FUCK THE DATA. FEEDING THE RAT, NOT FEEDING ALGORITHMS

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY – ALFRED KORZYBSKI

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OUR RECENT SPIEL ON ENDURANCE CONDITIONING BROUGHT SOME AGITATED RESPONSES, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON DATA DEVICES DRAWING PARTICULAR FIRE. SOME SORT OF NERVE WAS TOUCHED, SO RATHER THAN CUT&PASTE A DOZEN REPLIES, WE CHOSE TO BROADCAST OUR THOUGHTS HERE, CONTINUING THE RANT THAT SOME TOOK AS A DIATRIBE.

DATA IS THE PRODUCT OF DEVICES NOT EFFORT. ONLY ROBOTS ARE PROGRAMMED WITH NUMBERS, TO MINIMIZE DEVIATION, TO FOLLOW CODING, TO DO WHAT THEY ARE INPUTTED TO, AND TO KEEP THEM AS UNTHINKING TOOLS IN A LARGER SYSTEM OF REPEATABILITY WITH A TINY MARGIN FOR CHANGE. THIS SOUNDS PARANOID AND THOUGH IT MAY NOT SEEM TO APPLY TO YOU, IT APPLIES TO THE DEVICES YOU USE BY WHICH YOU EXPECT TO OBSERVE YOURSELF.

DATA IS NOT YOU, IT IS A LANGUAGE USED BY DEVICES FOR THINGS THAT SPECIFIC DEVICE MEASURES, AND LIKE THE BLIND MEN TOUCHING DIFFERENT PARTS OF AN ELEPHANT FROM IVORY TUSKS TO BRISTLY TAIL, EACH GIVES A TINY GLIMPSE OF SOMETHING BUT NO INDICATION OF THE WHOLE. THE DATA POINTS PARTICULARLY MEASURED BY RECREATIONAL DEVICES ARE NOT THE MAIN THINGS YOU FEEL OUT AT THE SHARP END OF CLIMBING, AND THESE DAYS WE SEE MORE AND MORE CLIMBERS MORE INVESTED IN WHAT THEIR WATCHES SAY THAN WHAT THEY ARE IN THE MOMENT DOING.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT DATA ITSELF, THE PROBLEM IS INVESTING IN DISTRACTING, IRRELEVANT AND POSSIBLY INCORRECT DATA WHEN EXPERIENTIAL PERFORMANCE IN REAL TIME IS TELLING YOU MORE. GOING HARD, FAST, LONG AND SHARP CREATES GRATIFYING GRAPHS WHEN OBSERVED OVER A SESSION, BUT THE ONLY GRAPH THAT MATTERS AT WEEK THREE ON EXPEDITION IS THE ONE SHOWING THE MONTHS LEADING UP. STATS AND GRAPHS OF SINGLE SESSIONS FALL INTO IRRELEVANCE WHEN VIEWED OVER THE SIX MONTHS OR SO OF A CONDITIONING CYCLE, AND ARE FAIRLY USELESS FOR PROJECTING FORWARD UNTIL REPREATED HUNDREDS OF TIMES.

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NO DEVICE TELLS YOU WHAT COLOUR YOUR PISS IS, WHAT YOUR LAST MEAL WAS, WHEN YOU LAST TOOK A SHIT, THAT YOU MISSED YOUR USUAL RATION OF COFFEE, THAT YOU VOMITED IN THE NIGHT, THAT YOUR FEET ARE NUMB, AND YET THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT DETERMINE ALPINE PERFORMANCE IN REAL TIME. A CLIMBER CAN LOOK VERY DIFFERENTLY THAN THE STATS AND GRAPHS THEY PRODUCE, PERFORMING BETTER OR WORSE THAN THE NUMBERS SAY, BASED ON MANY FACTORS RANGING FROM EMERGING PHYSICAL CONDITIONS TO WHETHER THEY WORE THE DEVICE UNDER A JACKET OR NOT.

