Two hands cupped holding some beautiful red cherries with leaves attached

If the data looks too clean, too perfect, and too convenient, it’s probably lying to you.

Real world data is messy. There are outliers, gaps, and weird anomalies. If a report shows flawless growth with no issues, either someone cherrypicked the data, or ignored key problems.

Trustworthy analysis doesn’t aim for a perfect story, it aims for a true one. So if the data looks too good to be true, it probably is, and you should reach for your inner sceptic. Reality is never neat, but a good analyst will help make sense of it anyway.