Not all knowledge is useful or productive. If I decide I'm going to count every single hair on my scalp, I've produced data, I've done analytics on my scalp, but the knowledge I've created is not useful.

It's clear that analytics creates knowledge, but from what I've seen that knowledge isn't always helpful.

It really must be judged on a case by case basis, but analytics often just confirms what we've already known or suspected. We already know that mental illness is responsible for homelessness. The utility of additional analytics here is probably marginal. What is needed are treatments and cures for mental illness itself.

Bingo. It’s like the “nudging” trend that’s been floated around in political circles. While it offers measurable improvements from existing processes, it is in effect a tacit admission that our societies are structured poorly and we have neither the collective will nor the imagination to reinvent our ways of life.