Information Overload?

"...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it"
- Herbert Simon

----

We now live in the information age... you can buy a book on any subject you want and have it delivered by the next day. There are hundreds of thousands of websites on almost any topic you can think about. It's amazing.

We truly live in the information age.

I read a quote from Jack Canfield that stated 'in the last ten years we have doubled human knowledge'. I read another quote from Dr Frederick Lerman who suggested we will have doubled it again by 2008.

Information is no longer the problem. If you put "fitness" into google - there are over 427 million hits. And that's not including books etc - that's just internet information.

We've reached a point where a lack of information is not the problem - it's a lack of filtering that information. You have to almost practice selective ignorance. At this point there is so much information available – that you need to filter out at least as much as you take on board.

So how do you filter information? Who do you listen to?

I can only share with you my own personal filter. I choose to heavily prioritize information that comes from “Real World” practitioners whose livelihood/career/income depends upon delivering results or solving problems (and I’m a fanatic for proof of this).

I'll listen more to coaches, trainers and athletes in the fitness world than I will to just the recreational enthusiast. I'll listen to accountants and investors about money more than I'll listen to an auto -repair specialist. I tend not to listen to someone who rents a studio apartment when looking to investing in commercial real estate.

I'm not going to listen to business advice from a trainer who is barely getting by. I'm not going to take advice on internet marketing from someone who doesn't sell products or services online. I'm not going to study the training programs of a coach who isn't getting results with his athletes.

It's that simple. I'm sure that I miss out on "some" information by ignoring other sources -- but I think it's an acceptable trade off.

99 times out of 100 who will have the better information on strength training ?-- a 19 year old who has only ever trained himself -- or a professional coach with 19 years of full time experience?

Who knows more about marketing - a part-time personal trainer or a direct response marketing expert with 30 years of experience in the field and a seven figure income from his results?

If you had cancer - would you prefer to consult with one of the top oncologists in the country - who makes a living fighting cancer and saving lives? Or would you listen to a Strength coach who claims that he'd treat cancer the complete opposite way but makes a living 'increasing strength in the Scott curl 23.4% in 13.2 days' ? (sadly that's a true anecdote)

Based on that -- just because someone is an expert in subject X does not mean they know anything about subject Y -- expertise is context specific.

Another key is to focus on target audience. A coach who works successfully at the elite level may not be able to help you with a recreational athlete and vice versa. And remember to look for proof - just because someone writes a lot of articles for an internet website doesn't mean they have ever successfully trained anyone.

So - put a filter information in place and use the lens of results and effectiveness to guide you. Anyone can criticize a method – but only a few ever actually improve a method and get a better result. Look for results first.

--
AC
www.alwyncosgrove.com