Bullmore on Numbers, Words & Insights

I'm of a mood to recall something Jeremy Bullmore once said in his classic article "Why is a Good Insight Like a Refridgerator?" -

The origins of an insight are usually to be found in numbers. That's how we know an insight to be more than airy whim; that's how we know it has substance; that it can be tested and replicated. But, except to the supernaturally numerate, numbers seldom sing spontaneously. For the rest of us, numbers conceal enlightenment at least as effectively as jargon.

That's when we need to call on words - provocative, allegorical words - to let in fresh air; to liberate the insight and give it immediate, self-evident potency. In both research companies and creative agencies, there are people we know who can effect this alchemy. They do it every time they turn dry, mechanistic market analysis, first into creative strategy and then (occasionally) into sublime creative execution.

We should use them more often, consciously and deliberately, to cast the same spell on recalcitrant data.