Credible information

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This era is called the Information Age, we have a free access to practically any data we want at the tips of our fingers. In addition, any of us can add to it, reach out to the world and share our own information. For the longest time I thought this was a great thing, but listening to a lot of people lately has left me questioning things.

It seems as though culturally, when one is trying to get their information out, there is a lot less emphasis on being an expert with relevant education of a subject, than there is having the right connections. Not to comment on the actual validity of the statements, but we're in an age when we're getting climate information from Al Gore (degree in government) and vaccination advice form Jenny Mccarthy ("University of Google"). I mean yes, technically the information is out there; theoretically you could learn accurate rocket science off of Wikipedia and be as much of an expert as someone working for NASA, but you're far more likely to blow up trying.

So how do we filter it all? More importantly, how do we teach the next generation not to go with the nutters? I mean peer pressure used to be just stuff like smoking and drinking, now you've got celebrities, your dumb friends that listen to them, and random anonymous anybodies like us trying to convince kids to treat flesh-eating viruses with a magnet and a crystal. Supposedly around 7% of doctors in the US, that went to a four year school and did all the same training and research every other medical doctor has to do got a degree in Osteopathic medicine, a "medicine" that in over two hundred years, has never been scientifically verified as being able to actually do anything! If dedicated medical students fall for that kind of crap, what's keeping the rest of the world from sliding into insanity, superstition, and misinformation?

[nietzsche]

First you have to realize that information and data are two different concepts.

Then you adapt and you get most out of it.

Everything is colored by the writer or the editor or the funder or whomever. And if you don't like it you tend to look for the other source that puts it in a way that better adapts to what you were expecting.

Depending on the topic, to really understand something you will need to read many different books on it, talk about it with those who know the subject, give it a couple of years to sink in, or maybe 30 years, and then you can say you understand something fairly decently.

If what you're looking is to sound smart with your friends next dinner party skip most authors and go for the author that it's going to be accepted as being the most knowledgeable in the topic at hand (i.e. has more articles published in journals, I know many think that's the best criteria).

If what you're looking is practical information on how to raise your kids then it's the same process, read a couple of books or web sites but remain confident you will know what you need to know when the occassion arrives (i.e. you don't need to fret over not knowing how to change a diaper, even if you have no clue what new product is the best because it comes with aloe and octopus stem cells, you know that you have to clean the area and make your kid stop crying).