Is That Content Useful to You?
Level 4: Serious Player
Future Guardian,
With the summer heat beating down, as I sit on my deck butting up into the shade of this little forest I've been stuck in thought on a seemingly simple, yet oddly complex topic ...
How do we know if a piece of content is useful to us?
In the context of last week's article where I cautioned being drawn in by simplified advice. How DO you look at world full of content and know what you ought to pay attention to, and what you can safely push aside?
This week I decided to invite back my old philosopher friends Max Prudence and Jack Gamble to have a discussion on my behalf,
So that we might gain clarity on how to look at simple or complex advice and know whether there's something useful in there for us - whether we ought to pay attention, have caution, or walk away.
Let's find out if these two can unravel it all for us ...
Jack Gamble: The other day, we were discussing caution when it comes to the sources we take advice and guidance from, especially when it comes to simplified advice.
Max Prudence: Yes, do you disagree?
Jack Gamble: Naturally, no. The advice is sage. However, I am left with a question.
Max Prudence: I should hope so. New understanding reveals new questions for further understanding.
Jack Gamble: Indeed. In this case, I am left wondering, how am I to tell what information is going to be useful to me?
I can have caution for simplified advice, but what if it feels like that advice is good advice? And even if not simplified, how can I look at some content and know whether I should pay attention or not?
Max Prudence: well-
Jack Gamble: (interrupting) and don't tell me "take action."1 There's too much information out there. I can't just do it all. I've got to have some kind of way to make an educated assessment before taking action as to whether it's the action I want to be taking now.
Max Prudence: I will forgive you the interruption, it is an astute observation. We only have so many resources at hand.
Jack Gamble: Exactly. I want to use my resources as wisely as possible.2
Max Prudence: So, let us formulate the question as precisely and as usefully as possible. How do we tell if some information/guidance/advice is useful to us, meaning we assess that it will increase the likelihood we get what we want, and is therefore worth testing that usefulness through action?
Jack Gamble: Yes, I believe that is what I wish to understand.
Max Prudence: Excellent. Now I believe it will be helpful to break down what it is we CAN assess about a piece of information. For the sake of specificity of language and understanding, shall we say we are referring to a written article?
Jack Gamble: That sounds like a good idea. I suspect if we can clearly and effectively assess a written article, whatever we get from that process could be applied to other mediums.
Max Prudence: A wise thought. Let's begin.
What is it that makes up the information of the written article which may have an impact on our assessment of whether it's useful and valuable to us? On whether we ought or want to pay attention to what the author has written?
I will suggest that much of this lies in the author themselves and what they are representing through the writing.
What drives the author to write?
What are their philosophies and principles which are being represented in the writing?
Then we can ask ourselves, are they forcing us down a path that is rigidly defined?
Or are they opening doors for discovery we're free to take or not?
Jack Gamble: That all seems deep. Is this separate from the writing itself? What makes these points important to whether the article is useful to me?
Max Prudence: Indeed this is a level deeper than most go. But if you think about it, what governs all of our actions are our Philosophies and Principles which we live by. We might not always be aware of them, but they drive fundamentally how we engage in the world.
Therefore it stands to reason that any article which is written, especially one which may pertain to actionable advice which could, possibly, help increase the likelihood you get what you want in life, is driven by the author's Philosophies and Principles, as well as their Motives.
Furthermore, unless we are reading simply for entertainment, that is assuming we are reading in order to learn, in order to change our behavior to increase our intelligence, then it behooves us to have clarity on all this, don't you agree?
Otherwise we are learning with ignorance about what is influencing our perspective and why.
Jack Gamble: When you put it like that, it gives me chills to think about allowing some other perspective or idea change my behavior if I am unaware of the Philosophies, Principles, and Motives behind it. That almost sounds careless.
Max Prudence: Perhaps. Though we can't always know the full truth, so no matter what our best course of action is to have clarity on our own Philosophies and Principles, as well as our Goals, to put up good boundaries and bumpers3 to protect those, and have the awareness to understand when someone else is asking us to do something which steps outside of those boundaries.
Jack Gamble: I agree
Max Prudence: But let us get back to assessing a written article.
Because while we still benefit most from awareness of our own selves, I believe it is a good exercise to try to assess these fundamentals in whatever it is we are reading and trying to learn from.
So allow me to dig deeper into how we might figure this out.
