Against analytics

a case for raging against the machine

Don’t get me wrong, I get the value of data. For blood pressure, STOCK MARKETS, elections, and the like. But as it pertains to creativity, in my opinion, data is VERY, VERY BAD.

Enjoy the goods while you’ve got ‘em!

By data, I mean numbers reflecting popularity — book sales data, Instagram follower counts, THE AUTOMATED EMAILS FROM THIS VERY BLOG HOSTING PLATFORM THAT I WOULD LURVE NOT TO RECEIVE.

To be sure, I want to know how much money my projects are generating, but there’s an app for that. (It’s called Bank of America, though the way things are going, who knows!) What my creative soul does not want to know is the numbers that indicate how well a particular post, article, book, or podcast episode “performed,” because that equates to popularity, and — here’s the thing — if you’re going for popularity, it’s a race to the bottom.

You know what’s popular? Pornography! Does that mean that every artist should produce pornography? Well … let’s let that marinate.

I’m a big believer in the “one for you, one for them” school of thought in which you do some things for the boss, and you do others for you. When I worked for ABC News, I wrote many, many stories for the boss. I regret a lot of them. My boss sent me to Human Resources for a particular one about Britney Spears that I neither wanted to write nor put my name on; if I’m being honest, I’m still conflicted about some of the things I penned to make a buck.

Alas, until someone comes up with a better economic model, capitalism is all we’ve got, and if you work in our world, odds are, you will at some point reckon with what you do in order to live. If you’re a creative person, you may also confront the reality that what what fuels you may not be what brings in the biggest paycheck. That doesn’t mean you don’t do it.

The mega streamer Ludwig Ahgren once told me, “You should stream to one viewer as you would to 10,000. If you’re not giving that one person all you have to offer, why are they going to sit around and why are new people going to join?” I took that to heart and twisted it.

You should write what you want to read, make what you want to watch, create what you want to see, compose what you want to hear — insert the verbs of your choosing. Don’t do it for the numbers. Do it because your heart compels you.

Blur your vision when you look at your follower counts. Delete the emails about how well your post performed, don’t even open them. I’m not saying that these numbers don’t matter — if you’re a Key Opinion Leader (a term used in Asia for social media influencers, and one that I quite like) your follower count and engagement levels have everything to do with the jobs you get offered and the money that comes with them. If you’re an author and you sell a million copies of your book, you’re going to get to write another.

But if at all possible, I would divorce your creative self from your administrative self. If and when you have to look at those follower counts or Chartbeat numbers or sales data, put on a different hat. Literally. Put on an admin hat. (Mine says, “Per My Last Email.”)

Besides that, do what you want to do, and don’t stress about how many eyes are on you. As a wise woman once told me, “if people unfollow, it means they weren’t true riders anyway.”