4 Steps to Avoid 'Pants-on-Fire' Self-Improvement Advice

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. - Edward R. Murrow

Do people even read books to improve themselves? I wonder what those who are still doing this are reading now to keep up with their continued professional development and upskilling?

There is so much to read and so little time to waste on junk!

Do people even read books to improve themselves? I wonder what those who are still doing this are reading now to keep up with their continued professional development and upskilling?

There is so much to read and so little time to waste on junk!

We find ourselves in an age bombarded with information, and emerging contexts prompt us to question the veracity, validity, and veracity of published texts. Traditional sources like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal were once considered the gold standard for educated and experienced readers. They are currently being attacked and challenged by others because of recent journalistic gaffes that display partisanship and political non-neutrality. The ultimate effect is to devalue these sources of news and information beyond politics into other areas of life and even professional knowledge.

For many of the same and other reasons, many previously respected business and industry publications, as well as related educational publications, are also being re-evaluated to determine their professional status. Today there are fewer established and respected print publications. Meanwhile, everyone and their brother built shiny, feature-rich websites to disseminate information of all kinds; true or false; researched and confirmed or not confirmed and verified; objective or subjective; credible or deceptive; and useful or useless.

There are also Facebook posts, X (Twitter) "tweets," and blog posts that lack cited sources and bibliographies. Oh yes – those white papers! Those who bury their sales pitch in something that looks like the product of a scientific study.

Does all this confuse you? It should. So many easily accessible sources of information prompt us to:

1. Be overwhelmed. There are only so many hours in the day, and unfortunately, most of that time is not used for ongoing learning and professional development. Especially not as much extra fact-checking and criticism as there is today.

2. Feel confused. Various people (qualified and unqualified) self-publish books, white papers, e-magazines, and e-newsletters, all looking as sophisticated as those who once had to earn their status through decades of recognized expert commentary knowledge and professional review.

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3. Hidden. Unfortunately, too many people view reading as an extracurricular activity for self-improvement, prioritizing few, if any, business-related activities. The fact that this type of reading has become the "beginning" of a journey through the pitfalls of information clutter is more than many are willing to endure.

So, what can we do to separate the wheat from the chaff in the career development literature? Here are some ideas:

1. What are your colleagues recommending after reading and critiquing themselves? Those you respect most are likely to have the best insights when it comes to recommending quality sources and reading materials. WE should always be sharing the "good stuff" with those we mentor or those that have mentored us. There are also places to go to get useful articles validated by others like ourselves. LinkedIn for example is a great place to see what has been strongly recommended by LIKES, SHARES and COMMENTS.

2. Can you accept that you may waste some time exploring written materials that you can not recommend to others? There is as much to learn from a bad article as there is from a good one if you are willing to "do the work" to determine its credibility. You want to try as hard as you can to avoid wasting time reading published items that offer little return in terms of enlightenment - true. You can do this by following steps one, two and three, but bad reading can still catch you by surprise. This is no reason to give up on reading and working to enhance your professional development. If you happen upon bad reading, shake it off, warn others to steer clear and choose something else better suited to your interests and needs.

3. Who are the recognized experts, colleges and universities, companies and/or professional associations behind the publication you would like to read? If sponsors and authors are unfamiliar to you and don’t appear early in Google search results, they may not be the best in their category and may be overlooked.

4. What is the actual purpose of the published material? When a large company produces a white paper that is primarily designed to increase its sales rather than provide general information, you should be particularly suspicious of seemingly one-dimensional information being provided to you, i.e. providing personal and business information becomes the "cost" of the information used in Sales tracking. These materials may not provide you, the reader, with sufficient data to use them in a useful and unbiased way.

With all the recent talk of "fake news" and "unreliable sources," it has become increasingly difficult to know if what we are reading is true, false, or somewhere in between. This is precisely WHY we all need to vet our sources very carefully and use our critical thinking skills to validate the facts in everything we read by cross-referencing facts with other legitimate sources and researching fuzzy details that seem unreliable and even intentionally biased.

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The Author

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Marc LeVine is a graduate of Syracuse (NY) University with a degree in Industrial Psychology, Marc is currently Talent Acquisitions Manager at Thermo Systems. He is the recipient of the Excellence in Talent Acquisitions Award from HR Awards in 2021.

Marc's prior employment includes senior Human Resources and Staffing Industry management roles with Edgewood Properties in Piscataway, NJ, Brickforce Staffing in Edison, NJ, InfoPro Inc. in Woodbridge NJ and Plainsboro, NJ and Harvard Industries in Farmingdale, NJ, a former Fortune 500 company. He also served as Director of Human Resources for New Jersey Press, the parent company of the Asbury Park Press, Home News and Tribune and WKXW-NJ101.5. Earlier in his career, Marc served as Director of Career Services and Placement at Union Technical Institute in Eatontown and Neptune, NJ. In addition, Marc owned and operated Integrity Consulting Associates, a New Jersey based Human Resources and Social Media Marketing firm for 11 years. Marc also served as Council President in his hometown of Freehold Borough, NJ