I believe it fair to say that anything written with actionable advice, from which you can learn, which may or may not increase the likelihood you get what you want, can be assessed across the following spectrum:
Philosophies -> Principles -> Strategies -> Tactics -> Tools
Jack Gamble: That looks familiar, haven't we spoken of this before?
Max Prudence: Indeed, this comes from the great philosopher Lukas Resheske4 and we maintain a perspective on his work in our archives here:
Jack Gamble: Fascinating. I'm interested to see how we can apply this here.
Max Prudence: Indeed.
If you agree, then I apply the statement that anything written which contains actionable learnable information is either about a Tool, a Tactic, a Strategy, a Principle, or a Philosophy.
And that most often, what is written is a tool, a tactic, or a strategy, within which the principle and philosophies are executed.
Jack Gamble: AHHH So THAT's why we look for the Principle and Philosophy behind the article. Because if we're reading about a tactic or tool, there must be some principle behind it all.
Max Prudence: Exactly.
Since we know that Tools are used to execute the Tactics, and Tactics are what enact the Strategy, and Strategy is the environment where Principle is applied, and Principle is the verifiable rarely changing truth aligned with our Philosophy, we can always travel up and down the spectrum to have greater clarity.
In order to move up, we can ask ourselves why.
In order to move down, we can ask ourselves what and how.
If we're reading an article that suggests we can earn $500k/year by emailing daily, we can ask ourselves why. Why does that work? Why do we want to do that? Why would that fit in our lives? Why does that work for the author?
We can keep asking ourselves why until we get back up to a level of Principle, which is a verifiable truth, and which rarely changes.
And then we can decide if that Principle is important to us.
We can also ask, what would that Principle look like applied for ourselves right now given what we know, and how we might apply that Principle.
For instance, that article suggesting we can earn $500k/year just by emailing daily may track back to a Principle of relationships, and that people buy from those they know like and trust (suggesting that emailing daily is the best/easiest way to build that knowing and trust).
We decide that Principle around relationships makes sense to us, we can ask ourselves “given what I know about myself now and what's in front of me, how would I apply this Principle to do something which increases people's ability to know like and trust me?”
If the answer aligns with what's being talked about in the article, I might have a useful resource in front of me.
Jack Gamble: Sounds good to me, but that doesn't seem like the whole story ... ?
I mean what happens if coming to that Principle conclusion just gives me a lot more questions?
Max Prudence: Can you think of other ways that people might know like and trust you?
Jack Gamble: I'm sure I could come up with an extensive list if pressed ...
Max Prudence: The point is, if you read the article, determined an underlying Principles which could have fed into that article, and then found yourself thinking of different ways to fulfill those Principles - different strategies, tactics, and tools - a different path might be more suited to you.
But if you read it, thought through the Principles, and felt like what was being discussed was well in line with your Principles and may be a way you'd like to execute on those principles, then the path being presented could be useful.
After all, our goal isn't to come to a definitive answer, but rather to determine if a new idea is worth spending resources to put into action.
Jack Gamble: Interesting. So uncovering Principle and Philosophy is almost like a compass of sorts.
Max Prudence: It's not the whole picture, but if we're entering something without alignment in our own Principles, then what's the point? If our perspective on the Principles and how to apply them differs, we ought to pay attention to that internal voice - in my view.
Jack Gamble: That makes sense. But it seems like there's a lot more than just Principle to help us understand whether an article is going to be useful to us or not.
Max Prudence: Naturally, the Principle and Philosophy behind the article brings us to the author themselves.
And the question I usually want to ask is, why have they written the article?
Jack Gamble: ... why have they written the article ...?
Max Prudence: Yes. I suspect this is a question few people ask themselves. Writing being so prevalent as it is today and easy to access, it is simply there, and how often do we ask ourselves why it is there?
Jack Gamble: I can't say I recall asking myself this question.
Max Prudence: Precisely.
And yet, if we are going to the level of asking ourselves what the Philosophies and Principles are behind a piece of writing, why would we also not ask ourselves "why has the author written this?"
What are the motives.
Wouldn't you agree that the motive behind the writing may have an impact on how we perceive and accept that writing?
Jack Gamble: That's an interesting thought.
If I take it to the extreme, I can see that if I KNOW the author is trying to manipulate me into taking an action, I'm going to be turned off from paying attention to the information.
Max Prudence: Notice how your reaction is completely separate from the information itself. And yet we can easily find ourselves passing judgement - even to the extent of ignoring the information if we believe the author is using it to manipulate us.
