I majored in Computer Engineering so part of the syllabus was also learning programming.
People my age who studied programming in college would remember this – Bubble Sort. That was the first sorting algorithm I had learnt to code. The outcome off a Bubble sort would be having a set of numbers sorted in the right order eg. 29, 37, 46, 10, 40, 2, 5 will be 2, 5, 10, 29. 37, 40, 46 after being put through Bubble Sort. The concept is super simple, compare 2 adjacent numbers and if they are in the wrong order, you swap their positions. Like air bubbles floating to the top.
Sorting Algorithms have progressed a lot for the past 20 years. Now we have quicksort, timsort,, mergesort, insertionsort, selectionsort, radixsort, shellsort, bogosort and even a cocktail shaker sort!
Data is just data. In order the data to be meaningful, we need to analyze them. And it’s more effective to analyze data if they are in an orderly manner. That is why we sort – highest to lowest, alphabetical order, bell curve, exponential growth etc. Especially today where all sorts (no pun intended) of data are made available to us.
I apply this knowledge of mine a lot in my HR data. By studying our HR analytics data, it enabled me to prioritize what is important to be implement in HR. It makes great evidence when proving business cases to management esp if you work with bosses who are data driven like me. It also serves as a good test on the effectives of HR policies/initiatives implemented.
And to end this manic Monday’s post, in the words of William Edwards Deming, who contributed much in mathematical physics, “In God we trust, all others bring data.”
Bimbo