MODELLING YOUR CONDITION OR PERFORMANCE WITH SOME LOW FIDELITY, CONVENIENTLY SIMPLIFIED AND VERY OFTEN BRANDED PROPRIETARY ALGORITHMS IS FOLLY IF IT’S NOT ALL MATCHED AND USED TO FIND ISSUES IN ACTUAL CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE. THE CLIMBER WHO ONLY KNOWS THEIR CAPACITY VIA DATA – BE IT PERFORMANCE, ACCLIMATION, VITAL SIGNS OR NUTRITION – IS THE SAME AS THE CLIMBER NAVIGATING BY GPS AND NOT USING THE TERRAIN.

CONVENIENT DATA BREEDS RELIANCE, AS PERCEPTION WITHOUT IT ATROPHIES, TAKEN OVER BY THE GRAPHS AND NUMBERS THAT COLLATE INPUT BUT ARE NOT THE SOURCE OF IT. TO WORK, ANY DATA GATHERING SYSTEM MUST REDUCE AND SIMPLIFY THE INFORMATION PRESENTED, REDUCING NOISE, OUTLIERS AND ANOMALIES WHICH IN THE CASE OF ALPINISM IS EXACTLY WHERE THE GOOD STUFF OCCURS. ALPINISM NEVER HAS FOLLOWED A NICE EVEN CURVE, INSTEAD BEING DRIVEN BY OBLIQUE INFLUENCES, STUFF FROM OUTSIDE THE NORMS AND FREAK OCCURENCES.

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WHAT YOU SEE ON YOUR WATCH AND PHONE SCREENS ARE NOT YOUR CAPACITY, BUT REPRESENTATIONS IN NUMBERS OF SLICES OF WHAT SOME ASPECTS OF WHAT YOUR CAPACITY IS. SLICES OF YOUR ORGANIC CAPACITY ARE MEASURED IN WHATEVER VECTORS THE DEVICES USE, THEN COLLATED INTO FORMATS AND SOMETIMES CROSS-REFERENCED USING EQUATIONS CONVENIENT TO THE DEVICE AND THE COMPANY THAT SOLD IT, NOT YOU. PEOPLE MEASURE THINGS THAT MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES, NOTICING THE VECTORS THEY LIKE, DISMISSING THOSE THEY DON’T, AND OUTLIERS ARE USUALLY DISREGARDED.

DATA IS MEANINGLESS WITHOUT CONTEXT, AND STILL FAIRLY DEVOID OF VALUE WHEN THE ONLY CONTEXT IS THE SAME EARLIER DATA LOGGED ON A GRAPH. OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE IS VOLUME OF DATA POINTS, WHERE SOMETHING AS VARYING AS ALPINE ENDURANCE WILL NOT BE FOUND IN TINY INCREMENTS OF DAILY DATA, OR EVEN WEEKLY, THEN PUNCHED THROUGH SOME MEDIANIZED ALGORITHM THAT IS ABSURDLY SIMPLISTIC COMPARED TO REAL MEDICAL MODELS.

SOME ALGORITHMS ARE GENERAL AND STANDARDIZED BUT SOME ARE NOT, WITH SOME BEING MERE INVENTIONS BY TECH COMPANIES AS MARKET GIMMICKS. NO ALGORITHM IS MORE THAN A NOVELTY UNLESS BASED OFF A CAREFULLY MEASURED SET OF INITIAL METRICS, AND THE CALIBRATION OF THE DEVICE ITSELF.

THE RELEVANCE OF EACH ALGORITHM TO ENDURANCE IS COMPLICATED, FURTHER BLOWN INTO MULTIPLICITY WHEN CORRELATED WITH OTHER THINGS BEING RECORDED, BLOWN FURTHER AGAIN WHEN ISOLATED FROM THE HUNDREDS OF OTHER POSSIBLE PHYSIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES THAT COULD BE MEASURED BUT USUALLY AREN’T. FEW PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE PRO ATHLETE WORLD CONSISTENTLY LOG THINGS LIKE PROPER BMI AND FLUID INTAKE WHICH DEEPLY AFFECT ENDURANCE, LET ALONE BONE DENSITY AND BLOOD IRON WHICH CAN HAVE A LARGER EFFECT AT ALTITUDE THAN 1RM AND VO2.

