What Even is a "Ground Truth"?
My favorite thing to do circa 2020 mid Pandemic was walking. The place I lived was highly developed but had protected wooded areas that clustered around key tributaries that ultimately fed the Potomac. I spent a few hours every day wandering through these woods and watching the water. It was the only thing that made me feel like myself. I wasn’t the only one. With the population density in my area, the woods saw a lot of foot traffic and it was nice to wave at people, how we’d give each other a wide berth but smile as it to say “so sorry, I’m not trying to be rude, just trying to keep you safe.”
Some of these walks were with my friend Kay. She’d started studying mushrooms and foraging. As we walked, she could see things I just couldn’t, even when it was bright orange like some happy chicken-of-the-woods . I just didn’t have the categories in my head that helped me see what was right there beside the path
On one of these walks together, I was telling her about my work and the term “The Ground Truth” that I’d started using. I learned it from Robbie who works in data science. But she told me the term had roots further back.
Back in the day, NASA invited people to help with satellite development. They needed people on the ground to confirm what the satellite image might be showing. An image might show what looked like a forest, but what was there in reality? How many trees? What kind? How dense were they? In this little square foot, what existed? How did that show up in a pixel on screen?
Anyone could go to specific locations and document what existed to share with NASA. That’s how Kay knew about it—she was a kindergarten teacher and took her students into the woods to collect on-the-ground data that they submitted to NASA. The Ground Truth—the literal truth of what was on the ground—was used to refine and hone our ability to interpret satellite images.
The term later moved over into data science where it refers to the training data that an algorithm uses to recognize patterns, which is where I first learned it. Here’s an example: the CAPTCHA “Are you a robot?” prompts. It shows a picture, and we identify all the motorcycles. Two things happen here:
1. We as the human user teach the algorithm how to recognize motorcycles.
2. The website is confirming that we are actually human because we recognize the complex shapes and symbols that add up to a motorcycle.
We provide the Ground Truth data, the information that allows something to recognize reality.
The word ground in data science is a metaphor. Back with the satellite imagery, it was literal: what was on the ground versus what was seen from the sky. But in data science, ground refers to something foundational, essential to a structure even before said structure is built.
The word truth contains both fact and meaning; it is both reality and also a right orientation to reality.
Ground Truth = The Name for Naming
This is exactly what we’re looking for in developing a name that represents us accurately. It identifies exactly what goes into a True Name, both in its literal meaning and the associations it evoked.
• The process I used with my clients to name their work was about data collection: we went into our experiences of feeling most ourselves and asked those stories to tell us about who we are, what we do, and how we do it.
• The Ground Truth feels rooted and resilient. As a term, it visualized the secure place that would hold true through life stages, career twists and turns, creative ups and slumps, a solid ground from which to improvise infinitely.
• The Ground Truth used in our lives can be a singular statement that helps us to see the truth of ourselves and to live from it.
A New Definition
Ground Truth: Foundational name for your work. The idea, energy, or action that is present in individual and cumulative moments of highest impact. Internal-facing language.
The Ground Truth Process: The steps by which one develops and uncovers the language that becomes the Ground Truth statement.
The Ground Truth Process is how we find words for what we want to say. It isn’t so much about discovery as it is uncovering—you know who you are. You know what your work is. You just need the words, the name, to tell us what it is. This is designed for individuals but has been used for partnerships and teams. Even businesses have a soul that knows what it is to be most alive, an essence to be witnessed, celebrated, and named.
And I love stealing words from science. They are always stealing regular terms and making it mean something different so why not steal those metaphors right back?!