Once facts were immutable, cast in stone. You referred to your trusted fonts of wisdom, be it textbook, encyclopaedia, reference manual or even your grandpa. That was it, the word as it was, beyond any question. Not any more. We are the lucky generation that has been freed from the formalised, ritualised and so often discipline restricted access to precious information. Digitally we have the freedom to access all the world's knowledge almost within our ken. Except we are in overload, we are all at sea in an information morass. Dip your hand in and let all the gems of information trickle through your fingers until one of two tasty or more interesting bits stick out. Then share those bits with the wider world adding to this ever growing morass of information. Very much of this information is just that regurgitated, a few words added there, maybe a spin adjusted here and viola a new author claiming ownership of a unique piece of information.
Not all the information in this morass is bad, there are many pearls, nuggets of wisdom, insightful, understandings that you could hug to your heart they are so insightful, so relevant, so mind expanding. Trouble is these precious nuggets get so easily lost in the morass or so quickly overlaidened with dross. We, the so lucky ones to have the access to it, we now have to train ourselves about how to use this deluge of information. There are a few simple disciplines we must train ourselves to follow when dipping in our toes.
The very first question to ask when presented with any information is what is their authority to speak on the subject, be it proven experience, acknowledged authority, sanctioned spokeperson, lead researcher to gifted paraphraser? Know and understand the source of their authority and therefore their limitations to speak to the subject.
The second question is ask yourself what is not being said. We all talk to agendas, we have information to relay and do not want to sidetrack or confuse that message with stray aside issues, irrelevances that do not reinforce the central message. We all do it, some open handedly striving to be objective some deliberately setting out to obfuscate and some are so partisan they can only see down their narrow tunnelled vision agenda. So the what is not said is almost as important, possible more important than what is being said. We have to use our life skills to wrinkle out what are the corollary issues that have not been touched on.
Thirdly where is the opposition, the alternative contradictory opinion? Their arguments against the pro position are just as revealing as the pro position itself. Again it is our life skills that will enable us to weigh up in our minds the strength of their case against the information we want to trust. Our personal skills are in balancing contradictory positions and then coming to a measured view.
Then finally the weight of probability, how many other minds just like yours have bought into the information. Numbers do not make it right trustworthy information but you can build in a measure of credence. To follow a one in a thousand line of information is a lot riskier than a one in five. Does not confirm or deny but you do have a perception of how much risk is at stake so you can balance that with your reliance on it and the cost of any outcome when using it.
Hey that is all very long winded, drawn out and all I want was the date of the Inquest. Make this your discipline, your routine, have it in mind for all information presented to you whether from the government, insurance company, a comparison website to Wikipedia. The extent that you articulate, check and observe each step is only relevant when the cost of using that information begins to bite hard. Date of the inquest? I'll run with Wikipedia.
What is the cheapest car insurance? I wont be taking a comparison sites word for it, I will certainly be looking around. Which career to take up then I might explore my options spread over several days. You see we have been doing it all along but with so much more information on live stream we need to learn to be more circumspect.
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