Yes. That was the point of my original post: abstractions generate problems.
But abstractions are also useful. You can't just not abstract anything at all.
I took a look at my company's metrics this morning. Approximately 30% of the candidates we send to clients (and who have not ended up out of the process for reasons outside of quality, e.g. the company hired someone else) have ended up getting an offer. That's an important piece of information: it tells me that my company does not have a problem with failing to screen out weak candidates.
Is that leaving out some important details? Yeah, of course! One of our candidates failed an interview because he was too aggressive in questioning his interviewer about their company's prospects. That's a useful piece of information, too; it was (along with a couple other anecdotes) a clue that we should try to do more basic coaching for candidates before interviews.
The data tells me how common the problem is, and suggests which problems are most critical to solve first. The anecdotes can tell me in detail about the nature of the problems, and suggest to me possible interventions. Both of those things matter.
But abstractions are also useful. You can't just not abstract anything at all.
I took a look at my company's metrics this morning. Approximately 30% of the candidates we send to clients (and who have not ended up out of the process for reasons outside of quality, e.g. the company hired someone else) have ended up getting an offer. That's an important piece of information: it tells me that my company does not have a problem with failing to screen out weak candidates.
Is that leaving out some important details? Yeah, of course! One of our candidates failed an interview because he was too aggressive in questioning his interviewer about their company's prospects. That's a useful piece of information, too; it was (along with a couple other anecdotes) a clue that we should try to do more basic coaching for candidates before interviews.
The data tells me how common the problem is, and suggests which problems are most critical to solve first. The anecdotes can tell me in detail about the nature of the problems, and suggest to me possible interventions. Both of those things matter.