Or, for those who choose to get exercised by such things, data are.
While it sometimes gets reduced to a single point, data is, fundamentally, plural in nature. It can’t help but travel in groups – sometimes small and tightly knit, sometimes sparse and widely distributed, sometimes lurking in the murky depths of a data lake.
It is messy and it is malleable. It can be melted down, moulded into metrics and can lend weight to our choices. Depending on the skills – and the intentions – of the data smith, those choices may be good, bad, or sometimes, downright ugly. We hope, as least, that they are well informed.
Welcome to the smithy.