If You’re a Recovering Information Addict
Okay, I admit it. Sometimes I overindulge in information. I collect books that may or may not get completely read. And it’s even worse with ebooks – I currently have hundreds them (plus multi-gigabytes of MP3s and downloadable videos) clogging up my external hard disk.
They always sound so important – so essential to have – in the promotional copy. So I spend the time getting them into my computer.
But then…
Then I run into the two constant barriers to massive information consumption – limited time and fainter-than-expected interest. Usually, I’ll get into the material and soon discover that it’s re-hashed basics under an exciting (and sometimes wildly inaccurate) new name. Other times the material may even be useful, but it’s so ineptly and boringly presented I struggle to stay with it.
I calculate that about two to five percent of my information collection is both engaging and actionable. The rest is… well… a product churned out to be sold, not consumed or used. Little thought seems to have been given to whether it actually helps anybody or answers a real need.
And websites – don’t get me started.
So I figured it’s time to bring in a different viewpoint. Today’s guest author, Gerry McGovern, is an international consultant on content management. If that term leaves you feeling puzzled, Gerry’s the guy who tells organizations how to publish content that somebody will actually give a damn about. And understand. He helps keep the technogeeks at bay and the official company jargon-spinners under control.
In this article, Gerry gives us a light hearted (and slightly twisted) look at how to go about…
Surviving Information-Seeking Sickness
By Gerry McGovern
The key to web success is to stop thinking about organizational information and start thinking of customer tasks.
It all started many years ago. I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. A colleague was sick in Beaumont hospital in north Dublin. My friend Tom and I decided to pay her a visit. As we entered the reception area, I saw that sign. It was big and blue and seemed to be smiling at me, inviting me; feline and so attractive. The sign was in all capitals. It just said one word: INFORMATION.
What a sensuous word. I had worked in the Web for years and had had the pleasure of being surrounded by so much information. People need information. People love information. They yearn for it, dream about it, fantasize about it. We live, of course, in the information society, and people all over the world are just looking for information.
I was enthralled by that simple, blue sign. I walked towards it without thinking. It was calling out to me. And then Tom called out to me. “Gerry, I know what room Ann is in. There’s no need to ask.”
But I was blind, deaf and dumb. I waited in line, oblivious to Tom’s voice. My turn came. I smiled at the receptionist. She smiled back. It was the moment of truth.
“Can I have some information please,” I said to her.
“Sorry?” she replied, her eyes somewhat quizzical. “Are you visiting a patient?”
“Yes,” I replied enthusiastically.
“Ah, so you need to know what room they’re in. Can you give me their name?”
“My friend Tom knows what room Ann is in,” I replied. I looked back to see where Tom was and I noticed that he was trying to hide behind a pillar. I turned back to the receptionist. “I’m just looking for information. Any information will do. When, for example, was this hospital built? Stuff like that. This reception desk, what type of wood is it made from? Anything at all. Just give me information.”
The receptionist stared at me for what seemed like a long time. Then she smiled. “I know exactly what you need, sir. If you just wait there…” She got up and went into an adjoining room. I waited.
About five minutes later two pleasant gentlemen in white coats arrived.
“Hello, Gerry”, one said to me.
“Hello.”
“I believe you’re just looking for information.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Come with us, Gerry, and we’ll give you all the information you can take.”
I was so excited. Until they put me in a very tight-fitting, badly-designed jacket. And then locked me in a white room with very soft walls. And then started giving me injections.
It took time. Lots of counseling. I had many relapses. The doctors told me that I had spent too much time with too many web teams who didn’t live in the real world. These web teams built websites full of information without any real understanding of what their customers actually wanted. These web teams thought people came looking for information, when in fact people had specific tasks that they wanted to solve. Information was only a means to an end. It was not the end.
I’m better now.
Gerry McGovern publishes New Thinking, a free weekly email newsletter that focuses on best practice in web content management. His primary websites are www.GerryMcGovern.com for Content management solutions and
Customer Carewords where you can find recordings of many past webinars on task measurement and management.
Back to Charles:
Maybe you receive tons of emails offering great free reports and MP3s and videos about how to do (whatever). And maybe the content is promised to be (according to the testimonials) “more valuable than most paid content.”
In such cases, do you get an overpowering knee-jerk reaction to go watch those videos immediately? Because after all they’re FREE, and they’ve gotta be good because (insert guru name here) says it’s ground-breaking, earth-shaking, history-making new material.
Even more serious, do you not only watch them, but also scrupulously download everything you’re offered, filing them carefully away in your meticulously alphabetized system?
If so, you’re an addict.
Unfortunately, there’s no Betty Ford Clinic for info junkies. You’ll probably have to kick your habit cold turkey, with nobody to talk you through it.
However, one big help that I’ve discovered is to start producing your own information products. Of course, that merely means that you’re moving up from user to dealer, but at least it gets you off the streets and into a useful job.
