This blog challenges the “drowning in big data” cliche. He explains that most organizations don’t have useful access to most of their raw data – it sits somewhere in the IT department, but it’s not accessible, it has quality problems, and so forth.

But I think that is precisely where the “drowning” comes in. The psychological weight of all that unused data presses down and causes a sensation of “drowning.” The part of the data that is actually indexed, described, readily accessible and so forth is the data that we surf instead of drown under.

This applies on a personal level as well…. I drown under the weight of my “to read” pile; I surf the few things I actually sit and study.

Are You Really Drowning in Data? Challenging the Big Data Assumption – FICO Labs Blog.