People have worked for generations to build, improve and understand. Efficiently accessing and utilizing this information will help us build better and faster. To find good resources, consider your goals, available time, and level of information needed. Additionally, consider what’s being sold. Study the advertiser’s word choices, backgrounds and values to see if they align with your goals. Looks can be deceiving, but many resources wear their values openly.

Good Resources Are Out There!

So much good work has been done all around us.

For generations, we have devoted our lives to understanding, quantifying, and improving upon the things we do each day. Enthusiastic learners stand on the shoulders of giants to build on past discoveries, and strong information accumulates each day.

At the same rate – if not greater – nonsense is perpetuated. Snake oil salesmen stand at corners (both literal and virtual) selling dubious work to anyone who will buy. People will promise you the world hoping you’re listening, equipped with nothing beyond a compelling delivery method.

An Example:

In elementary school, I had a project on Hernando Cortez.

The internet was a bit more of a wild landscape at the time, and I was at an age where Wikipedia solved everything (these days, it does).

I went to Wikipedia to read about the mysterious Mr. Cortez and learned all about how he was a “woman with a passion for fashion” and how he went to Mexico to study design.

Needless to say, my first project draft was rough.

Sift to Find the Good Stuff

While the internet is certainly more sophisticated than it was in the early 2000’s, it is still full of misinformation mixed into quality data.

How do we sift through the sheer mass of information out there? How do you get answers to your questions without taking on a college seminar? What do we have to do to avoid getting tricked by salesmen?

To best understand where to find good resources and how much we need, it’s important to consider why we want the information in the first place.

What is Your Goal?

Your end goal determines the depth of information you need and where you should seek it.

If you are merely interested in the answer to a straightforward question, you can likely Google it and be done (or ask any of the free AI chatbots at your disposal). This avenue will point you in the right direction and give you an idea of the landscape surrounding your question, but likely won’t serve as something you can cite and use in your academic journal.

Let’s say that instead of answering a basic question, you want to tune into a topic and learn about it as new information and ideas come about. Here, you are best served looking around and identifying the major content resources for your topic and following them. Most every topic has a dedicated fanbase, and these fanbases are excellent resources for finding high-quality information for free or cost effectively (ex. Barron’s for stock market advice or Sheep and Stitch for knitting).

Sometimes, we want more than a basic answer, yet we don’t want to immerse ourselves in the world of our desired topic. Here, we can look around and survey the field of experts discussing the topic. From there, we can usually find good resources combine a few expert opinions to best understand our topic.

How Much Available Time Do You Have?

The depth with which we can approach a question is limited by our available test time.

Many people taking the Bar Exam know this well: we don’t have unlimited time for every question, and we often have to stick with the big points so we can get everything we need to done. The same is true for most questions in daily life.

I generally like to get the best answer possible given my time constraints. I try to avoid excessive searching when an easy answer isn’t there, but I like to check my bases to make sure I am not missing something big.

A few tips to doing background searches efficiently:

• Consider keywords
  • Many topics have multiple ways they can be described, but a popular keyword or set of keywords generally prevails. Learn your relevant search terms so you can effectively find what you’re looking for and avoid sifting through irrelevant information.
• Know your databases
  • Often, Google is enough to answer general questions. However, for more detailed research/specific types of information, we may have database access (ex. WestLaw or LexisNexis for legal research) that have superior information. Take time to learn how to narrow your search results, connect terms, and make each inquiry faster. Also note that many libraries will offer specialized databases for free, saving you considerable sums for quality information (did I mention these databases can be hundreds of dollars a month?).
• Listen to your gut
  • Some searches take a bit of finagling to get to the good information. Maybe you don’t know the keywords or there isn’t much on the topic. If you don’t find what you’re looking for after a good bit of searching, accept that what you want just may not exist. Don’t spend all day looking for something you’re fairly confident doesn’t exist unless you absolutely must.

It’s important to approach our interests and research needs seriously. Just because you don’t have a lot of time, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make a diligent effort to find the information. Considering the necessary level of information in addition to your time constraints will help you best refine your search and collect what you need.

What Level of Information Do You Need?

Some inquiries require a high level of detail to be satisfied. Others, on the other hand, only need a basic response.

Getting to know your question, the topic, and the applicability of the answer can help you manage your time more productively and answer questions to the extent they need to be resolved.

When you have a question, it’s important to consider the level of information you need to be satisfied.

