Find What You Want.

Finding the information and guidance is much easier with the informational revolution through technology. Starting with the combination of book printing and reading education to the newest internet blogs and vlogs. The information is there the problem is now too much dis-information. Some is deliberate, some is accidental. Sorting through this information is a major skill of these times. People are biased (and so are you presuming you are a person reading this!), the previously discussed biases and fallacies are a place to start your education and an aid to sorting the information. There are many distractions that can divert you from the purpose of gaining the needed information. Presentation works in attracting attention like a flower to an insect. But you are not flying round waiting to pass a flower you are looking for specific information (going off on a tangent and just exploring are OK and have their place but not when you are after a specific understanding or result).

The paradoxical question is how do I find a good teacher or info source? The paradox is you need a good teacher to gain the experience and attributes to choose a good teacher. For a long time this has been a ‘catch 22’ situation but fewer people have read that book or seen the film. The foundation must be to be the best student and researcher you can be and make use of the easy information and teachers you can access. The process is to question and practice that questioning. Question everything, now not every one wants to be questioned, for many reasons. So this might often be solo but others are vital when any questioning can be done to use the wisdom of crowds and others experience and perspectives. Once you have developed your (or your children’s) learning and questioning skills then you need a strategy and tactics to use them effectively. The general form can be simple plan-do-review where you ask first what do I want to know/be able to do or what ever the first question should be? Then it’s what do I need to know to develop my knowledge/abilities? Then the question is who or what can help me get the information and when I have that information then who can help me do my plan and last who can help me review my plan and action?

The trick is to learn what a good source of information is. Many fall for the trap of asking a performer who may or may not know. The person to ask is obviously the coach or teacher of the successful performer (preferably more than one). They are the ones who got the information and planned and reviewed the plan the athlete may of just done as they were told (not common) or something close enough. Over time you need to learn better what the best sources are finding out the commonalities and idiosyncrasies of the knowledgeable and able. Science as an industry producers lots of useful information but is not perfect. The scientific process is not full proof. At university level you learn to read scientific journals and may see what the research actually found rather than what it is reported to have been found. Many other distortions can misrepresent scientific findings and although there are checks and balances there are many mistakes made, some accidentally on purpose. Also the other key point is what has not been researched or reported, sometimes this is where the answer lies. Practice with science is needed and it’s a lifelong (and centuries old) process.

Another good source is experienced people. Most of life’s situations have been experienced before so borrowing others experience is useful. The care here is what the experience or any expertise actually is rather than what is reported. Care for bias and fallacies are always needed. This experience of many people is empirical and general patterns can be found (and have been already). Picking an experienced person may be by who has been perceived as successful. Care here needs to be taken as to what they were successful at. A champion may have won when every one else was ill. As is regularly reported many ‘champions’ get caught later. Cheating including state sponsored is rife in many areas of life. Other people have massive advantages that help them to ‘the top’. If you do not share these advantages then their methods and experience may not be relevant to you.

A big problem for finding what you want is the cloud of irrelevant information. Much information is biased and in the interests of others. The media is pretty much fiction nothing but entertainment. The search for facts needs constant perseverance and questioning. After a period of time you will find sources that are reliable and valid. And constant self improvement will help you put these in better context. Putting the people factors in your consideration. Life could be modelled by a triangle of a foundational base consisting of knowledge skills and experiences that are the target of the education of youth. The better the foundations the more can be built on top. Then the levels above will be narrower but higher as deeper knowledge of fewer areas can be built. As well as building good the eliminating of the bad is the second major perspective to take. Edison is famed for his approach of learning what does not work maybe a thousand times before he found what did work. Another foundational element is the use of principles and concepts that run through many or all areas. Science is one where once the idea of science and after some practice then most science is accessible in areas outside your triangle at least generally. Another are tools that can be used flexibly these can be physical like multi tools or attributes like speed where speed can be applied in many ways. Also mental tools such as old methods such as the idea of balance or change which permeate everywhere and again science or maths principles that can be used in many areas. Finding and using these patterns can be very useful. Where the pattern may be good sources of information, or the exactness of maths, where it may be yes, no or maybe or cannot be a maybe.

You will approximate rather than using precise or absolute measure. That is essential! Just remember when you are doing it and that you can justify it. Knowing what you are doing and seeing the results so that you can review later is useful. It is about building your triangle and at the same time gaining clarity. A Daoist meditation approach is to let the mud settle so that you can see what has been there all along. It is always good to have perspective of anything. Even the law talks of beyond all doubt and most probable, not absolutes as it is a practical or pragmatic area not an absolute science. Finding information that eliminates some possibilities can be an alibi and point you in another direction. Here we get to Sherlock Holmes where once you have eliminated the impossible, what ever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ (Sign of Four) here removing elements can be combined with building other elements gaining clarity and reducing ambiguity.

Now once you have done the work you then need to remember that others have not and may need to be persuaded! Now that’s another project how to persuade.