The Beauty of Structured Data
Like many people, I read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when it came out. Although I understood the bestseller's popularity, I found it a tad simplistic. Strangely, though, one of his suggestions stuck with me over the years:
No, this isn't always possible. Exhibit A: Slack started as a video game. Exhibit B: YouTube began as a dating site. Countless other startups have tried to "pivot"βalthough relatively few are successful. When it comes to data collection and analysis, though, Covey's rule holds up in spades.
Analyzing structured data remains far easier than analyzing its unstructured counterpart.
Sure, powerful tools such as Open Refine are constantly improving their ability to make sense of unstructured data. Natural language processing continues to make strides. Ditto for robust Python libraries. Make no mistake, though: Analyzing structured data remains far easier than analyzing its unstructured counterpartβand I don't see that changing anytime soon.
It'll only take a moment.
