Information overload

I sometimes wonder at information (however interesting) a person these days starts to gather and store vs someone in the older days. My granddad, for example, was very wise and well informed but probably never knew (or cared about) which type of coffe was popular in Spain! His knowledge about the neighbourhood was great, he interacted with families and friends around us, he had a fair understanding of the political situation in India and was very well informed and had strong opinions about his work place in the government offices in Nagpur where he worked.

These days we have travel channels, the internet, the media is more savvy and people who spend time watching, reading listening can gather a lot of information. Sometimes I am surprised at the burning desire of some persons to also make others aware of their own level of information, however, irrelevant at times.

For example, you could be telling someone about a vaccation.. and explaining how your personal choice is sometimes more directed at sitting at a roadside cafe rather than ticking off a list of things to see and do.. The general idea of this discussion could go comletely on another track, if the person in front then starts to tell you about the price of a coffee (which he gathered from a cost of living report)or what type of coffee seeds are used and roated freshly and ground even more freshly (from a Travel series he watched on coffes around the world) or even which nationality the waiters that are used at this roadside cafe (from some other equally validated source!!

Its the same in corporates.. so many systems gathering so much data and huge departments of people (analysts) analysing and bench marking and sometimes jumping to very stupid conclusions. All this could be addressed by a phone call simply asking a simple question. These systems also function on the assumption of 'keeping track' meaning in my mind less trust, less empowement and less logical decisions in the end. And in many cases leaving behind a bewildered work force!!