Qualitative Data Can Provide Context and Meaning to Your Quantitative Data

Someone once said "if you can't measure something, you can't understand it." Another version of this belief says: "If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist." This is a false way of thinking -- a fallacy -- in fact it is sometimes called the McNamara fallacy. This mindset can have dire consequences in national affairs as well as in personal medical treatment (such as the application of "progression-free survival" metrics in cancer patients, where the reduction in tumors is lauded as a victory while the corresponding reduction in quality of life is ignored). Similarly, in the world of data science and analytics, we are often drawn into this same way of thinking.