qualitative, emotional, and intuitive experiences of life combined with the quantitative, analytical and logical world of data.

This story was originally published on Substack

Today, I’m kicking off Connecting Dots: a space to explore the qualitative, emotional, and intuitive experiences of life combined with the quantitative, analytical and logical world of data.

Because emotional and analytical thinking use opposite parts of the brain, learning to combine the two unlocks rich new ways of thinking.

This is the literal meaning of connecting dots.

If you’re interested in exploring the meaning of life, learning how to use data, living life with intention, learning about the world and career of data analytics, or seeing the intersection between emotions and data, you’ll like this blog.

I’d love to hear from you, so please reach out at albertbcai(at)gmail(dot)com or reach out and connect on LinkedIn.

Why I’m starting this:

I recently completed a values reflection. This was part of a life coaching program — called Kindred Minds — and one of the exercises was to define life values. Even more important than defining life values was the intentional goal to prioritize values: limited to ideally 1 or 2 values.

The author and professor Brené Brown has done extensive research on values and found that limiting yourself to 1 or 2 values makes a drastic difference in your ability to actually live them (link to her exercise here). As tempting as it is, trying to live by too many values at once probably means living none of them at all. (I’d highly recommend you take a few minutes to pause and complete her exercise).

My reflection yielded the following two values: connection and curiosity.

Connection

Valuing connection prioritizes relationships as foundational to a meaningful life. Research consistently shows that human relationships drive happiness.

The entire world felt this effect when we lost our social connections during the COVID pandemic.

Oddly enough the pandemic had two differential effects: on one hand, the pandemic drastically lowered the quantity of social connections: kids couldn’t attend in-person school, offices closed, professional sports leagues were cancelled with empty stadiums, city streets were devoid of pedestrians, colleges went fully remote, etc. Families had to mourn in isolation as millions of loved ones passed away in quarantine. This was painful for society as we realized how important connections were to us.

But with that pain, the pandemic motivated people, myself included, to strengthen the connections that mattered most. I had the opportunity to most close to and live with my parents, and they had the opportunity to live together after 2 years of long distance on opposite coasts, a 6 hour flight apart. On a macro scale, the suffering caused an increase in social support and benevolence as people came together — as measured by the World Happiness Report.

Connection goes beyond just human relationships. This includes connecting with the broader human experience — of every lived human ever — as well as with every living thing on the planet, as well as inanimate objects. Connection is love, but expressed more specifically.

I could (and will) write on and on about the topic of connection. That’s the subject of a future post.

Curiosity

Curiosity as a value is finding intrinsic joy in the new. Closely tied to curiosity is the idea of growth and learning.

It’s viewing the world through the ideas of a child or of a traveler who is seeing the world for the first time. It’s wanting to dig deeper and understand: why?

Curiosity is a powerful mindset antidote to the tribalism that plagues society today. People today — as part of evolutionary tendencies programmed into us — want to be part of the in-group and to label ourselves with certain ideas, to make these ideas part of our identities. And when people make an idea their identity, then any information that runs counter to that idea is attacking their identity, which people do not like. And we live in a world where information is endlessly accessible, overwhelmingly so.

The easiest and natural way to live is to close ourselves off to new information and interpret anything that does not fit our current world view as wrong.

Approaching the world through the lens of curiosity is instead viewing new information as a teaching opportunity.

When I have a deeply held belief that someone challenges, instead of feeling defensive, my goal is to replace the instinctive reaction of:

“How dare this person question me. This person must be an idiot and they’re wrong.”

With the reaction:

“Wow. What am I missing that could cause such a difference in perspective? I want to learn more”.

Life and Data

After establishing my values, I then asked myself a simple question:

“What do I spend most of my headspace thinking about?”

Which I had two answers to: thinking about life: the qualitative, emotional parts of the human experience, and thinking about data: the analytic and technical techniques to make meaning from data, which I explore and spend much of my waking hours thinking about in my profession in data analytics and consulting.

As I reflected on both combine my values with my experiences, I came up with a simple phrase to express all of them at once: connecting dots.

