There’s tons of information out there nowadays and at times I’m overwhelmed on what to do with it all. Solutions for organizing information are becoming more and more popular as people are encountering similar problems. Here’s how I find high quality information and organize it.
Discovery
As I said before, there is ridiculous amounts of information out there, but fortunately there are some great tools that let you pick and choose which sources you want to engage with. My favorite is probably Google Reader, which allows you to pull RSS feeds for any website on the internet and also provides a great way to organize the feeds. I wrote a post about it ages ago that you can check out here.
After Google Reader, the newest service that I’ve started playing around with is Pulse, which takes the same idea from Google Reader, but makes it much more visually pleasing and easy to use for mobiles devices. The user interface is great and its optimized for tablets, android devices, and iPhones. Pulse serves up content in a range of categories, but you also can add custom feeds that can be hit or miss at times.
And if you’re fortunate enough to have an iPad then Flipboard is an awesome information discovery engine that integrates content from a range of top websites in a very usable, magazine style presentation.
All in all, Google Reader, Pulse, and Flipboard are great for information discovery, but where I have found less solutions is on the information organization front.
Organizing
I’ve found few tools that are tailor made to such a need, but there are some that you can certainly tweak to provide an adequate solution. I think one of the best suited for such adaptation is Tumblr, as it allows you to share defined types of content/media including text, quotes, videos, pictures, and links. This type of structure is great for keeping track of information that you value, while also sharing it with others. A simple workaround where you define tag pages as your navigation lets you further organize the information.
Another tool I’ve found useful, but more specifically for images has been Pinterest. Essentially Pinterest lets you pin any images across the web and tag them to your boards for future use, either to keep track of information, inspiration, ideas, and more. You can check out my Pinterest boards here.
Overall I think that there is still a need for better organizational tools around information. Right now I think Pinterest has done a fantastic job in the images space and I hope to see more tools that are focused around organizing articles and videos in the future. If you know of any tools that are ideal for these needs please share!
There are all kinds of business models out there, but I think the most ingenious one has to be universities. They are massive money making machines and its crazy how they are able to get everyone to pay for an education they can’t afford.
When you look at the university industry from a business perspective there is one thing that they seem to disregard that is central to any business, having a customer focus and by customer in this situation I mean the students.
Universities have become too big to be flexible and meet needs of their students anymore, essentially they do what they see fit and everyone else has to fit into the box that is a university or major. Think about the choices you have as a student. Basically you can choose your major and perhaps a few electives here and there, but that’s all the choice they allow. This may not be true for all colleges, but it is for the majority.
If you think about, when was the last time a university asked you, the paying customer, the student, what YOU wanted from the school?
When the students are what makes the universities prosper, make millions of dollars, and empowers them to continually raise tuition, then shouldn’t the students be better served? Shouldn’t they have a larger voice? Universities don’t serve their customers adequately for how much we pay them.
Fortunately, at the same time we’re seeing a counter movement in education in the use of technology, content, and design to deliver a higher quality, individualized experience to students that meets their needs. Organizations such as the Khan Academy, P2PU, and Academic Earth are giving the power to the students instead of the teachers or institutions.
I can understand how many are saying the education system may be the next bubble, but at the same time no real change will occur until our preconceived perceptions of these systems and their value are broken. In the meantime, let’s continue paying off our student loans.
I saw a few commercials for the latest special by Fareed Zakaria on “How to Innovate” which caught my interest, so I set my TiVo as I was going to be travelling. I just watched it the other day and, well, I have to say I was disappointed.
But before we get into all of that, I just wanted to have a quick spiel about the word “innovation”. I honestly hate the word now, I think its lost all meaning and its just thrown around as the shiniest new buzz word that makes you sound good. Nowadays a little piece of my soul withers away everytime I hear the word. Even I cringe now when I have to use it, for lack of a better alternative.
Now back to this CNN special… it had a range of so-called experts in the field that provided little to no insight into the real problems, which included the big names: Eric Schmidt, Steven Johnson, Regina Dugan, Paul Romer, Len Baker, and John Kao. Quite the cast, but not much value delivered in the piece.
To put it bluntly, I feel like you could learn more about Innovation from a simple Google search than watching this program.
