On High-Level Data.

Every few weeks, someone will send me some data.

Most of the time, it winds up being high-level summary data. They'll give me the number of apples sold in a month, but won't send me the log of apples being sold.

What I want is to be given a list of everytime an apple was sold, its weight, the store it was at, who was on the register, and everything.

I'm told this is "too much data". Excel can only do about 65536 rows at any one time (yeah, I've got 2003), but I can edit it down using other desktop tools. Namely, I'd use Access to query it down to what I'm interested in.

Yet, the various Analysis departments I work with (with the notable exception of the Department of Transportation) don't seem to see the utility in having more than the high-level data.

I'm not sure how to make folks become less afraid of a full data sheet. But it needs to happen, so that folks with the know-how will have the tools that they need.

Updates.

I'm accepting -- and demanding -- more responsibility at work.

I work for a training firm in the DC area. The group I work with does analytics training. This involves a lot of excel work, as well as problem solving. We train government analysts, and a lot of the job is just getting folks to not be intimidated by the white screen that is a blank excel spreadsheet.

When I started I asked to be in the classroom. This was almost 10 months ago. It only happened this week. I could chalk up the wait time to the winter season, but I think that would only be part of the truth.

I think the training I've been going through, as well as settling into working a conventional job, have let me become much more ready than I was when I started.

I was in the classroom this week. Alongside my boss, and we co-facilitated the course.

Sometime this summer, I should get to do a course without assistance. It will probably be an overflow session of our single most popular course.