It has often been said that information gives you power, and that the most important currency in our culture today is information. As someone who has spent his adult life creating new information for strategic decision-making, I have certainly believed in and witnessed the power of information when it is accurate, timely, and well-used.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been asked by several people what I do to attempt to stay aware of what’s happening in the world. My confession is that I am not as broad a thinker or nearly as curious as some of my colleagues. You can get buried alive in information, so I have felt compelled to focus most of my attention on aspects of life that seem to make a difference in the shaping of our individual and societal reality. Consequently, I focus on a few specific areas of interest: leadership strategy and application; the health and development of children and families; worldview content, expression and development; media penetration, messaging and presentation; life transformation; cultural trends; and faith movements.
As restricted a window as that may be, keeping up with that is easier said than done. But I have developed a routine over the years that has become comfortable for me, based on spending the first couple of hours of each day scouring a select group of sources through the Internet. Those sources are not always trustworthy and are certainly not ideologically compatible, but they provide me with a sense of what’s happening and alert me to trends and conditions to keep an eye on. I have a blend of “conservative,” “middle of the road,” and “liberal” sources that I follow, to stay attuned to the different perspectives people bring to the table.
Specifically, I pour through the online content of 6 newspapers, 4 blog sites, 7 magazines, 6 marketing research organizations, RSS feeds from 18 websites. In all, that’s exposure to about 41 sources of input. Among them, 35 provide daily coverage, 5 do so weekly, and 1 is a monthly. (These do not include a series of publications I also read faithfully related to personal interests, primarily sports and music.) The pool of sources changes occasionally, but generally remains intact over time.
One of my numerous weaknesses is that I have a very poor memory. To combat my forgetfulness, I capture a lot of the material in a personal database that I have been keeping for many years. Last year’s summary of the more important findings ran almost 800 pages (single-spaced, formatted into a single continuous paragraph per report, a format I prefer for storage). It is a searchable database that comes in handy on numerous occasions throughout the year when I need information for writing, speaking, praying, teaching, researching, and reflecting. Many of the ideas I’ve had over the years for national research studies and books have been sparked by data from this large and growing body of information.
What is your strategy for keeping up with current realities? Do you have any particularly good tools for organizing and storing and sharing the information that intrigues you?
By the way, the amount of time this process consumes each day is one of several reasons why I do not participate in Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. (Or, as my friends and colleagues know, turning on my cell phone…) Perhaps I’m incurably old school.
March 29, 2010
George, right on. You can get buried in information! Technology is like a speeding bus, so many people cling on tightly, perhaps for kicks or fearing they may lose something. We are all being bombarded by Information, so much so that we have little or no time for Processing. The Mind needs time for Processing. There is no time to sit back and contemplate and be conscious of what Information is doing to our physical, mental or spiritual lives. You say you focus on a few specific areas of interest. That is objective consciousness and you are trained in observation and evaluation. The question is: How do we encourage, even inspire people to get off the bus and Contemplate Life. Process. Sadly, they may also find that the Information Rush was a total illusion like the Wizard of Oz. Blessings.
March 29, 2010
Robert, your comments reminded me of a comment my wife often makes about my writing practices. I have a tendency to spend a lot of time collecting and reading through information, with no apparent output. However, because I usually have several books in mind for the future, and they typically relates to the key themes on which I focus, there inevitably comes a moment when my mind has subconsciusly put the information together, it all fits into place, and suddenly I am ready to write. My wife says I don’t write books, I explode them; after sitting dormant for so long, the insights have to have a release, so when that unplanned moment of illumination arrives I clear the calendar, take 7-10 days of solitude and just write, emerging with the completed manuscript. Your comment about needing time to process is well taken. It can be a conscious processing effort or an unconscious approach. For me, it seems best when there is a blending of the two…
March 30, 2010
It’s funny how information has become almost unmanagable. We in the church need information the key is not to loose sight of the Word as our primary source of wisdom.
Karl Barth said (according to Time) that, “…years ago he advised young theologians to “take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” Newspapers, he says, are so important that “I always pray for the sick, the poor, journalists, authorities of the state and the church—in that order.” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896838,00.html#ixzz0jhGHACeb
Information is valuable; but too much of a good thing is overwhelming. One of the challenges is learning to sift through the editorial slants of different terestrial publications and online news entities. Most major news outlets today seem to function more as aggregators of news stories others have told rather than working as journalists telling new stories.
thanks for your work on our behalf
John
March 30, 2010
Thank you (and Gene and Frank and others) for your insights into how we “the Mighty in Christ” have so easily fallen victim to the illusion now passed off as the true church. Where this will lead us (as a family and as believers) we don’t know yet. But, after 35+ years as a christian, I realize why I never quite “fit” into the churches I have attended over the years and have helped my brother (56) and my father (86) to realize that also. May HaShem bless you as you bless.