Make better decisions from online sources

byazmanarr

375 followers

Updated 6 years ago

With easier access to the Internet and smart mobile devices, we can get information very quickly. At one time, information is power. Now quality information is more essential. Quality information could mean useful, relevant, current, factual or all.

So, when we need any information, we look up Search Engines, Portals and Forums. We're very lucky to have generous souls who share their knowledge and experience online.

Before adopting online results, lets take a pause

When we're recommended information by popular and "reputable" online sources, consider them as provisional or interim. Content could be ideas, opinions, sentiments, principles, findings, news, trends or "facts". If we take them at face value, we may regret it later. What they claim to be, could be very different from the real story.

Also please realize this. For more critical decisions we want to make, the more materials we need to dig and the more in-depth they should be. We need more inputs to support our decisions.

Interesting information is not sufficient to support us

Immediately taking salient points matching our interest is premature. We're only getting acquainted at surface level.

Ask ourselves 2 questions:

• Are the information based on "academic" common knowledge or
  
• Are the information coming from practical experience

To serve us better, we need to go a bit deeper.

We need to know the motives, characters, stories and wisdom behind it. Check out what conclusions are made, why they are made, who made them, how activities or tests are done, the main challenges they faced and steps taken to overcome those challenges.

At this stage, we know we're looking at people of real practical experience. Their opinions are worth many more times than academic ones. The information are more credible and useful to us than mere common knowledge.

Go another level to support our decisions further

Getting information from sources of similar views and sentiments is biased. Kind of like herd mentality that could hurt us later.

To not fall off the cliff together with the herd, we need to check out opposing views. It's just like Windows vs Linux, Android vs iOS, WF vs WA. In the wellness industry, we have proponents who say fatty food is bad for our health. But we also have numerous scientists and experts who say fatty food is good for us.

Opposing ideas will always be there in most industries, services and social movements. They try to outrun each other. When we compare opposing views and justifications, we'll gain perspectives from many angles as well as valuable insights.

At this stage, we've scaled up our ability to make better judgement. Our understanding of the subject matter are more balanced and impressive. Add some intuition or gut feeling for comfort. We are now more ready to make decisions.

In conclusion, Online Sources are tools to help us find quality information from credible sources. But it is not good enough to support us in making educated decisions. We need more awareness and clarity from various insights.

Yes it takes slightly more time, but time well spent to support decisions and actions in bringing us closer to our goals.