Confirming what you know and finding what you don't
When you’re conducting research and investigations, it’s easy to get sidetracked by opinions, expectations, and wishful thinking. Sometimes we hope for or have too much invested in a particular outcome. Other times, we rely on our usual tools and techniques and don’t consider their limitations. The technical term is cognitive bias, and it means that […]
Happy New Year to all! As we roll into 2023, most of us do what people seem to do at this time of year. We start fresh and set new resolutions, make new goals, and vow to do better.. If your plans include some self-improvement or professional development, you might consider working on your information […]
As many of you know, I’m a former librarian–although, once a librarian, always a librarian. I still use the information skills I learned on the job and in grad school on a daily basis, and I still teach them through this blog and through my social media, presentations, and online courses. When I say “information […]
When I first started in business, my research focused on market trends, the competitive landscape, and buyer preferences. I had little need for public records searching, especially online court documents, and chose to refer that kind of work to the experts. Fast forward several years and, after transitioning from market intelligence to background investigations and […]
As someone who specializes in gathering and analyzing online information, I’ll be the first to admit that you can’t find everything on the web. When you’re digging deep for hard-to-find answers to client questions, relying on just online research may leave gaps, which–in our business–can be costly. That’s why it’s important for researchers and investigators […]
We’re drowning in information. It pours into our email inbox, and, thanks to Google and other DIY search tools, the answers to our questions are just a few clicks away. Or are they? What happens after we finish our search? Sometimes a collection of “answers” isn’t what we need. What we really crave is meaning […]
This is one of my favorite information-related quotes, because it describes so well why I love my job. I’m on a never-ending hunt for new and exciting ways to improve my reports and make the information I deliver irresistible. Yes, I need to stay up-to-date on all the latest and greatest tools and techniques for […]
Since I’ve been tied up with work and vacation planning, here’s one I posted on the old blog in October 2014. I still get so annoyed with this Google-Is-To-Blame mentality: An article on Salon.com, Google makes us all dumber: The neuroscience of search engines, really caught my interest. In my research and investigations, Google is […]
We’ve all seen it, and – unfortunately – we’ve all contributed to it. TLDR, short for “Too long; didn’t read.” Think about it: Time is at a premium, our attention spans are shrinking, and we’re consuming information on some very small screens. People may not be spending a lot of time with your emails, client […]
A friend and fellow info pro sent this WSJ article to me, because, she said, it illustrated perfectly how “confirmation bias” often gets in the way of critical thinking. As information professionals, it’s something we strive to avoid, and it can rear its ugly head when we least expect it – in our choice of […]