I remember reading ”The Country of the Blind” by H.G. Wells when I was a teenager.  The story is basically built around the maxim that “In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”  Except the inhabitants of the country of the blind find the antagonist’s obsession with this incomprehensible ’sight’ thing crazy and eventually he is convinced to have surgery to remove his eyes.  Among many other things, this story is about context — and especially the context of decision making. 

Thus, data in context is information.  Information in context is knowledge.  Knowledge in context is wisdom. 

For example:  The number 93 is data.  It’s more than 92 and less than 94 (this btw. is the implicit context of our counting system), but without any further context this data is useless.  If we provide context for this number: “The percent of satisfied customers is 93″ we arrive at some form of information.  This information is more useful than the data we had before, but without further context this information is not very valuable.  Is 93 percent satisfaction good or bad?  I guess that could depend on what type of customers and what kind of service or product we are delivering.  

Now if we add more context: Our percent of satisfied customers is 93, our competitors’ customers are 95 percent satisfied. OK.  Better, I now have some knowledge that may be helpful.  But still, this is not entirely satisfying.  Is this 2 percentage point difference meaningful?  If it’s statistically so, is it financially so?  Again, we need context to our knowledge: we need wisdom.  Without the wisdom that tells us if the 2 points make a difference or not, we lack the ability to make a wise decision.

Of course context can also vary from one person to another, from one place to another.  What is important in one country may not be important in the next.  What is important today, may not be so tomorrow.  It’s a shifty thing context.  One of the key things I do when I make decisions with other people, is ask them to tell me how important different things are to them — that gives me the ability to discuss the context of their goals/objectives — and it also helps me challenge my own assumptions about the decision.