He touched on all the obvious areas, such as intersection, research, institutions, niche focus, strategy, centralization vs. open, etc but in the end there was nothing actually insightful about it. Using all the right words doesn’t give you credibility or add value. It was just repeating what many of us familiar with the subject already know.
Really, it seems the whole purpose of the piece was to show how America is falling behind in innovation and how people are worried, but they still have no answers. This is most apparent when you look at the final conclusions from Zakaria at the end of the piece, which were:
Innovation is good.
Innovation comes from many places, private sectors and government.
We can’t be sure if innovation will help the average American.
Really? That’s all you have to say? Thanks a lot Zakaria for putting Wikipedia on TV.
Here’s the video, so you can form your own opinion, but if you’re at all informed about the topic, I’d not waste my time.
This past Thursday we saw the Dallas Mavericks overcome a 15 point deficit in the 4th quarter to steal game 2 of the NBA Finals. It was an epic comeback and a brilliant effort by the Mavs as a team. The interesting thing about this series is that it once again brings up the debate between if championships can be bought by building a team full of superstars versus having a team that plays together as a unit.
We’ve seen championships won by spending the most money in other sports, such as soccer in Real Madrid and Manchester City, in baseball in the Yankees, and more recently in basketball, culminating with the Miami Heat with James, Wade, and Bosh. In this way, these NBA Finals are more than just a chance for redemption for the Mavericks, but also further proof between the right way to win: teams or superstars?
I think everyone appreciates a good team, its the romanticized way of achieving greatness, but in this day and age we see the philosophy has shifted towards focusing on the superstars, not the role players. The media has blown up the value of the individual over that of the team, which simply isn’t good for a sport that is so team oriented. Sure enough, every team needs a leader, and even the Mavericks have theirs in Dirk Nowitzki, but without the rest of his team, he knows they wouldn’t be where they are. I get the feeling the Heat don’t have the same mentality.
I believe the same ideas apply to the business world. Its the entire organization that os driving success for some of the top companies, yet all we hear about are the Mark Zuckerbergs and Steve Jobs of the world. Now this is of course just from what I can see from the outside and things may be very different behind closed doors. Even so, individuals working together, respecting and trusting one another, can achieve much more than any individual can on their own, and I hope that its this team chemistry that triumphs over the superstar mentality for these 2011 NBA Finals.
Managing your time is probably the most difficult thing to do. There’s a number of methods out there that cover ways to approach time management and today I’m going to go over the Time Management Matrix.
In this technique, there are four different quadrants that you divide everything into: The Quadrant of Necessity, The Quadrant of Quality and Personal Leadership, The Quadrant of Deception, and The Quadrant of Waste. The matrix is seen below.
Quadrant I:Quadrant of Necessity. Everything in this quadrant is an important and urgent matter. Essentially these are things we have to do.
Quadrant II:Quadrant of Quality and Personal Leadership. This quadrant is characterized by non-urgent but important matters. Basically these are things that need to be done but we don’t do them because they aren’t urgent.
Quadrant III:Quadrant of Deception. This quadrant includes things that are urgent but not important, such as phone calls, emails, and meetings. These are things that seem important, but ultimately are not.
Quadrant IV:Quadrant of Waste. Quadrant IV is all about non-urgent & non-important matters. These include all the distractions, time wasters, and non-productive activities (i.e. TV, facebook, video games, etc). These are complete wastes of time.
Essentially we want most of our matters to be focused on quadrants I and II, while we avoid quadrants III and IV. Easier said then done of course. There are of course many different approaches to time management, so its important to find the one that works for you, but this is one that I’ve always found to be a good reminder of how I’m using my time.
I’ve noticed some things about the concept of giving advice lately. It seems like its often one person telling the other what to do in the simplest form. Furthermore, the advice they give is completely focused around their own persoal experiences. I feel like there is a major issue with this approach.
The problem here is that the advice they give makes sense because it worked for them in their unique situation, experience, and life, but how does it apply to “YOU”. How do other people have the ability to tell you what to do in your life? Do they fully understand your situation? Doubtful. The fact is, as much as we listen to advice, we don’t really learn until we experience it ourselves.
This being the case, advice needs to be given in a different manner. It should not be presented as guidelines on how to do things, but simply a retelling of what worked for that individual. We should let others determine what value is to be gleaned from someone else’s story. After all, theres no one right way to do things, no one size fits all approach, and so there shouldn’t be that type of advice either.