However, since our society values information above almost anything except sex appeal and Hollywood movies, it’s a start. And it’s a socially acceptable role.
So if you want to find a cure, take that first small step upward toward better mental health. Start churning out dozens of reports and ebooks and podcasts and teleseminars and workshops. Go into a production frenzy, and soon you’ll be free of your former addiction. And have a new one, that pays better.
But for heaven’s sake, don’t email me about all those products you’re creating. I’m still struggling, because, you see, I too am a recovering information addict.
Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
Charles
I think one question to ask about our obsession with information is, why? My humble take is that so many feel inadequate, lacking and deficient in and of themselves…they feel the need to become walking/talking “trivial pursuit” types in order to feel seen, heard and acknowledged …or feel the need to cite experts and “sources” to back up their own ideas-if they have any. I find more and more folks who are anxious or afraid of expressing their own self, on their own merits, without the need of shoring themselves up with others’/so-called “experts” support.
As I travel about and eavesdrop on converations, I’m struck at how much “information” folks share is someone else’s…from the news, TV, magazines and the like….as opposed to original thinking. It seems, to me at least, more and more have fewer and fewer original thoughts or ideas.
I once heard someone say, small minds talk about things; mediocre minds talk about people and great minds talk about ideas. Fewer and fewer great minds these days…
OK, but I’m not talking about “quotes.” (I agree with you on that account…moderation, etc….
What I’m referring to are those folks who have no “original thoughts” in their heads and just go about their day paraphrasing what they hear/read/see…puppet-like, automoton-like, robotic-like, etc. as though it were their own thought/idea…
I’m just wondering how many people out there will be thinking, “Me! That’s Me!”
A wonderful posting Charles, and super imagery from Gerry McGovern too. And with a passing nod to Peter, a favourite saying (not a quote) from Paul Myers came to mind when reading this article:
“Now, ain’t that the truth!”
I know that I’m an information junkie and I have been for some time. I think it first hit home when one of Charles’ articles asked whether I was taking in usable information or whether it was just another form of entertainment for me.
Honestly? Most of it is entertainment. It’s only usable stuff when… well, when I use it.
And when’s that?
Not often enough!
Thinking is the easy bit. Reading is the easy bit. Doing something takes more energy. But don’t we all read these materials or listen to the recordings and persuade ourselves that we’re doing REAL work? I mean, we have to learn what we’ve got to do to make life better haven’t we? We have to think about it a little just to see how it’s going to work in our life? When we do that aren’t we working? Surely that’s not entertainment!
It’s a sub-conscious argument that my mind accepts all too readily.
And so I continue to download materials. I continue to rationalise it by saying, “This is in a different style”. Or “It has a slightly different message”. Or “It takes a different slant on an old problem.”
The truth is I’ve been sucked in by some clever wording on a web page again. (It must be clever otherwise I wouldn’t be taken in.) So I blame a website writer.
But then, my books all tell me that I need to take responsibility for my life.
Don’t blame others.
So it must be something wrong with me.
Maybe somebody has got an e book that will help me?
First of all, Gerry’s article had me in stitches. Definitely my kind of humor. As a matter of fact, Maggie knows better not to dare me to do things, because this is EXACTLY how I behave in public. Fortunately, I haven’t been fitted for the white jacket and padded cell, although there are many times Maggie would rather not know me. LOL
Secondly, I just realized that I am virtually cured of informationitis – it has been some time since I bought a product or even downloaded a freebie – (well, except for Charles’ most recent Beyond Luck video series). And the reason – just as Charles said; I’ve been too damned busy churning out my own stuff, what with blogging and article writing, and promoting via various partner blogs, forums and article distributors.
Still, if I did some spring cleaning of my book shelf and hard drive, I’m sure I would find a ton of materials that have never seen the light of day… and most probably never will; at least not in the foreseeable future. I’m focused on carving out my own niche.
Charles, as always, thanks for a great read!
All the best from Toronto,
Russ
Regarding ‘how to’ info products, a well known UK marketer once told me that unless a customer started to take action within 48 hours of getting the product/course, he could be very confident that they never would.
People (myself included, sometimes) buy into dreams but don’t have the inner drive or motivation in place to see them through all the hassle and hardship that comes with the territory.
Hi Charles,
First off, just the title of Gerry’s article had me laughing out loud; then reading Gerry’s story had me rolling on the floor.
It’s so interesting that I’m laughing at myself when I see myself described so perfectly.
I think that I’ve had the belief that when I purchase something, or get a freebie for signing up for someone’s newsletter, that the getting of it guarantees that I’ll know it. NOT TRUE. The only time
that I can say that I know it is when I put it into action and experientially prove it, so that it then becomes true for me.
I can honestly say that now that I have seen myself so clearly, thanks to your post, that perhaps there is some hope for me as a recovering junkie.
Just as soon as I create a freebie to bribe someone to subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll start to publish one. You could say that I’m moving up the food chain.
Thank you for a great insight.
David