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WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT IS A RECORD, A METRIC, NOT A DIAGNOSIS – WHICH IS SOMETHING THAT ONLY COMES WITH INFORMED AND SOPHISTICATED CORRELATION ACROSS ENOUGH OF THE PERTINENT DATA POINTS THAT YOU ARE UNLIKELY TO HAVE. TO RECORD YOUR VO2 AT X, YOUR RHR AT Y AND YOUR MHR AT Z IS A NOVELTY, BUT HOLDS MINIMAL WATER ACTUALLY AT ALTITUDE WHERE OTHER THINGS MATTER MORE.

GENERATING A BODY OF NUMBERS UNDER CONDITIONS VASTLY DIFFERENT TO THE OVERWHELMINGLY COMPLEX CONDITIONS OF HIGH ALTITUDE ALPINISM IS QUESTIONABLE, AND FURTHER DILUTED KNOWING JUST HOW LITTLE STUDIED ANYTHING AT HIGH ALTITUDE IS. LOW LAND DATA SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO EXTRAPOLATE FAR UP AT ALTITUDE, WITH HUGE TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES, WEIRD SLEEP PATTERNS AND THE DISRUPTED KCAL INTAKE AND HYDRATION THAT ARE THE FEW EXPECTED PARTS OF AN EXPEDITION.

GETTING DATA INTO PERSPECTIVE IS A FORM INTERVENTION, OF TURNING IT FROM AN OBSESSION WITH CASUAL NUMBERS INTO A USEFUL TOOL THAT LOOKS BOTH BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS FUNCTIONALLY. FOR CLIMBERS DOING ULTRA-STYLE STUFF OF SIGNIFICANT VOLUME BUILDING TOWARD AN EXPEDITION WE SUGGEST LOOKING AT NUMBERS AT TEN DAY INTERVALS, THIS BEING ABOUT THE MINIMUM USEFUL CHUNK OF EFFORT TO OBSERVE MEANINGFUL PROGRESS. THIS IS BASED ON GETTING OFF THE WEEKLY CYCLE MINDSET, WHERE A TEN DAY CYCLE – IF ANY CYCLE AT ALL IS NEEDED – IS ABOUT THE MINIMUM.

RUNNING A MARATHON WITHOUT A DEVICE WILL TELL YOU FAR MORE ABOUT YOUR CONDITION THAN ANY DEVICE ITSELF CAN TELL YOU, BY FORCING YOU TO LISTEN DIRECTLY TO THE FEEDBACK FROM YOUR BODY. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN’T TURN THIS INTO COMMUNICATION VIA SIMPLE NUMBERS AND GRAPHS DOESN’T MEAN THE INFORMATION ISN’T THERE, IT MEANS YOU HAVE TO TUNE IN AND USE OTHER INDICATORS.

BETTER YET – RUN TEN MARATHONS, AND GET REAL TIME IN THE ENDURANCE SPACE, AND LEARN THE REAL LANGUAGE OF YOUR SYSTEMS RATHER THAN THE AUTOTRANSLATED REMEDIAL VERSION. THE DATA THAT MATTERS IS THE ANOMALIES AND STUFF QUANTIFIED OUT AT THE EXTREMITIES, BUT THIS NEEDS VOLUME TO GET THE CONSISTENCY OF DATA POINTS TO DETERMINE JUST WHAT BASELINES, THRESHOLDS, REGULARITIES AND OUTLIERS THERE ARE. THIS IS THE STUFF THAT SHOWS HOW THINGS ON EXPEDITION DON’T HAPPEN IN NICE FRIENDLY CURVES, AND IS WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTELLIGENT PLANNING AND WHAT IS REALLY WISHFUL THINKING.

THE RAW FACT IS, IF YOU MISTAKE THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY THE TERRITORY WILL HIT LIKE A STEAM TRAIN WHEN YOU ARE ACTUALLY THERE, AT A LOSS AS TO WHY ALL THE NUMBERS DON’T SEEM TO HELP. WHETHER IT’S ACCLIMATION, LOAD CARRYING, STAMINA OR KCAL INTAKE, GENERATIONS OF GREAT ALPINISTS PROVE THAT REAMS OF DATA AREN’T NEEDED, AND FOR ALL THE OBSESSIONS WITH DATA AND RECORDING IT, THERE IS NO CORRESPONDING SURGE IN GREAT ALPINISM.

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