Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Beware of those who provide large numbers. Is anyone asking, let alone answering, the next question?

Many times in my endeavors I have heard persons proudly quote large numbers. “We are bringing in gazilli-tera-humongous bytes of data every day!” “We can access the data on every grain of sand on every beach and sand dune in the world!”

WOW!

But the next logical question—the one infrequently asked in one form or another—is, “Now what happens?”

What will we do with all that stuff prefaced by that large number? Is anyone interested? Can we find the answer to someone’s question in that large, large accumulation of stuff? Do we have an attic or a basement large enough for all that?

Large numbers are large. Large things can be impressive. Large things, however, often lead to nothing but large waste. Before touting the large numbers, lets try to find the answers to the next questions, which are often equally as large.