Business content today is like the lure of a temptress. It flirts
with peoples minds and offers little tangible. Most of it can be wrapped into
"5 Ways you are hurting / lacking and 7 ways of fixing / doing it right
". You read it and you have satisfied the lure and then you
move on to the next headline. You may be spending 5 hours a month
flipping thru magazine or website but at the end, each time you continue with
your work just like you did before. This only feeds the media frenzy and
the whole self help apparatus but you as an executive have only lost time.
This reminds me of the current obesity crisis. The food industry
insidiously pulls you to feed on food like "things" (aka chemicals)
and that results in your greater desires for more of the same, not knowing that
you have hurt yourself rather than gained from what you just consumed.
This degradation is the result of the system that has been created
by the modern day pied pipers of content believe in their preaching, like
the original Stephen of Cloyes, who preached for a crusade by children and led
to the death of tens of thousands of children. But very much like him
they know little about it. There is little experience or research or
depth of content. There are sales coaches and content writers who have
not sold worth a cent. They have not even done any empirical research but
they write with impunity and the audacity of the lords of medieval ages.
THE PULL IS TOO STRONG AND NUMBERS MATTER
This phenomenon is seen not just with the innumerable content sites that
have sprouted unabated with little barriers to entry, but has also infected the
major established players. McKinsey, HBR, WSJ, NYT all of them have sprinkled
the golden dust of "5 ways and 7 ways". The pull is too strong
and numbers matter. You can always find a major cover page or the home
page with one such article at least. It is a testiment to marketings
understanding of the human psyche. Not that people do not know that
processed food is bad for you by design but most are not ready to abandon it.
Like I said the pull is too strong. The health consequences are
well known. Diet soda is a drug and so is sugar. The diseases are a part
of life unlike they were before. Fortunately, the consequences of reading
junk content is not as sevier. At best it has an opportunity cost and at
worst you may still continue to wonder why your progress is worse than you'd
like it to be.
However, the opportunity cost is huge. What you are capable of
doing is infinite - literally. You have an equipment that is amazing by
any standards. Properly used, you will find that it can do amazing
things. Gandhi failed at the bar exam so many times and so did Einstien
in high school. But that is another story. Getting back to the
content, I think we need to demand quality - validity and reliability and
actionability. Let us show where we spend time on the web - junk food
isles or the local produce.
Published by The 8020Strategy Group,