And why might the author manipulate us?
Jack Gamble: Well, money seems like an obvious motive.
Max Prudence: Agreed
Jack Gamble: But ... I don't think it's bad to write for money. Writers deserve to make a living.
Max Prudence: Also agreed.
Jack Gamble: So ... making money isn't bad, but is it bad if they are trying to manipulate us?
Max Prudence: Let us talk about that money as a motive, and take the good and bad out of it.
The obvious situation is when the information you are learning from is itself a clear attempt to sell something. Perhaps the information itself, or something related.
Less obvious situations may be when the author is masquerading a piece as one of learning, and on the back of that article they then try to sell you something. Often times the information creates an obvious gap in your life or your understanding of your life. It's the "did you know" articles, which present a problem you weren't aware of and then “fortunately” have the solution for sale right there.
But it can also be the "I had this great level of success doing this strategy" and off the back of that, selling you the strategy once you've arrived in the emotional high of believing you too can have the simple and effective success they have if you only do what they have done (and fortunately, they can show you exactly that).
And while some articles like that may be manipulative, none of that devalues the information, nor does it mean that the information is not useful to you.
Alongside articles where it can be discerned there may be an attempt to manipulate you into spending money, are articles where the author simply hopes that what they have written may connect with you, inspire you, or call you in a way that results in you spending money with them.
Jack Gamble: Hope doesn't sound like a strong tactic ...
Max Prudence: Now we're really getting into this from the writer's perspective. Hope is a loose word. Think about it like an open hand. An author who says here's my writing, want more? Or an author who says here's the idea, want help implementing this?
Jack Gamble: I can see a clear delineation ... especially if the information is not hiding anything and the author is selling something next to it.
But how do I know if the author is masquerading information in order to convince me to buy something that may or may not be useful to me?
Max Prudence: That's perhaps another conversation altogether. How can you tell if you are being manipulated? I could point to selling tactics like proof, claims, and I can point to your own feelings and ask yourself if you are getting a sense of FOMO, like you're missing something if you don't buy ...
But let's step back from the details,
Because when it comes to figuring out whether a piece of content is useful to you, and whether you may or may not pay attention to what it says ...
I believe the danger isn't in the author's motives, but rather in your awareness of them.
If you are not aware, whether through willful unawareness or ignorance, that the author is attempting to sell you something, convince you of something you don't currently believe, you do a disservice to yourself and put yourself at risk of being manipulated away from what may be a more appropriate path for you.
Jack Gamble: I'm picking up the theme of self awareness here.
But it makes sense, empowering yourself to understand the reason why an article is written can make it much easier to strip away anything that is not relevant to you and now.
Max Prudence: Exactly.
And it doesn't have to be money.
Articles are written for many reasons. The author may be seeking reputation. They may be seeking relationship.
They may very well have altruistic intent in their writing, to legitimately teach you and help you gain clarity of understanding on some idea ...
Yet we all must eat, put a roof over our head, answer to the inevitable need to make some level of money from the time we have to spend in order to live in this world. So it stands to reason that most articles you run across which aim to teach you something are in one way or another motivated by the need to earn a living, to make an impact, to leave a legacy, etc.
Jack Gamble: So that brings us back to my point, it's certainly not bad for an article to be written with financial motive. Though it seems like there are many layers to what that can look like ...
And yet despite all that I am starting to think that what's more valuable in all this is that I take the time to consider the question in awareness with my own present needs and interests.
Max Prudence: Now you're starting to get it.
Jack Gamble: Ok so, we are thinking about the Principle and Philosophy behind the writing as well as the author's motives ...
All of this and I feel like we still haven't touched on WHAT is in the article!
Max Prudence: Well, a written article, one that aims to teach us something, to pass on perspective and value, it certainly doesn't just sprout up from nothing does it?
Jack Gamble: I suppose that makes sense. It's all ultimately coming from the author, but I do suspect there are ways we can break down content in order to better understand how it may or may not be useful to us.
Also ... you mentioned something about the author guiding us down rigid pathways ...?
Max Prudence: Astute. Let's move on to the content itself and those pathways.
What is an article of learning if not a collection of statements, perspectives, ideas, and framings which lead the reader to a new understanding?
Jack Gamble: ... That ... sounds like a lot
Max Prudence: Indeed. But there are a couple key points,
Namely, the 'lead the reader' and all the 'statements, perspectives, ideas, and framings' - I believe we can distill this down into 'The path you're being lead down' and 'the claims being made.'
