?????????????????? ??????????????... ???? ???? ?? ???????????
Monica Watt
Wonder Woman of Leadership | Empowering Leaders to Drive Growth, Success, and Confidence | ASX CHRO | Leadership Coach | Fractional/ Virtual CPO | MBA | Book a Free Strategy Call (link in About ??)
It is an interesting question. What does it mean?
I have been grappling with this question for a while now and in watching and listening to others, more recently the fab Dom Price from Atlassian who helped me to finally put my finger on what it means to me. You may have another opinion, and I hope this article gets you thinking and talking about ?????????????????? ??????????????.
In short: We are good at sharing and sourcing information, knowledge, and data at any time, but we are not so good at applying it.
We live in a knowledge economy, where information and knowledge are power. But is knowledge really power if you are not using it? Is there a tipping point in having too much information and knowledge? I believe there could be a tipping point as with access to so much information, opinion, insights, and knowledge it is unrealistic to think we can consume or use it all.
The global pandemic disconnected people and connected us digitally and in doing so our access to information and content exploded exponentially.
None of this is new, we use apps, social networking, and search engines daily, how many times have you said,
“just Google it”?
It is a default language for us.
We have embraced digital content, information sharing and learning for many years now. In 1999, the term eLearning was born by Elliott Masie at a Tech Conference at Disneyworld, and we have never looked at learning in the same way.
Since then we have increased our access to digital content, information, and learning, to the point it is a given. If you do not think so, then check out this list and consider what you do, have, or may use.
- digital events, video conferencing, webinars on demand
- emails, email campaigns, remarketing
- social media
- blogs and podcasts
- music and video info and messaging
- instant chat
- short courses, accredited and non-accredited learning
- content creation and article sharing
- live documents and library collections
- a community of interest or practice
- Intranets, HRIS, HCMS, ERP…
The list of things and ways we access knowledge and information is endless and does not stop here, we have new tools and ways of accessing these every day. This is the wonders of technology.
We have become so successful at sharing and sourcing information, knowledge, and data at any time, but we are not as successful in applying it. This is what it means to be ?????????????????? ??????????. We need to find ways to prioritise and manage the information accessible to us so that we use what we need when we need and ensure we remain productive and engaged.
Think about you, how many emails sharing insights and information in your inbox now, how many bookmarks have you save for later? How many of those have you gone back to and read or done something within recent times? What do you think you want to do with the information? Do you think you are missing out by not having the information? Curious questions I know.
These questions are not intended to judge they are intended to be curious as to why we consume more information than we can use. Writing this also will help me to uncover how I am weighing myself down with too much information, the next question will be why?
I do not have the answer. I searched Google before writing this to see if the term ?????????????????? ?????????? is used anywhere. You will be surprised to note the world fastest and greatest search engine came up with nothing.
I know it exists, if I am thinking about this, so too are other people. And just because it does not exist on Google YET does not mean it will not in the future. I am sure there are behavioural scientists looking into this now and figuring out just what to call it.
So, let me ask you one last question. Can you realistically consume all the information and knowledge you have saved for later or in your inbox? I doubt it! I know I cannot no matter how much I would like to, there is only so much we can find, consume, and use. Therefore, we are becoming ?????????????????? ??????????.
Are you knowledge obese?
Monica Watt | Chief HR Officer | ELMO Software Limited | #askmonicawatt | [email protected]
Organizational Development Leader
4 年Hi Monica: Thanks for sharing your article. A few terms that come to mind when thinking about what you called "knowledge obesity" include: "Information Overload" (which you've already mentioned), "Information Fatigue Syndrome", "Data Smog", and "Information Anxiety". * "Information Fatigue Syndrome" - from Dr. David Lewis (1996) * "Data Smog" - from David Shenk (1997) * "Information Anxiety" - from Richard Saul Wurman (1989) In 1989, Richard Saul Wurman's book "Information Anxiety" described this phenomenon of information overload. In 1996, Dr. David Lewis (a British psychologist), authored the report "Dying for Information," in which he coined the term "information fatigue syndrome" to describe the effect of information overload. Information Fatigue Syndrome leads to an over-bombardment of information to the brain which can result in "paralysis of analysis" and poor decision-making. In 1997, David Shenk in his book, "Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut," used the term "data smog" and information glut to describe information overload.
DBA
4 年I think this depends on what specific knowledge is a person working on...if it is something technical or specific such as software technology or coding shortcuts...it is worth to give a try....there should be a routine in place for every individual in a day's duration-maybe 3 minutes to 2 hrs where these can be looked into. The useless info must be eliminated...in my opinion it is time management and maintaining data efficiency. Is it also how we would like to manage and 'play around' with the vast digital volume(s) we have at our disposal....we can afford it...that is why it is an essential question....
Global Talent Director at Owkin | Flow Game Host | Qualified Coach
4 年I found this a thought provoking analogy Monica Watt, MBA. How many “empty information calories” do I consume? How much “snack food” do I hoard for later? Am I satiated after “consuming” an enormous portion of content? Having just reached my upload limit on my paid Evernote plan, I suspect I am guilty of this ??
Founder and President of the Empathy Clinic
4 年Great article Monica. It’s important to realize that memory is based on a number of factors. Organization is very important. Imagine going to a library where the books have not been organized properly. The way to remember things is improved if we put them in the right place when we learn them. Next, is meaning. It’s much easier to remember the plot of the movie than the name of the actors in it or the name of the movie itself. Putting together random pieces of information is very taxing on the brain. If you can make connections and associate information to create concepts, it is more efficient to store it properly and retrieve it. I knew there was a problem in the 90s when my children stopped bringing textbooks home and we’re bringing pieces of photocopied material. Bits and bytes are very useful to keep on top of things but the real meaning of information is beneath the surface.
AI & Data Scientist / Product Manager / Working with Transformative Technologies
4 年While I agree with the main concepts illustrated here, your use of the word "obese" is questionable. You are binding "being unsuccessful" to being obese. (here's the passage: We have become so successful at sharing and sourcing information, knowledge, and data at any time, but we are not as successful in applying it. This is what it means to be ?????????????????? ??????????.) And this is just wrong, and being obese is being unsuccessful only in a toxic culture that nurtures stigma. "Obesity" is a word that is already misused in too many contexts and if we want to build added value for the world we should be very careful when we use such words. I also see why you chose to craft a definition: Google wasn't showing any results. And yes, its great to find a definition and a title that helps cutting through the noise in the social media feeds. But if we want to be leaders, we need to be more accountable than this, we can be more human.