Do the right thing, not the cheap thing

Happy 2026!

For a long time, being good at work meant being good at execution.

Clear requirements.
Stable scope.
Predictable delivery.

In that world, people who kept asking questions were often labeled problem seekers. They were seen as slowing things down, introducing uncertainty, or making work harder than it needed to be.

That judgment made sense when execution was expensive.

Design has always been data-driven

Design has never been separate from data.

Architects and engineers constantly work within constraints: space, structure, cost, energy, climate, regulations, time, and human behavior. Every decision responds to information.

But design does not work with data by crunching numbers alone.

Design works with data through people—by asking questions:

• Why does this matter?

• Who does this affect?

• What feels off?

• What are we actually optimizing for?

Data does not make decisions by itself. It becomes meaningful only when someone interprets it, challenges it, and connects it to intent.

In that sense, data is not the answer.
It is a partner in thinking.

The value of “I feel”

“I feel like there is a problem here” is often treated with suspicion.

It sounds subjective.
Unscientific.
Hard to justify at scale.

But “I feel” is not a conclusion.
It is an early signal—a hypothesis asking to be tested.

It’s how humans notice:

• Friction before metrics exist

• Misalignment before KPIs break

• Opportunity before it can be measured

Designers don’t use feeling to replace data.
They use it to decide where to look.

Historically, acting on that signal was expensive. Turning a hunch into evidence required time, tools, approvals, and buy-in. Many good ideas failed not because they were wrong, but because the system could not afford to test them.

Problem seeking becomes a business skill

Execution is no longer the bottleneck

AI and automation have dramatically reduced the cost of execution:

• Writing code

• Running analyses

• Building tools

• Testing ideas

Turning a question into a test is now practical.

People who challenge assumptions and reframe problems are not slowing teams down. They are helping teams choose the right problems before committing to solutions.

Human judgment is becoming more valuable because:

• Humans define intent, not just outcomes

• Humans distinguish relevance from noise

• Humans connect data to context, ethics, and long-term impact

The shift

In a world where execution is cheap,
asking the right questions is the real work.

Problem seeking is no longer a distraction.
It is a competitive advantage.

Let’s do the right things finally, not the cheap things.

—
Shicong
DataDrivenAEC