Connecting dots is a concise way to express all four of the ideas of connection, curiosity, life, and data at once.

Connection, my primary guiding value, is directly mentioned in the name. Curiosity is required to connect dots as it often requires asking the why to peer beneath the surface and outside the box to find those connections. Much of reflecting and growing in life is all about connecting the dots (as Steve Jobs famously referenced). And dots are a common way to express data.

The newsletter

This newsletter will focus on alternating posts of life and data as vehicles to express my values.

Life is open-ended and deeply emotional. It will include topics about values like connection and curiosity, as well as reflections on other deep human experiences: emotions, love, motivation, habits, perspective, and creativity. It will include reflections on books, podcasts, movies, and other powerful content.

The second topic of data will be more specific. With a mind-bogglingly huge amount of data generated each day, the skill of analyzing, interpreting, and communicating with data will only become more important. I will write learnings about what it’s like to work as a data analytics professional and provide helpful guidance for anyone looking to learn more and start or progress their career in the world of data. This will span from very specific and technical topics, like SQL and Python, to broad and rich topics like data storytelling and decision-making.

I will also include broader ideas about data and how to apply data principles in everyday life. Science, media, and politicians all love to quote data in different ways, and it’s important to learn how to appropriately interpret all of this by learning the behind-the-scenes of what it really means to come up with these answers.

Combining and alternating these topics will create a new space to merge the emotional and the logical, the qualitative and the quantitative, the intuition and the data, the art and the science. I believe a rich life should have both: an intuitive and empathetic view of the world as well as a data-principled way of analyzing the world and finding truth.

Connecting dots

On a last note, I view this space as a way to not only reflect on my values, but to live them. For any readers who engage with this content, we are already connecting. And this connection can evolve into two ways from reader feedback. And the act of writing and exploring ideas to write about is a forcing mechanism to express my curiosity and find new ideas to write about.

Thanks for reading and I’m excited to embark on this journey together.

-Albert

PS:

As I’m launching this series of writings, ChatGPT and a world of computer-generated natural language has just been released and is taking the world by storm. I asked a computer (the Notion AI system) to write about “Connecting Dots”. Here’s what it returned. Seems pretty spot on to me. Pretty wild how good this stuff is.

Connecting dots is a metaphorical expression that refers to the process of finding patterns or relationships between seemingly unrelated things or events. It is a way of thinking that involves taking a step back to view the big picture and identifying connections that may not be immediately apparent.

The ability to connect dots is a valuable skill that can be applied in various fields, such as science, art, business, and personal development. In science, for instance, connecting dots can help researchers make important discoveries by recognizing patterns in data. In art, it can help artists create unique and meaningful works by drawing inspiration from diverse sources. In business, it can help entrepreneurs identify market trends and opportunities by analyzing different factors.

Connecting dots requires creativity, curiosity, and an open mind. It involves looking beyond the surface level and exploring different perspectives and possibilities. It also requires a willingness to embrace uncertainty and take risks.

One way to develop the skill of connecting dots is to practice brainstorming. Brainstorming involves generating a large number of ideas and then connecting them in different ways to see what emerges. Another way is to expose yourself to a wide range of experiences and knowledge. This can involve reading books, attending events, traveling, or simply talking to people from different backgrounds.

In conclusion, connecting dots is a powerful way of thinking that can lead to innovative ideas and breakthroughs in various fields. By developing this skill, we can expand our perspectives, make new connections, and find meaning in the seemingly random events of life.

PPS:

As a last experiment I asked the AI to summarize this post for me. Again, wow.

The author introduces “Connecting Dots,” a space to explore the intersection of qualitative, emotional topics of life and the quantitative, analytical world of data. The author reflects on two values that are important to them: connection and curiosity. They plan to alternate between two broad categories of topics: life and data, with the goal of creating a richer dialogue between the emotional and analytical. The author believes that a rich life should have both an intuitive and empathic sense of the world as well as a data-principled way of thinking and analyzing the world.