In football there's a bit of absurdity where they'll pull out a measuring device after a play to measure, down to the millimeter, whether the ball has reached t

In football there's a bit of absurdity where they'll pull out a measuring device after a play to measure, down to the millimeter, whether the ball has reached the magical first down line that the team on offense needs to get to. But before measuring, some referee has to take the ball from the player who was holding it at the end of the play and put it down at its official spot from which to measure. But they do this part so quickly and carelessly. It's amusingly incongruous with the pomp of the measurement. This makes me think of how data science operates on whichever data set happens to be conveniently available and then conducts very serious and literal downstream analysis as if the raw data is settled reality.