• Is this question for your thesis?
  • If so, you will probably have to go through various academic sources, piece studies together, and use data sets to come to the best possible conclusion.
• Is this questions for a heated game of scrabble?
  • If so, stick with the scrabble dictionary and leave your loved ones alone.

Sometimes, we only need a basic level of information but want more for our own edification. In these circumstances, we should feel free to study more if time permits. After all, knowledge is power and it’s good to satisfy our learning interests. However, we should not take time needed for other tasks and devote it to random interests if we can avoid it.

Curiosity is nice (and can lead to a lot of personal growth), but we should not practice procrastination under the guise of enthusiastic study.

Should You Pay?

Quality information takes effort.

To obtain quality information, we must go to a resource that has proven itself to be credible. For a resource to prove its credibility, it often needs considerable existing work, recognition, study, education, and/or practice. High-quality resources are often the result of a person’s (or group of peoples’) full-time work into a given topic.

With that in mind, quality information may come at a cost. Determining whether to pay for information requires a few considerations:

• Your desired use of the information;
• Resources bundled with payment;
• Quality of information;
• Cost of information;
• Interest in information; and
• Available money/resources.

If you expect to use the information professionally, it often makes sense to pay for database access or professional publications so that your sources have heightened credibility and review. Nothing’s quite as bad as citing a case and finding out that it came from the imagination station.

Additionally, paying for resources can also connect you to quality resources that you did not initially set out to acquire when you started your information search. Information companies often bundle resources to create marketable packages, and you should consider available packages in making your purchases.

As previously mentioned, your local library likely has a lot of quality resources available to you at no cost. It can be helpful to buy resources for yourself, but when resources are limited, we may be better served using publicly-available avenues to learn rather than buying for ourselves.

Regardless of whether you’re choosing to purchase information or spend time reading free resources, it is crucial that you assess resources before devoting resources of your own to using them. Time is limited, making it critical that we spend ours wisely and seek out the best available resources.

Assessing Resources

More content has been created than we could ever possibly consume.

Books, articles, poems, videos, and podcasts delve into any conceivable topics, providing us with resources ranging from professional, to accessible, to downright deceptive or manipulative.

It’s important to learn how to assess resources so that you know what they are producing before you rely upon it. To do so, it helps to first consider what they advertise.

What Do They Advertise?

Advertising is everywhere. As Jay Levinson discusses in his bestselling book Guerrilla Marketing, almost every sort of interaction can be used to promote and advertise products and services.

From billboards to sales pitches, people are advertising their goods and services in order to find interested parties. Websites may use logos, slogans and free guides to advertise their knowledge and pull people in. Advertising can be anything, and is often built through subtle messaging and components within a broader advertising scheme.

How an advertiser presents impacts how viewers consider them. Their appearance, language, and environment can make what they’re selling more or less accessible, possibly shifting them from one market group to another. Their mannerisms, tone of voice, intensity, and physical attributes can all combine to create an effect and advertise their products.

It’s important to consider the full picture so you understand who you might be learning from and how they live their own lives.

What Do They Show You?

Much is shown in an advertisement. What people want to show you, what they want to hide, and what they think is relevant or amusing. All of this combines to create a unified advertisement effect on the viewer.

• Is there a person in the advertisement? If not, what’s there?
• If so, what are they wearing? Do they show you a nice watch or fancy clothing logos? Do you see jewelry hanging from them, or are they relatively plain?
• Are they surrounded by things? What’s around them? Do you see signs of wealth, or personal mementos? Do you see degrees in the background? Is there artwork?

A strong advertisement combines every aspect of the information displayed to create a single effect. Salesmen can modulate their voices, puff their chests out, and make themselves look absolutely insane if they think it will help them make money.

Considering the image presented will help you see where they envision their services and the type of people they seek to target. Beyond the image itself, we must consider what’s said to see if the presentation matches what we seek.

What Do They Say?

What an advertisement actually says tells you exactly what they’re trying to do.

Advertisers spend time, money, and energy crafting a specific presentation with the aim of attracting their desired audiences. Each word they choose is designed to relate to the specific group they want to work with and build trust where needed. Pay attention to their words so that you know what they aim to do.

“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were!”

— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Words are powerful tools to build connections and link seemingly unrelated concepts to our passions and emotions. If you read billboards along the highway, you’ll see how they try and capture your passion with concepts like “We’re Bigger Than The Rest!” or “We Will Fight for You!” to project senses of security and righting wrongs.

