“Men have become the tools of their tools”
When Henry David Thoreau wrote these words in his famous work Walden (1854), there was no such thing as a database, AI, or visualisation. Data was handwritten and shared by hand.
But his words ring true to this day, as a comment on our infatuation with the latest piece of technology, and as a comment on the power of technology to shape the way we act.
Thoreau was concerned about the rapid adoption of new technologies, that often occurred without thought to the impacts of that adoption, or the reasons for it.
“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.”
His message still holds extreme relevance in our modern hyper-technologised world. We must stay focused on our ends: our core goals. But what are our ends? In a business context, we have goals that matter to us. It is all too easy to start with our tool, and be stuck in the functionality of that tool, losing sight of why we started in the first place.
By starting with our business goals, we can choose a tool that will give us the best chance of reaching those goals. And to support that tool, we need the correct data. There is no use having a tool fed with data that is of low quality. We’ve all been there: reviewing the output of AI that is completely useless, because of the low data quality it is using. There’s a reason Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was “slop”, referring to the “AI slop” that is created when outputs focus on low quality and high quantity. These tools are all too frequently producing outputs that are meaningless or misleading because they are fed with data that is not managed.
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
Maybe we decide to use AI in our business. We might be inclined to use the new tool simply because it exists. The first questions need to be, “Why should we use this tool, and how do we use it effectively?” rather than the statement, “The tool exists, so let’s do it.” A blind obedience to tools causes countless projects to waste significant amounts of money, year in and year out.
The latest tool always seems initially to be the golden solution, to all the problems that have ever beset a business or the world. But society comes to terms with the capabilities of a tool and learns what it can and cannot do.
We learn what we need to feed a tool to make the use of the tool fit our context. This is the core focus of data management: ensuring that data is fit for purpose. The techniques behind data management all lead to this goal. Data Quality, Data Modelling, Data Architecture, Metadata management; every facet of data management best practice leads us towards having data that is relevant for the context in which we want to use it.
The best uses of AI are yet to be discovered. The next tool to take the world by storm is yet to be invented. But one thing is for sure, regardless of the use of a tool, regardless of the form that the tool takes, data management will be essential for ensuring its use is efficient and effective.
For example, whilst AI has changed the types of data that need to be managed, the principles remain the same. AI is reliant on high-quality metadata to be effective. Data management techniques ensure that metadata is always fit for purpose.
Rather than simply bouncing from one shiny new piece of tech to the next, never really achieving anything, we can choose. We can live in the landscape of tools effectively and efficiently. We can manage our data, to reach our goals.
James Nettle
Consultant, Certified Data Management Professional
