Long-Term Thinking Could Be the Cure for Today’s Information Overload

The invention of the printing press in the 1400s brought a major transformation not only in how information is disseminated but also in how people think. With more people having access to stores of human knowledge, it allowed us to stop being primarily concerned about the day-to-day and made us start thinking more about the long term.

Now we are at the opposite end of the information revolution. There is a glut of information overloading us. The 24-hour news channels, social media feeds, and smart phone alerts deliver us breaking news the moment it happens. The danger is in assuming we have to react to some important event when it happens. Ironically, the information revolution has taken us full circle, and now we are at risk of becoming too short term in our thinking.

Don’t Let the Daily News Be Your Guide

I have often discussed in this column the potential consequences that this short-term mindset can have on people’s investments. If the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 700 points in a day, many investors think they need to disrupt the long-term financial plan they carefully constructed with their financial advisors. They might sell out of stocks, only to be filled with regret if the market rallies, as it often does, shortly after a downturn.

Most investors would probably be better off if they paid less attention to the daily news and instead remained focused on where they want to be in the future. If you are saving for a college education that is 10 years away or a retirement that is 20 or more years away, you can think about what you will need to have saved by then and what that dream will look like when it comes true. Guided by those goals, you are more likely to do what it takes to get there – like save as much as you can, and develop a sound plan with a variety of investments that you let build assets over time.

Think Long-Term with Your Career

Of course, it is equally important to let long-term thinking guide other aspects of life. In our jobs, it is easy to get caught in the daily challenges. But you also need to keep in mind where you would like your career and your company to be in 5, 10, or 20 years, and then work toward making that vision happen. This is true today more than ever because so many industries and careers are being disrupted. You cannot ever be satisfied with the status quo because there are always people out there who are thinking in ways that will turn the status quo upside down.

No industry or circumstance is safe from change, regardless of how dominant it may seem at the time. One of my favorite quotes is from the legendary Saudi oil minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani who famously said, “The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.”

What he meant of course was that Saudi Arabia couldn’t always rely on being a dominant supplier of oil for the world, and had to prepare for what was next.

We always have to tap our creativity and embrace innovation to imagine what the world could be many years in the future, and what we need to do to get there.

It doesn’t matter how much power you have in the organizational structure. Everyone, no matter what their position, can play a key part in embracing change. And don’t assume you have plenty of time to get ready to deal with a long-term change taking place in your profession and industry. Even for CEOs of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, their average tenure on the job is only six years.

The good news is that long-term thinking breeds optimism. The daily news often makes it seem like disaster is around the corner. But it really is true that today is one of the best times to be alive. If you take a long look at how much progress society has made, the evidence is clear that we collectively have it better today than our predecessors did. Lifespans have increased, people are healthier, and living standards are better than they have ever been in human history.

If you think creatively and innovatively about how you, your company, and our society can keep moving forward, it generates considerable optimism and excitement that we can keep traveling along that path.