You receive new intelligence. Information on a subject matter that you are interested in, that you instinctively know will help you, and so you dive in. You get more intelligence, trying to learn exactly how this new concept can help you. So you gather, you learn, you research. You find people all over the place with opinions on the subject. You find new companies that you have never heard of before. You dive in, and you start reading, watching, and learning. Unfortunately, your search is on the Internet for the most part, so all these interested parties start to find out that you are interested, and then the intelligence really starts to flow fast.
This is when you start to try to categorize and map the intelligence coming your way. You start to put things into buckets to visualize your understanding. You find overlaps, which blow up your structure, and you try again. You are spending a massive amount of time trying to understand this new world and now you start to feel overwhelmed. However, more intelligence is pouring in rapidly now. This new world did not exist a few days ago, but now it does. You are rapidly consuming all the intelligence out there that has been disseminated by experts, consultants, and marketers. The intelligence has now become noise. You might as well stop now; you are not going to get anywhere once the amount of incoming intelligence becomes just another noise source in your life. You are tuning out now.
When exactly does intelligence become noise? This is an age-old question. You are now in the realm of overthinking and making things way too complicated. You have fallen down the rabbit hole, indeed. You might as well join the Tea Party now and dawn your special hat you brought because you are starting to become mad. You have lost the original intent; the marvel of the new intelligence has become a quagmire of rapid-fire ideas. Piece of advice – do not send emails to colleagues when you are in this mad hatter state of overwhelming intelligence. They are going to think you are crazy because you are. Temporary insanity brought on by trying to make sense of this new world you are in. How did this happen? I will tell you by defining the key areas in which intelligence becomes noise.
Area 1 – Simplicity
Intelligence is awesome when it has simplified the complex for you. Allowed you to see clearly. When new intelligence comes in and starts to make things complex, it is now just noise. You are no longer getting value. Time to back away from the keyboard and go for a walk.
Area 2 – Decisions
New intelligence should help you make an informed decision. You should have a few options before you, and those should be clear and understandable. Intelligence is marvelous when it helps you quickly and efficiently make the best decision. However, when the incoming flood of intelligence starts creating facts on top of facts and is creating confusion as to which option you should select, you have reached overload. If you are not able to make a clear decision with intelligence, then the new information is just noise.
Area 3 – Action
New intelligence should inspire action. You should be confident enough to take a new approach and start acting right away. When you find yourself in a vicious cycle of contemplation and pondering, then the intelligence has reached noise status. You are no longer getting valuable details that can help your decisive victory, you are now reaching the point of paralysis.
Area 4 – Clarity
Intelligence should clarify. If it does not then it is not intelligent. You are instead being treated to useless details, rhetoric, jargon, or terminology of the sworn in. When you gain intelligence the world should seem more clear, understandable and the path ahead should become obvious. If not, then you are in the marketing world. You are being surrounded by useless content that is overwhelming you and mucking up the path. If you are not gaining clarity, stop reading. Focus on something else for a while and let what you learned clear up before proceeding.
Area 5 – Reality Check
New intelligence should lead you to conclusions that are rational. If they lead you to solutions that are completely impractical, then you are wasting your time. If you come up out of your guzzling session where you are swallowing down a bunch of material you realize that what is in your head is utterly preposterous. Then stop the flow. It is just noise now. Sometimes it is helpful to talk to someone outside of your world to get a spot check on reality. You can sometimes get confused by too much noise. Like that Poison concert you went to in the 80s. You thought it was awesome while you were there, but anyone in the outside world would think you needed to get your head checked.
New intelligence is awesome. Use it. Intelligence should simplify, help you make decisions, inspire you to action, clear up a situation, and give you a nice, clean, sensible path. If that is not the result and you find yourself confused, stuck, overwhelmed, and thinking crazy thoughts, then you are the victim of noise and not intelligence.
