I am on the train again, after a month break from visiting a client. Thankfully, the train doesn't have many people on it, as while I booked my seat according to the direction indicated in the app, it seems that it is going the other way. Well, the train is going the right way, but the app indicated the opposite direction. Sitting with my back against the direct makes me feel ill. I can manage it, but not write at the same time, as writing makes me feel ill also. I can do one or the other.
The worst part about this trip is getting up at 5 in the morning to get to a 7am train. I know, it isn't that bad, but I tend to go to bed late and when I try to go to bed "early" like I did last night (2330), I don't sleep well and end up waking many times, as I did last night. It would be nice to have a normal sleep rhythm, but I haven't had one at any point in my life as far back as I remember, even as a kid. I think I have resigned myself to being a night owl. When I sleep on my own schedule, I sleep really well, which was a problem about a decade ago, until I started writing.
These days, everyone is getting information incredibly quickly, which means that not a lot of thought is required, just the question. Very few people "work things out" for themselves anymore, even at the most basic levels. Memory isn't stretched to find the actor or what they were in from that show, no need to experiment with a new ingredient in a recipe, no reason to find a repair solution to a broken item - it is all available with a quick search. And this means that there is no low-level practice to build the foundation for when an internet search doesn't provide definitive answers.
Definitive answers are a thing of the past when it comes to the complexity of the world, but without the skills to think of solutions for ourselves, whatever answer we get is accepted, because we can't do better, nor can we tell if what we have found is viable. So many of the AI-generated answers have factual errors in them, but without skill in that area, they slip by unnoticed, and get applied.
Our cognitive skills are declining.
It is no wonder that collectively we are believing all kinds of nonsense information, because we are no longer able to think through what is credible or not, and much of what we "believe" is what we feel is correct to us, even when we have little to no experience with what we are evaluating. It is like seeing an incredibly complex maths problem, being given a possible, and then using intuition to decide whether it is right or wrong. Our fast thinking system 1 processes can make a quick decision, but not a very accurate one, especially when we have no experience in the selected area.
Information is valueless.
We should be looking at the massive stream of information we get today as raw data, that hasn't yet been turned into something useable. It seems it is useable because we can make sense of it already, but in actual fact, information isn't valuable because it is information, it is valuable in its application. So much of what we are consuming is unapplicable to our life and even when it is, we are unlikely to apply it.
In the past, information was much harder to come by, but what we got was largely related to our direct experience and could be used to improve our processes and outcomes. Information was power because we could use it in ways that were valuable to us. Now though, much of that value isn't present because we are consuming what isn't applicable to us. Yes, it might entertain us, it might interest us, but that doesn't make it useful. It is like eating a newspaper to fill up the stomach, it fills, but it doesn't provide the necessary nutrition we need for energy and health.
Many people don't seem to understand what I am saying in the devaluation of information, because they are still in the frame that knowledge is power and the more information one has, the better. In a sense it is true, but without having the ability to vet the information or to apply it in a practical sense, it is just filler. And now, with all this information and the ability to summarise it, you'd be forgiven to think that it has become more useful, but it hasn't. Instead of becoming more applicable, people are summarising information to consume more.
The problem is, application takes skill.
And skills can't be summarised, they can't be google searched, they have to be learned, practiced, repeated, adjusted and developed over time - and it can take quite a lot of time to develop the skills necessary to apply the complex information we now have access to in a way that has positive value. As I say, knowing isn't doing, and now we are able to "know" a lot but we are losing our ability to "do" anything with it.
If we really want to empower ourselves with the information available, we have to build the foundation that is able to use that information effectively. We have to be able to understand it to the point we know when and how to use it, and when and how to adjust it for purpose. With so much varied information, lack of patience, and a desire to for everything to be enjoyable however, we have not created the right environment to learn and apply - not just professionally, but in our personal lives.
Is it any wonder so many people are struggling?
Taraz
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