“Smart” is not a matter of having smart answers; it’s developing smart questions. And often, to be Smart, we have to play Dumb.
How many of these statements go unchallenged?
- “It’s all about the conversation.”
- “Brands that engage succeed.”
- “You have to give before you can take.”
- “The future is Free.”
Insert your own favorites, and they don’t have to be from the realm of communication and marketing. They might be from economics, might be from politics, might be from sociology. The point remains – you have a new job.
Self-editor.
Self-corrector.
Self-adjuster.
And just what did we all do to earn that demotion? We started opting into technologies that allowed us to fill our cups with the same stuff we drank yesterday. We listen to the same voices, visit the same websites, and breathe the same air as we did yesterday. Technology has imploded the media, which is now understaffed and can’t deliver on the promise of covering everything – and business models have adjusted to give us what we want, instead of what we need.
Bottom line? We’re spoiled, and we’re wallowing in our own by-products.
Drowning in Echo
We surround ourselves with the same people – or in the case of social networks, the same types of people as the people we’re connected to now. We add in those we used to go to work with, and those we used to go to school with… and that’s okay. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of our need to be challenged.
When you surround yourself with 100 people who repeat the same mantra, day in, day out, you do more than start to believe it. You accept it as a fundamental premise by which everything else is to be judged. And when reality doesn’t jibe with our expectations, we’ll cling to the premise and start figuring out what other contributing factors got in the way of Natural Law.
We did this to ourselves. We wrap ourselves in these cocoons of interest, bound tight to those just like us. Identical peas in pods. We have shut out news and information sources that might challenge those premises. Self-exile from truth. We parrot the rest of the flock rather than be seen raising a squawk.
Can you Dare to be Dumb?
What starts as a silly or dumb question can shake a loose foundation. We just have to be willing to ask it.
- What is your basis for that assertion?
- What is the evidence?
- Do you have statistical proof?
- Do you have correlation?
What you might find is that others have been skating along, assuming others have known what they are talking about – and never taking the risk to be Dumb. But “Dumb” allows you to rethink everything, free of the untested and unsupported assertions of a crowd.
And in the end, what do you want? Popularity? Or impact and effectiveness?
A few questions for the questions you pose…
1. How easy is it to seek out alternative sources of info? One still has to search out these sources, in addition to paying the bills, putting the kids to bed, doing the laundry, etc. If Google gives us hundreds of choices, we still have to filter them based on our needs.
2. You’re right; media has imploded. Too few people circulating and re-circulating same info. But wouldn’t our cocoons have been just as strong 100 years ago when there was less of a media presence (fewer wells of info from which to drink) and less travel? People tended to stay put more often, as opposed to moving to geographies that featured different cultures.
I applaud your authenticity and transparency. You’re a gamechanger!
-M
Amen brother. I’ve made the mistake of surrounding myself with too many like-minded people and I’m on a personal mission to diversify!
As far as checking sources, etc. I read this thought-provoking post about the need for an information valet! http://bit.ly/9PA5H4
Perhaps this need will at least start to be addressed by technology if we don’t have the resources to hire one ourselves!
Perfectly said Ike. Most of what is taken for granted in social media isn’t to be taken for granted.
What is true is that most people who challenge the status quo may expect a cold shoulder now and again. It stands to reason. Most people don’t like it when someone tells them they have mustard on their chin. Nowadays, they would rather nobody notice or, in some cases, hope someone declares that leaving mustard on your chin is somehow the next big thing.
All my best,
Rich
Brett – thanks for stopping by. In answer to your questions:
1) It’s fairly easy to find alternative sources of information. Just find people you don’t agree with, then cull that list down to the people who are the best at articulating their positions without resorting to logical fallacies, hate and heat. You may not agree with their perspectives, but you can rest assured that challenging your own assumptions on a regular basis makes your own persuasion clearer and more effective.
2) Years ago, we did have little choice about what we consumed. And yes, it often suffered from the same issues of group-think as a result. Being an empowered consumer of information is important, but you need to make sure you don’t go overboard and inadvertently create your own intellectual prison. That was not a problem our grandparents’ generation did not have, and there is not as much “cautionary conventional wisdom” to guide us.