Comprehensivist Wednesdays: Comprehensive Measurement and the Limits of Data

Data is never neutral. It is selected and shaped by choices about what to count and how to classify, losing context in the process. This makes data scalable but narrows its meaning, turning complex realities into simple proxies like ticket sales for art or graduation rates for education. Such measures often distort the deeper values they aim to represent.

We will review the limits of data through a comprehensivist lens using C CJ’s essay The Standard for All Measurements: Our Judgment. CJ reframes measurement as interpretation, showing how Comprehensive Measurement integrates numbers with narratives and lived experience to produce value oriented judgment. This approach restores context and meaning, reminding us that measurement should serve human flourishing rather than institutional convenience.

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CJ Fearnley's book "Collaborating for Comprehensivity," is a unique exploration of comprehensive thinking, inquiry, and collaboration, is now available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and free PDF formats.

1. The free PDF version can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bapsUhFtRDSPdAW6zRBe7omBlcghz-yi/
2. Available on Amazon Kindle for the lowest price Amazon allows of $0.99 here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW1K18B5/
3. Available as a paperback on Amazon for the lowest price Amazon allows of $8.31 here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D11GHC9V/

The Standard for All Measurements: Our Judgment by CJ Fearnley

Attendees may also find the following article useful: https://issues.org/limits-of-data-nguyen/

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Welcome to the series "Comprehensivist Wednesdays." Transdisciplinarity, Renaissance humanism, homo universalis, and Polymathy are some of the ways of describing this approach which Buckminster Fuller called Comprehensivity and described as “macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive.”

See the calendar at https://www.meetup.com/52LivingIdeas/events/calendar/
We record all our Meetups and post them on YouTube. Feel free to keep your video on or off as you prefer. Watch Past Meetups here.

Welcome to "Comprehensivist Wednesdays"
Explore transdisciplinarity, Renaissance humanism, homo universalis, and polymathy in ways Buckminster Fuller described as “macro-comprehensive and micro-incisive.”

A Meetup Every Day, Every Week, For Everyone!
Join us every weekday at 8 pm ET. We record all our meetups and post them on YouTube. Feel free to keep your video on or off as you participate.
Watch Past Meetups here.