If you look closely, you’ll see it:
History repeats itself.
Not just in wars or elections. But in small things too — in your music, in your moods, in the weather.
Last year, I took a snap listening to Vultures by Ye (Kanye). Snapchat brought it back to me one year later. I smiled, paused, and told my brother:
“Ye’s about to drop again.”
Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. The timing felt familiar — like something I’d lived before.
And the next day, Bully dropped.
It hit me.
That wasn’t luck.
That was pattern. That was data.
And data — when you sit with it long enough — can whisper what’s coming next.
Who’s Paying Attention?
We collect data without knowing:
- Your heartbeat during heartbreak.
- Your spending habits.
- What you click, what you ignore.
- Even your silence leaves a trace.
Medical data. Financial data. Sports data. War data.
All around us, the world is speaking.
My parents didn’t need a spreadsheet to know when I was troubled.
They’d say:
“It’s the way you’ve been quiet lately… We’ve seen this before.”
That’s data.
Memory, repeated.
And if you really want to move better than the next man — not faster, just better — then record-keeping is gold.
Because what’s been seen before often comes again.
But Must You Be a Data Scientist?
No.
You just have to pay attention.
And be willing to remember.
In ancient West Africa, memory wasn’t stored on a cloud. It was passed through verse and ritual.
“If the egret delays and the west wind comes late, wait twelve moons.”
A boy would memorize that.
Seventeen years later, the signs would return.
He would remember.
And his people would wait.
The rain would come.
That’s not science. That’s faith in memory.
That’s a dataset turned into song.
I Built a Simple Ritual for the Present Day
Inspired by that, I wrote a Python script.
- Write a message for your future self
- Choose when it should arrive
- Store it locally
- Send it to you by email on that chosen day
Simple. Sacred. Quiet.
It’s not something you use every day. Just on the days that matter:
- First rain
- After a hard season
- On your birthday
- After loss
- When you win and forget who you used to be
- Or when the moon tells you to check in with yourself
That’s when the message arrives.
Not as a reminder — but as a witness.
You, speaking to you.
So no, data isn't always numbers.
Sometimes, it’s rhythm.
Sometimes, it’s silence.
And sometimes, it’s a story that returns when you need it most.
If you learn to track your patterns,
if you learn to remember,
you’ll be able to see the next thing — before it comes.
Because data?
Data is worth more than gold.
And it always has been.