About a month ago I wrote about the need for balance between creating and learning, you can read it here.
In regards to this balance I started thinking of my own life to date and how much time I’ve spent Learning vs. Creating. So from my rough calculations, I’ve spent about 75% of my life learning from kindergarten through my recent master’s degree. its clear I’m wayyy out of balance. Reflecting on those years that I was creating I actually accomplished quite a lot. Pre-kindergarten I mastered walking and talking! Now I think that’s pretty impressive. Between my undergrad and masters degree I was involved with several startups, which I’m still working with today.
Looking at things from this perspective it becomes apparent that when you focus on creating you can get a lot of amazing things done. Its just a matter of getting past the trap of constantly seeking knowledge and being drowned by information. Hopefully I can overcome this barrier, use what I’ve learned so far, and start creating. So it begins.
Kickstarter is a platform I’ve been following since its inception in 2009 and its amazing how far its come to date. The basic idea is getting funding from people who support your work, simply because they believe in what you’re doing. The foundation of Kickstarter is crowdfunding, one of four different strategies stemming form crowdsourcing. Crowdfunding is exactly what it sounds like, using the crowd to fund projects. Its an innovative model and I suggest everyone participate either through their own creative projects or a small donation to a project you find interesting.
To learn more, check out the video below on how Kickstarter Funds Creativity or visit their website.
The night before my birthday news broke that Osama Bin Laden had been eliminated, kind of stole my thunder there, but that’s besides the point. Reactions to the news have been interesting to observe, as many are celebrating profusely, while others are reluctant to celebrate a death, despite them understanding what the situation symbolizes. These distinct reactions are seen from top officials, such as Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani, as well as terrorist spokes people like Ehsanullah Ehsan.
Quote from President Barack Obama’s announcement:
“The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date against al-Qaeda… let me say to the families, we have not forgotten your loss, today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country. Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to … we can do these things not because of wealth and power but because of who we are.”
This will be huge for Obama as it appears to justify our efforts abroad, while giving him momentum going forward into his re-election campaign. Should be interesting to see how it plays out, but important to note that we don’t really know the impact Osama’s death will have yet.
A quote from former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani:
“I feel satisfaction and some emotional relief, but I don’t feel great elation. I watch a lot of the celebrating and it makes me feel a little strange, I don’t know. Nothing erases the loss of all those lives. … so I feel satisfaction and I feel the right thing has been done. and I guess it will good thing ultimately but I don’t feel like celebrating [as if it's] the end of World War II, because the war is still going on.”
Giuliani is one of many, who has been a bit uneasy about celebrating a death, despite its significance. Looking at the picture below, it looks more like Obama’s election celebration than one for a dead terrorist, but there you have it.
Finally, a quote from Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan:
“If he has been martyred, we will avenge his death and launch attacks against American and Pakistani governments and their security forces.”
Reactions from terrorist organizations are the most important because it could result in one of two outcomes. Either the death of Osama will perpetuate increased terrorist activity or it will discourage their efforts against the world. I hope it’s the latter, but it doesn’t sound like it based on the quote above. Only time will tell.
I recently read Do The Work by Steven Pressfield, the latest book from Seth Godin’s Domino Project. The e-book is free for download on Kindle, so you should definitely get a copy. Anyways, there was one concept he touched on in the book that resonated with me and that I have noticed about myself lately.
I love to learn, increasing my personal knowledge, discovering new concepts, ideas, and truths. Doesn’t sound so bad does it? Well my problem is, I get into this routine where all I do is spend my time learning: reading books, exploring my RSS feeds, watching TED Talks, so on and so forth. As much as I’d like to think of this as productive, it really isn’t, its just another form of busy work or procrastination.
In Do The Work, Pressfield talks about how research (or learning) can essentially be a form of the ‘resistance’ or a force that prevents you from getting work done. I completely understand what he means. What’s important in all this is striking the balance between learning and creating, and more importantly, accepting that learning is great, but creating is better.
I’m sure I’m not alone in getting caught up in this web of knowledge, especially when so much information is readily available to us, but hopefully understanding that these kinds of things are just another distraction, will be the first step to being more aware of how we spend our time.
I enjoyed reading Do The Work, but it’s Pressfield’s other book, The War of Art, that is a must read.
