Thriving on Overload: The 5 Powers for Success in a World of Exponential Information by Ross Dawson

Author:Ross Dawson
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: McGraw Hill
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Seeking

The creation of modern search engines was arguably almost as important as the invention of the internet. Now when we want to know something, we only need ask.

While web search is our usual mode of Seeking, we should also consider other approaches. As you have learned, people are often your best resource in finding the information you need. We should not forget that there are libraries full of marvelous books that are not available in digital form. Yet their catalogs are almost always available digitally, allowing us to search for and uncover these gems, potentially followed by a library visit for a Deep-diving session to mine their insights.

As with every focus mode, carve out a period for your stint of Seeking and park for later those resources that merit more attention. Seeking can very easily end up as an Exploring session, leading you to places that may be enthralling but not serve your objective, so as with all attention modes, keep focused! While you are Seeking, follow these principles:

Be clear what you want. The fundamental mental frame for Seeking is direction. Without clarity you risk wandering aimlessly amid the myriad enticing tidbits you will encounter. Having a specific idea of what will be useful to you makes it easy to assess the relevance of what you find.

Scan broadly. The first step is to find as many resources as possible that are relevant to your search. Depending on what you’re looking for, don’t limit yourself to your usual search engine. Use different search engines, and when appropriate use academic search engines such as Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, or ResearchGate. I use an initial set of search terms and open tabs to all of the pages that seem potentially useful, based on their title and the meta text in the search engine. I then try to identify alternative search terms, since authors and publishers could use different words from the ones I start with, until I have uncovered the most promising starting points.

Delve deep. For some information quests you need to go beyond the surface. When entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt was striving to identify a cure for her daughter’s disease, she adapted a technique called “shepardizing” she had learned in her legal studies. The name comes from Shepard’s Citations, which tracks every mention of a legal case or statute. For every promising medical paper Rothblatt found, she went to its citations, and in turn to their citations, creating a spiderweb to reach the vast majority of pertinent published content.4 The process is deeply time-consuming but enables thorough discovery of the most relevant sources. The treatment Rothblatt uncovered not only saved her daughter’s life, but also provided the foundation for her company United Therapeutics, which has since been valued at over $9 billion.

Narrow swiftly for later assimilation. Go through all of the resources you have uncovered, quickly winnowing. If you have opened multiple relevant tabs, quickly scan through each to see whether they may have valuable information. If they are sufficiently promising, bookmark them for later Assimilating or Deep-diving sessions.

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