157 people, not data points, died yesterday when their flight crashed. 157 people from 33 different countries. Families weep, communities mourn, friends and colleagues anxiously await news. Moms, Dads, sons, daughters, wives, husbands, grandparents, siblings, mentors, managers.

There will be many investigations about what went wrong, about why a virtually brand new plane would crash. In those reports the moms, managers, mentors will become a data point, a number. For the families, friends, and communities, it is a hole ripped into their lives which never will be filled and never will be a ‘data point’.

In all our work with data, we must never lose the connection of the data with people.

Around the world thousands of people are weeping as the 157 become Joanna, Joseph, Anthony, Blanka, Michala, Cedric, Djorde, Jonathan, Paolo, Maria, Mick, Sebastian, Pius, Derek, Danielle, Amina, Sofia, Yared…