Somebody has had your problem before
Sometimes we get stuck, sometimes we need to know…
- How to be a better manager?
- How to estimate?
- What should we do about our H.R. policies?
- Is there a good restaurant in Mansfield?
If you don’t know what to do next, rest assured, somebody has had the problem before. More often than not, somebody has written about it on the web.
But there is a problem with the web
It is very, very big, and lots of it falls somewhere between fluff and drivel.
So how do you find something useful on the net?
1. Start with Wikipedia
It isn’t always right, there are authors who are spoilers, but it will give you more than Google and the links at the bottom of the articles might be priceless.
2. Add the technical stuff
If you google sexual attraction I take no responsibility for where you will end up. If you google “sexual attraction” and add “standard deviation” or “PhD” you won’t look quite so depraved if your spouse catches you, hell, you might even learn something.
3. Use google advanced search
You can do all sorts of whiz-bang things: search within a particular site, add words, take words away, you can even search by “reading level” — Apparently I write in intermediate english, I’m going to add that to my C.V. along with my basic French.
4. Be critical
Remember the acronym C.A.R.S. Is the information…
- Credible — what does the author’s bio say?
- Accurate — is the information up to date, does it leave out important facts?
- Reasonable — nobody is totally objective, least of all me, but is the information obviously biased?
- Supported — does it contain references to other materials?
5. Remember your youth
If all else fails go to the library, it might be a bit dusty, but if somebody has gone to the effort of writing a book about it, it might just be worth reading.
There is nothing new under the sun
Somebody, somewhere has had your exact same problem before, if you look then you might just find the solution to your problem. Why reinvent the wheel?
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Image by Shell Eco Marathon
James,
I agree… there is nothing new under the sun. Anything you’ve experience has likely been experienced – and written about – on the internet. We just have to remember that not everything on the internet is true. Other than that, it’s certainly a good place to start to find a solution.
Annette :-)
Everything I write is true Annette, honest.
James,
Isn’t there a danger that of we look for a solution that has worked for someone else that we don’t learn as much as we could and we could end up converging to the average?
Adrian
That is an interesting point Adrian.
I suppose the question is what is the bigger risk, using somebody elses solution or spending time trying to devise a new one.
I wonder how much we could learn from “parallel experts” in other fields
James
Hello James,
You ask a question, why reinvent the wheel? And I totally get where you are coming from and your perspective is useful in many ways. Allow me to share with you my answer to your question.
There is knowing and there is knowing. You can know lots about sexual attraction from PhD’s and still not know sexual attraction. You can know lets about a wheel and yet not know a wheel. What is the difference that I am talking about?
There is knowing about something – an intellectual knowing. The there is the knowing as in the experience of knowing something. According, to the bible one does not know a woman until he has lain with her.
Then there is kind of knowing that only comes through creating something for yourself. In creating-building a wheel for yourself, you get to know the wheel in a way that you never will if you do not create the wheel.
I know how to facilitate workshops. Others also know because they have read the books and some have even attended course. Few have the lived experience, lived knowing, that I have of facilitating workshops. Why? Few have done-experienced that which I have experienced. And as such, they will always know less than me no matter how much googling they do.
At your service,
maz