Get Faster

Sadly, this is also one of the net's problems. You see a new post of some data, which can very well be wrong, have much less parameters to weigh it and decide it's validity.
The web has flattened the printed word, making my crazy accusations on my blog as strong as the words of a wise, educated person. (well, almost.)
I think we need to sort not only what to read, but develop strong new tools to decide what data is true, and how much weight to give it.
Sadly more people get their data now from perezhilton than the newyorker...

Here's the question: can you be fast and thorough? Fast is important, but I would say that we have as a culture (not just in the social media world) lost a lot of our ability to think deeply and critically about a subject.

One of the resasons I keep pruning my RSS feed, etc., is that knowing that 100 people are talking about something that happened three hours ago is often a lot less useful than reading about it in depth a few days or a week later. And it can be more efficient to wait and see the post-game wrapup, so to speak.

I think it's worth paying attention to our consumption of fast vs deep media. Speed is seductive, but not always useful. (And this should go without saying, but I'll say it: there are good and bad examples of fast and slow/deep media and content.)

Is this what you have learned from the wolf?

[Initial thought]
It is not always best to be the first person to get your thoughts (which as a consultant is your product) out there. You should be sure that you have something that is well formed or at the very least thought provoking. There will always be others who are ready to pick apart, run with or maybe smash your idea into the ground.

[After Re-reading, processing, synthesizing]
I think that you are trying to say that being a leader in the social media space requires you to synthesize and come to conclusions quickly so that you are leading the charge.

This post is sort of counter to your personal mission: which I perceive to be "a person who strives to form communities to encourage the sharing of ideas and conversations for the general betterment of society."

Sometimes the first person to talk merely forms the basis for the idea which is then processed by other people's perspectives and becomes something fully baked or perhaps even all-new.

One of the problems with the net and the social media space is that we are easily distracted by the next thing. There are some good ideas out there that are left half baked because something new came along that caught our attention. We as humans are only so scalable and I think that a lot of the people in this space are not willing to get very deep into the inner workings / true potential behind some of these tools, mostly because of their desire to see what is next.

Can you think of any ideas that you wish received more attention or could have used your direction to get to the next level and make a difference?

Here's my point, and you've given me tons to think about: talking about the same story a week later isn't as useful as getting to the heart of matters right away. I guess it's not speed for speed's sake, but rather, maybe I'm interested in making sure information finds air when it's necessary. For instance, Twitter beat the USGS to the China earthquake story, for instance.

Thoughts?

Well, it depends on what's necessary, and that of course is going to vary for different audiences. If I had friend or family in China, I would have been very glad for Twitter's ability to get information out quickly. On the other hand, for most Americans, news coverage provides all the "necessary" information (although obviously people might want to also follow the story out of simple human interest).

There is a negative side to speed and immediacy, though; consider, for example, the ongoing debate about the US health care system. I'm not sure that the ability of social media to keep us all updated on the latest utterance by a political candidate, or even the latest study on some aspect of health care financing or management, is all that useful when most of the public is lacking basic information about how our health care dollars are spent, where the gaps in the current system are, or how alternatives have worked and not worked in other countries; so that's a topic where it would be best to tune out the news and for every voter to go read some more in-depth material - even if it hasn't got anything about the last few months' discussion of the issue.

Faster is valuable for some things, and not for others. I try to filter my information by thinking about what's actionable and what's not. There are lots of topics that interest me that I don't read many blogs about, or follow tweets about, simply because I'm not going to do anything with that information on a daily basis, and it's much more efficient to see slower but more carefully organized information.

I guess that's why I like twitter... People are talking about what's important NOW! It's like my own little news cafe. You know, where you sit and overhear the conversations going on around you...the people walking by (aka tweeting) and you chime in on what you find is important or pertinent.

And if you heard it on Twitter, chances are it's relatively new!

Your photo credit? Translates as "my dog's tail" but, the funnier looser translation...."my dog's ass". I am a little bit in love with the photographer named "my dog's ass".

In my point of view, too fast and you get too furious. In this world of high tech and never ending stream of new media to advertise your business, what you need is to read, digest and implement but not to follow blindly.

Note report says that an average person has a short term memory of about two weeks before they forget about what they learn. And even if they recall what was taught, only 25-30% are left but not in the case if they do it regularly.

For example, will you forget how to surf the net?

Scan, learn, absorb, reflect, and synthesize. Walk Away. What did you acquire? Pop social media knowledge or a skill?

@mia - that's funny! : )

@Cameron - great question to ponder. But maybe one doesn't replace the other. There are times when fast matters, and times when learned, slow, staid matters?

Chris,

I was on a plane yesterday and catching up. It's about having a global learning style - the ability to scan and patterns. It is about having really good pattern analysis skills. There are generational issues too - as the brain ages it becomes harder to take in as much.

There's some interesting brain research on the impacts of information on us - and also some interesting research on how younger people are consuming information versus older people.

Have you read David Shenk?