Everything Everywhere All at Once is actually a movie about data analytics

The ETL process where you extract raw data from various sources, transform it into organized information, and load it into warehouses for insights, feels like the main character's journey of self-discovery in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Understanding our complex reality

Everything Everywhere All at Once was the first movie I’ve seen after a long time. It’s still a challenge to dive into movies as I did in the past, especially when I studied media science and worked at a cinema. But my daughter still needs to get older a bit before I can watch something else than Cocomelon with her. Having to pick one movie in my rare spare time, Everything Everywhere… was worth it.

In the movie the main character Evelyn discovers her ability to extract knowledge from different realities. Like Neo in The Matrix, she can “download” Martial Arts skills from an Evelyn in a different universe and use it in the fight against the bad guys.

This is how it feels like to be a data analyst!

Ok, not a 100%… but at least the process of Extract, Load, Transform (ETL) could be viewed like that. ETL, like Eveylin’s ability, is a transformative process that takes raw, unstructured data from various sources and converts it into valuable, organized information. Let me explain:

1. Extract - Unraveling hidden realities: Just as Evelyn can transport herself into different universes, data analysts venture into the unknown by extracting data from new sources. In a tool like KNIME it means connecting to a new data source for example with the Google Analytics Connection node.
2. Transform - Bringing order to chaos: As Evelyn navigates through overlapping dimensions, her experiences seem disjointed and overwhelming at first. Similarly, the extracted data often arrives in a raw and messy state, scattered across different formats, missing values, or inconsistent structures. By using various tansformation nodes in KNIME, you sort out redundant columns or rows and harmonize the values. My favorite node is the Rule Engine with which you can add a new column containing a common topic-logic… like Evelyn piecing together fragments of realities into one truth.
3. Load - Harnessing the power: The final step is about applying the new learned martial arts skills. In the loading phase, the refined data is stored in a data warehouse or simply SharePoint, setting the stage for uncovering actionable insights. From there, I usually pick up the data and visualise it in Power BI.

The metaphor works, right? Much like Evelyn's journey of self-discovery, ETL reveals the true potential that lies within seemingly fractured elements, leading to a better understanding of our complex reality.

(Of course, the movie is about much more. Watch it!)

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