Let's start with the claims.
If you are someone who is inclined to break down and assess an article ...
Jack Gamble: I am
Max Prudence: ... I was assuming so since you brought up this discussion to begin with ...
Then you will be adept at discerning what is a statement based on fact, what is a perspective based on experience and opinion, what is an idea that comes out of those, and what is framing which is being used to guide YOUR, the reader's, understanding of it all.
Jack Gamble: Well yea sure, but do you sit there and dissect every article you read?
Max Prudence: I would be lying if I said yes. But I believe there is a better way ...
While it may be useful to break every part of something written down to that, yet again I think it's useful to simply have the awareness and then to look for the obvious problems.
Jack Gamble: In a world of opinion and idea and perspective and exploration ... what makes an obvious problem?
Max Prudence: A good question.
You see I personally have no problem with writers who write on their perspectives, their experiences, and explicitly try to unravel their understanding from those. That is after all one of the great gifts that writing gives us - the ability to expound upon our reality and discover new understanding within it.
But what sticks out to me ... are two things.
Statements of fact which, when verified, are proven wrong ...
And when a writer is making dogmatic statements.
Jack Gamble: Incorrect statements of fact seem obvious.
Max Prudence: Surely, but how often do you verify the truth of what is being stated in an article?
Jack Gamble: Hmm. Admittedly not as often as I probably should.
But these dogmatic statements. These are statements that are absolute then? One which is correct and everything is else wrong essentially?
Max Prudence: In essence yes. A dogmatic statement is one which draws a right/wrong line and attempts to emphatically declare you must be on one side.
A dogmatic statement is to say, for example, "if you want to make a living as an entrepreneur you have to have an email list."
Jack Gamble: That seems hard to refute though. Every entrepreneur I know has an email list.
Max Prudence: So, go find an entrepreneur who doesn't.
Because all it takes is a single successful entrepreneur who does not have an email list for themselves for you to refute the dogmatic statement.
Jack Gamble: Interesting ...
Max Prudence: That's the ironic weakness of dogmatism. All it takes is one example counter to the absolute statement to completely refute the argument.
"You can only lose weight by cutting carbs." That statement is immediately refuted by the person who loses weight while eating carbs.
So if you have an author who has made dogmatic statements like this, their entire premise is CRACKED when you bring evidence to the contrary.
Jack Gamble: So, look for dogmatism, because it may take apart the entire claim, the entire lesson being presented.
And check statements of fact with some verifiable source.
Is that all?
Max Prudence: Naturally, no. Dogmatism is the easiest thing to break. Statements of fact which can't be verified don't necessarily refute them, but again ... you can bring your own self awareness to the table and have caution.
Next you might ask yourself of the content ... What is the author asking of me?
What do they want me to do from this article?
This in some ways takes us back to the motive, but we can discern from the content that the author may or may not want us to take some kind of action.
Jack Gamble: Is this the pathway you were talking about?
Max Prudence: This and dogmatism.
Because one of the most common manipulations follows rigid definition, using some reasonably verifiable facts, to carve a path in a specific direction.
Let me attempt an example ...
Jack Gamble: You have my interest
Max Prudence: You'll have to accept some level of imagination for this one
Jack Gamble: I'll do my best
Max Prudence: Assume that you are an budding entrepreneur ... perhaps currently employed, or not and in a state where you wish to make money quickly, to replace your income.
Jack Gamble: Got it, I am looking for ways to replace my income rapidly, to have financial freedom and do what I want in life.
Max Prudence: Perfect.
Now. Imagine you've run across an article claiming $30k/mo on a couple hours a day selling simple plug and play landing pages for businesses.
The author points out that any business making money is generating leads, and they need effective landing pages to do so. The author also demonstrates that a landing page can be the first point of contact for a campaign worth millions to a business, and therefore is easy to sell for $1-2k,
And so therefore if you are looking for a quick way to replace your income, there's no simpler way than to just do what he does, selling these simple landing pages to hungry businesses.
Jack Gamble: I'm already convinced, how do I get started?
Max Prudence: Before I tell you the rest let me ask you a couple questions ...
Jack Gamble: Sure
Max Prudence: As a currently employed budding entrepreneur, are you selling marketing assets to clients?
Jack Gamble: No
Max Prudence: So you don't currently make landing pages?
Jack Gamble: No
Max Prudence: And you don't have any clients?