Similarly, advertisers will make a point to express shame, frustration, or exacerbation with their peers or industry so that you feel like they’re on your side and understand the marketing used on you. Advertisers are quick to call peers frauds and purport to have created something new so you feel their value proposition and disregard others.

Other times, advertisers will avoid all mention of others and rely on the quality of their product or services. These advertisers will provide detailed information about what they do, hoping it will find its way to convincing the right audience.

Consider what people say to you when they want your time, money, and/or attention. Often, their words will give you all you need to know. If you want to look further, consider how they present themselves beyond the words chosen.

How Do They Present Themselves?

Looks can say a lot. A person’s preference for tee shirts as opposed to blazers can indicate their desired company and market interests. A website’s preference for Calibri font or Times New Roman might tell you whether they seek to be accessible or academic-oriented.

How a product is presented can shift its target audience from the white collar setting to a poverty-line household depending on where the advertiser sees room to profit. An advertiser’s presentation can both directly and indirectly convey messages about the advertiser’s product, goals, and values.

Beyond placing a product into a specific market space, an advertiser’s presentation of self helps you understand how their goals might align with your own. For example, if you are looking to become more fit, consider what the advertiser/content creator you are considering studying puts forward.

• Do they show you how big their muscles are?
• Do they show you complicated movements?
• Are they sport specific?
• Do they take good information from others and present it for your benefit?
• Are they focused on selling your their product?
• How do they move around?
  • Do they walk smoothly?
  • Do they hide aspects of their movement?
  • What aspects of movement do they seem to prioritize?

Much of what we want to learn can be made more detailed to fit specific goals. It’s important to consider how an advertisement presents the good or service involved so that you best understand the type of people you’re working with and what they value. In a similar vein, you are wise to consider how the advertiser discusses others in the pursuit of your business.

How Do They Speak of Others?

Often, especially when it comes to service-industry advertisements, advertisers will discuss peers and differentiated but similar products in the market.

The big power lifter pitch may talk about how weak other personal trainers are, while the marketing salesperson might compare their follower counts to peers or monetization of followers.

It’s important to consider how a person speaks of others because it reflects how they might treat or speak about you.

Sometimes, a negative review of a peer can shed light on bad practices or differentiate a new service provider. At the same time, negativity will always show a person’s willingness to punch rather than lend a hand.

If your goal is to treat others how you want to be treated, why work with and support those who put people down for their own gain?

Don’t Miss Good Resources Because They Don’t Look As You’d Expect!

I fall into this trap more often than I’d like to admit.

It’s so common to see someone marketing a service, look at them, and think “why would I want to learn X from someone like that?”

From that split-second decision, we may lose excellent resources due to our own biases.

Biases Hiding Quality Information

A perfect example of this is the wrestling coaching account WrestlingPrep. WrestlingPrep is a fascinating wrestling training group run by a Ms. Carolyn Wester that focuses on understanding body mechanics and the ability to move so that wrestlers can more effectively learn new techniques and tactics. Ms. Wester’s instagram shows young wrestlers tumbling, expressing wide ranges of motion, and otherwise developing quality athletic skills.

I’ll admit, I nearly lost this account forever simply because Ms. Wester did not look like what I imagined when I thought of a high-level wrestling coach.

In my experience, wrestling coaches had always been athletic, strong-looking men who tended to be on the burly side of things. Ms. Wester does not fit that image.

Once I started to watch how she trained students, listen to her detailed advice, and study how she helped her wrestlers move, I realized that my own biases nearly caused me to miss out on an expert’s free advice.

How someone looks and acts can tell you a lot, but don’t let yourself miss out because a good resource does not look as you’d expect.

Conclusion

It takes time to find good resources, but quality information is everywhere. Whether you want to brush up on your South American geography or take on a research project for school, learning to find good information will help you work more quickly and avoid pitfalls along the way.

Consider how much time you want to spend to find good information and the level needed to satisfy your needs. Learn to use your databases, and look around for better ones available to you. Spend money when you want or need to, but know that good information can often be found publicly if you know how to look.

Most importantly, consider your goals so you know where to look.

Once you’ve found a resource or content creator, study what they are doing and see if it fits what you’re looking for. Consider how they present themselves, what they show, and how the speak of others. Do they align with your objectives and values? Are they someone you’d like to work with or learn from?

At the end of the day, it’s your choice, and you can always find someone to help you grow.

Thoughts, comments, or questions? Let me know.

-G

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