filtering – From the desk of Adam Thomas

“Interesting” things are the only things that exist.

Our brain is a wonderful storyteller. It relies on narrative to communicate.

Don’t believe me? Here is a quick test: What did you have for breakfast last Sunday?

If that breakfast is in the middle of a story about something interesting, then you might recall what happened. If not, it is gone because it wasn’t interesting.

Two more things:

We are usually the star of the show (self-preservation is the prime directive).

Our brains don’t care for uninteresting things since it couldn’t comprehend them anyway. Our brain gets trillions of pieces of data per second and translates them on the fly to the “main things” we notice.

Something to think about the next time you say something that matters.

Don’t take in curated information once

What I mean by curated is that you’ve made a purposeful decision. Purposeful in the sense that “I clicked this video” or “I went to this conference.”It was a decision you’ve made.

Most engagements with information* have a ton of lessons, usually more than we can get in the first go-around. What is a way to get more out of what I got?

Take some time away from the material, and then do it again.

If you are a note taker, don’t bring the notes you have from the first session with you, draft a new set of notes for the second go.

What I find when I do this is that I see things in a completely different way, usually the way that is relevant now. It’s a step towards understanding and away from skimming.

This sounds time intensive. It is.

The other half of this is understanding how to filter the good from the bad.

Then it requires a lot of “no.”

Your ROI jumps from your own decision making, and I think that’s worth it.

*Decent to good books usually hammer the same information over and over, so they are usually good for just one reading.