When you quantify a thing you define something about it but also create a limit on the whole and its possibilities.  Today it seemed I cam across a lot of articles that focused on quantifying an idea, what is bigger, what are the top most things through numbers and analysis. Specifically an article on art funds:

Sergey Skaterschikov — has set out to be “the Standard & Poor’s of art,” said its chairman, Michael Moriarty. The firm keeps a database of more than 5,000 of the world’s most valuable art pieces, and its nine-person staff churns out industry reports on paintings, including the background, investment risks and prices.

And another on who are the top ten music composers. It did not make sense to me. It them becomes about the abstraction of numbers than the depth of the work of art. I have often struggled with how to put value or linear thinking of a ranking with something so much more spherical and layered. Being also a CPA and of an analytical mind I understand the value but wonder if we do not keep balance do we loose site of the whole – the “big picture”.

is the whole picture?