Sorting Through "Extreme News" From Left, Right and Center - A Crucial Skill-Builder At Trend-Spotting and for Strategic Planning.
Author's Note: Every entrepreneur, and every single emerging enterprise requires management, market reasearch, marketing, publicity, branding and a constant re-evaluation of potential future trends. If you are so biased that you deliberately exclude (adversely select against) "radical" or "extremist" publications which don't conform to your pre-existing views, you will merely be recycling your own brand of stupidity -- some call this "the kindling of circular intelligence."
The key is to be open to information which comes from any and all sources...to detach yourself emotionally from the political or other agendas of their writers, publishers and promoters. Every leader, manager, marketing director, financial officer, planning officer, product or service developer must be as an objective Information Hound, to the greatest extent possible. If your limit your total news intake, you limit your knowledge base, thinking, insight, intellectual growth, analytic ability and efficacy, and ability to survive and thrive. I can read the SPECTATOR, MOTHER JONES, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, BUZZFLASH BULLETIN and THE ROLLING STONE in one sitting. I can listen to NPR as well as a series of Sunday morning sermons, deluxe with sulphur and brimstone.
When it comes to the necessary job of futurism, more information is always better. Learn to expose your yourself to more input, while trusting that your character and judgment will not be hurt in the process. In fact, this testing will get you more in tune with who you truly are -- and that is a wonderful thing. -DC
Dear Readers:
Some interesting headlines and brief articles from some of the more "extreme" news sources (actually, in many cases these are more appropriately called conjecture sources) may prove to be a fountain of some useful information. Understand that in every article, there is a grain of truth (an initiating spark, fear, or observation which inspired the writer) and a large element of propaganda. The trick is to separate the elements of truth from the surrounding rhetoric. One of the means of doing this is by rudimentary correlative analysis....for example, if two politically opposed groups speak of the same subject and make similar observations about its implications, you might have unearthed a piece of truth.
If two adversaries agree on a common problem or a common trend -- it is invariably one worth watching. Finding these areas of informational intersection is one of a true intelligence analyst or Global Futurist's most important skills. I'll admit that sometimes it is a bit of a stomach-turner to read through the accusations, recriminations, bigotry and hate-speak. But the gold which you will pan from this stream of compost is still gold.
This is a great skill, and a great exercise. Use this analysis tool often, and your abilities to see through the smoke to the spark will increase appreciably.
More Info + More sources + Rudimentary Correlative Analysis = Better planning for your life and your business.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle,
Vice Chairman,
THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES
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