Data-driven decision making is a form of magical thinking.
Every data we collect is an intuitive decision made by a biased imperfect irrational human.
Every data we don't collect is an intuitive decision made by a biased imperfect irrational human.
How we collect, aggregate, disaggregate, make legible, or otherwise transform the messy immensely complex real world into a simple data point in a useful format is an intuitive decision made by a biased imperfect irrational human.
The shape and details of the process of turning data into a decision is an intuitive decision made by a biased imperfect irrational human.
Each real application or lack of application of the process to take an individual decision is an intuitive decision made by a biased imperfect irrational human.
Data-driven decision making is a way for people to hide from this messy, imperfect, and scary reality and delude ourselves into a fantasy of rationality, perfection, and control. It is a collective exercise in magical thinking.