Dan Erwin

Information Overload Anxiety (IOA)

. . . And how to overcome it.

Our world is a poly-saturated, paper and internet-polluted society. A world in which those with the right information have power. A world where fortunes are made or lost, careers are secured or shot, health is enhanced or damaged by one factor--information. Indirectly, I built my business out of a love of cutting-edge information. I was enlightened of its importance by a Pillsbury client about 25 years ago. I had just recommended a book to an IT director and he responded with a strong rejection--and a comment: "We pay you to read for us."

I thought it was a stupid comment. But I took it to the bank for big bucks.

This, however, is not the 1980s. Anyone with a slight excess of gray matter understands the necessity of reading, study and learning today--just to keep up and build a little career security. As a consequence, I'm regularly asked what I'm reading--and how I stay on top of stuff. Since I'm currently reworking my reading habits, now's a good time to respond to that question. 

Over the past couple years I've been cutting back on my newspapers, journals and magazines. For a number of reasons. The overlap in some results in needless ...

Smart Dad with Smart Kid

"The 'State of Hockey' is. . . excessive." Anyone who reads enough to compare cultural values in the Western world is aware that we in the States are not known for our moderation. That was best illustrated by a comment of a lead character in the British espionage series, MI-5. In one episode he commented regarding the chaos in Iraq Middle East that he'd be glad when "the US Military could find no more countries to invade."

I've often been smitten by holding a similar attitude toward the complete lack of any sense of long-term priorities or moderation in the attitudes toward local sports and the public schools, whether grade school or college. So I thought the lead commentary in today's Star Tribune on the role of hockey in Minnesota was both daring and long overdue. It also elicited a huge guffaw with the final statement.

The extended comment, written by Dale Vaillancourt, a young father from the middle class suburb of Burnsville, paid attention to the fact that Minnesota is a hockey crazy state. He was quick to say that he enjoyed watching "two evenly matched teams battle it out on the ice. If there's some brutal checking or a fight. . . even better." Obviously, Vaillancourt is also a sports guru. He just completed his 12th American Birkebeiner ...

Outside the Mainstream

To a significant degree much creative and innovative thinking is a rejection of conventional knowledge. Indeed, a strategic orientation to creativity may target conventional wisdom as a fundamental tactic. Outside the Mainstream will regularly bring articles, columns and research that challenges the conventional.

Adam Grant, 5 Myths About Introverts and Extraverts at Work Get ready to be challenged. Grant shoots down a number of old chestnuts built primarily on the MBTI. Long overdue, his research deals with how the two styles approach matters as diverse as networking, public speaking, relationships and even sales. So you won't want to forget the ambiverts in the middle of the continuum. This will curdle some stomachs.

Susan Dominus, How to Get a Job with a Philosophy Degree. I've been holding this for February, about when graduating seniors start to get really serious about their job hunt. The recommendations don't just apply to philosophy. And this is not just for seniors, but also for their parents. Maybe we need to learn not to be totally focused on ...

Make No Bones About It: David Brooks Is Preaching

And unlike most in the preaching profession, he’s not talking to the choir. He even begins with a liturgical format: We take as our text today the parable of the prodigal sons. I assume you know the story about the father with two sons. The younger took his inheritance and blew it. And when the money was gone, he returned home. When his father saw him he ran out and embraced him. He offered the boy his finest robe and threw a feast in his honor—all to the profound chagrin of the highly responsible older brother. It’s the older brother’s responses that are fascinating. Brooks puts them front and center.

What you get from Brooks is a creative and imaginative Midrash in which he reinterprets the story as a lesson for modern social policy. The last three paragraphs are seminal.

The father teaches that rebinding and reordering society requires ...

Perfectionism Is Not All Bad

Unlike many personality traits, perfectionists usually recognize their perfectionism. And if they don’t, then their co-workers do. Colleagues of a perfectionist readily surface the information in an expletive format like, “god, what a perfectionist!” That translates, most don’t need to be told, as “what a pain in the butt.”

Historically, perfectionism has been viewed as a personality style that includes striving for flawless performance, meeting excessively high standards and overly critical evaluation of one’s own behavior. Of course, some perfectionists are quietly proud of that personality trait. And though they might make self-deprecating comments or laugh about themselves, they have not the slightest interest in rejecting the category. After all, most perfectionists believe it’s gotten them a lot of kudos and opportunities in their career.

Is perfectionism all negative?
The dominant view through the 1980’s was that perfectionism was pathological, the sign of a neurotic and disordered personality. Perfectionism, psychologists believed, was driven by concerns over mistakes, doubts about actions and fears of rejection. These researchers stressed that unhealthy ...

Erwin: Six for the Growth-Oriented

A plethora of highly useful insight, challenges to convention and new data makes these a must-read. 

Andrew McAfee. Big Data's Biggest Challenge: Convincing People Not to Trust Their Judgment slipped through the cracks in December. But McAfee, Associate Director of the Center for Digital Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management, studies the ways information technology affects businesses and business as a whole. This article is a classic take-down of the so-called expert. It teaches you that expertise in one area certainly doesn't mean that you're an expert in big data. Teaching people not to trust their judgment is a losing battle. But it needs to be fought. McAfee is one of those smart guys with the urge to impose order on chaos. Superb how-to. It's a keeper.

Laura Pappano. Learning to Think Differently. Now at the Center for Women at Wellesley, Pappano is at it again. The award-winning journalist writes in education, social issues, politics and gender and inevitably makes you think--often differently. But this article tells you how to do it. It shows a non-creative how to get creative. Most significantly, it warns that if you...

Are You a Sprinter, Marathoner or a Middle-Distance Runner?

David Brooks’ What machines can’t do is a delicious statement about the future of work. The subtexts, that stuff not really stated, are loaded with caveats, half-truths, yes and no, probably, and maybe so. Still, if you understand the need to pay close attention to your career future, the article is an inflection point. In other words, it’s a highly ***valuable career reference.

Technology, Brooks writes, seems to reward a few traits: enthusiastic curiosity, strategic discipline, process architects, decentralized networks and creative “essentialists.” I’m inevitably skeptical about trait theories in most any form, but still, Brooks has his finger on some important stuff. First, though, I want to dig in a bit deeper into the issue with insight from some really, really smart and knowledgeable economists.

Baseline: what can machines do?
The answer to this question is what you need to keep in front of your nose. Thankfully, Frank Levy (MIT) and Richard Murnane (Harvard) answered this most fundamental career question about 10 years ago. Their response remains cutting-edge.

Building on an essay by Herb Simon (Nobel Prizewinner), Levy and Murnane pointed out what machines can do...

Dan Erwin: 5 More for the Curious

GeoffreyJames. What strong emotions tell you at work. If you're not familiar with James as a writer and blogger, this is a great introduction. James knows how to draw strong, immensely practical and relevant conclusions without going off the reservation. Along with Linda Richardson, he also has some of the best stuff on sales. In this brief, substantial article, he gives definition to our emotions. But significantly his take advises you on the weakness driving the emotion and what a manager should do about it. Fascinating stuff! 

Nelson Schwartz: The middle class is steadily eroding. Just ask the business world. This article summarizing the awareness of businesses, especially restaurants, that with the demise of the middle class their business is at risk, is the first shot across the bow. Sociologists have known for decades that the upper class is ultimately built upon the middle class. And that without a solid middle class, the opportunities for enrichment will eventually dry up. Schwartz' reporting gives indication of that issue by comparing the changes, sometimes massive, in business. It's not just restaurants. Retailers like Penney's and Sears, the middle-class giants. . .