Jack Gamble: No
Max Prudence: And you don't currently own a business, know what life would be like running a business, know what it takes to sell or fulfill a service like that, know if that's going to get you the life that you want ...
Jack Gamble: Well ... no to everything.
Max Prudence: Do you see how the framing set you down a specific path which seemed obvious, but which actually has no reasonable fit in your life or situation?
Jack Gamble: Now I don't know what to think.
Max Prudence: Self awareness. Where are you at now, and what could you do next?
Jack Gamble: Well ... couldn't I just get what this guy is selling and then try his way of selling landing pages to see if it works?
Max Prudence: Principles. Is selling a landing page based in a principle?
Jack Gamble: No ... that's a ... tactic I suppose.
Max Prudence: Right. Let me shortcut this for you. Helping the business owner solve problems and grow is getting much closer to the Principle. Can you think of ways to help a business owner solve problems and grow?
Jack Gamble: Well ... I have a friend who owns a cafe down the street, I could go ask him.
Max Prudence: Now you're thinking more clearly.
Jack Gamble: I think I am seeing the bigger picture now
The power is not establishing an absolute equation for determining usefulness of some content/idea, but cultivating an awareness which breaks the veil that we unwillingly (or sometimes willingly) put over our own eyes and which is put over our eyes by clever writers, so that we can know what's really going on, so that we can unravel and unpack what is useful from what is in front of us regardless of what the author is trying to do, in a way which is congruent with who we are and what we want.
Max Prudence: Are you ready to exercise what you've learned?
Jack Gamble: What do you have in mind?
Max Prudence: Let's apply this to the very article we're a part of right now.
Jack Gamble: A strange experience ...
But I'm obviously here for it. Let's go.
Max Prudence: Perfect.
Start with the Principles and take it from there ...
Jack Gamble: Great,
Well I think since the author of this piece is writing these words, it's going to be unusually easy to pull apart the principles, motives, and examine the rest of the content.
Max Prudence: Fair, but perhaps it will be useful anyway?
Jack Gamble: I think so,
Let's see what I can come up with.
Principles ...
Throughout the article of our conversation we constantly came back to the theme of Self Awareness. It wasn't about doing something, but about why we do this.
Perhaps we can say that having self-awareness as well as awareness of what's happening in the content we are consuming is more important than being correct. This strikes me as a philosophy since it is not necessarily measurable or verifiable.
However, we know that in The Guardian Academy we have principles around Constraints5, Restraint6, and Function over Form7.
Can we say that this article is a strategic application of Restraint and Function over Form to determine whether some content we might consume could be useful to us in the context of moving through our Constraints?
Max Prudence: I would agree with that. Though we haven’t discussed Constraints, but I would say that is being alluded to, perhaps for a future discussion.
Jack Gamble: Well, I'm here for it all and those Principles and application of it align well for me.
What is the author's motive?
We know this is a TGA+ article. And yet, the content is fully available for free. Since, again, the author is writing this, we are bound by his perspective.
Therefore it's easy for us to say that this is an open door. An open door to discussion, to step further into TGA, join the comments below, and perhaps in the future join The Arena8 - options which are paid.
So there is financial motivation. But it's clear the content can be consumed and I could walk away from this and do my own independent work with the ideas, to learn and grow.
Knowing this is a TGA+ article, we can know the author is motivated to fulfill for The Guardian Academy and also open doors for people to step further in as customers and clients,
But I appreciate the framing in how it is done.
Max Prudence: Very good, I agree. Do you feel forced down a path? Are there false statements? Is there dogmatism?
Jack Gamble: I think, given the structure of this article, as being an oddly philosophical discussion amongst two imaginary philosophers, that it is highly unlikely anyone reading this will be forced down a path ...
Possibly compelled by the structure of the conversation, if they enjoy it?
But I do suspect that the author believes anyone who reads through the entirety of this and resonates with the Philosophy and Principle discussed will have grown some level of affinity and interest in taking steps forward in The Guardian Academy.
That perhaps they may wonder about applying this way of thinking to their life in an active way.
That maybe they will decide to get The Engage the Field Handbook9 and go down that path of action to live a life of full potential, of meaning and purpose.
But it's easy for me to say that of course.
Max Prudence: So ... Is this article useful to you?
Jack Gamble: Perhaps we should ask the reader ...
What do YOU think?
Be Useful. Be Present. Love the Journey.
, CMO The Guardian Academy
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This content is INCREDIBLY useful. Thank you, Joseph!