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Information – Hunter-Gatherer or Farmer

Bear with me as I develop my hypothesis…

Over the course of human history we gradually moved from nomadic tribes of people who moved around because their food sources changed into stayed put and nurtured food at stationary location.  We moved from hunters who followed the migrational movement of animals or the seasonal changes in fruits and vegetables, to the farmers who domesticated livestock and planted crops for food.

Jump ahead a bazillion internet years to now and we may have reversed that direction as we no longer develop our own information but gather it from all over the planet.  First hand research has been replaced by third person knowledge of Wikipedia (I use it a lot).

This move has sped up the process of gathering information (Hunting) and reduced the general process of processing through it all on our own (Farming).  Gone are the days of needing to know how to do first person research because you can just find something on the internet that appears to be authoritative.  I no longer need to think and ponder the data I have because someone out there in the ether has already done it and posted it.  A quick Google search and voilà – I have it.

Far be it from me the think through how this really applies to my individual situation – I have data.  No need to wonder how this can effect my personal outcome – I have “facts”.  No need to selectively see what impact this might have on my decision – someone has already made a conclusion.  All I need to do is act on it.

Farmers have to plant, nurture, protect, ward off pests, mature and harvest their crops prior to eating them.  Hunters just kill and eat.

In the information age – Hunters are raiding the Farmers property.  They swoop in and take what the farmers have created.  They reap where they have not sown.

Understand that I am not against this – it us just an observation.  I hunt and I farm.  I develop and I borrow.  I create and I use what others have created.

Hunting is good and Farming is good.

The reason I go through all of this is that any decision involves both.  You have to hunt up the information, data, perspectives and conclusions that others have provided and then you have to domesticate it (a farming process) so that it fits your needs.

The way this would look is that you would gather your information which is the hunting part, then move to the farming part where you categorize it, sift it, organize it, put it into groupings, define levels of importance to it, come to preliminary conclusions, prioritize the conclusions and then decide.

Hunters who kill and eat are those that find some drop of information that justifies their predetermined perspective and then jump to a decision without taking a little time to “farm” what they have found.  Farmers who limit their input to only what they have thought of and look with disdain at the information, perspectives and conclusions that can be hunted or gathered up are limiting their decision making scope.

You need to be a little of both.