Just read Daniel Henninger’s piece “Top 2009 Resolution: Don’t Be Stupid” in today’s Wall Street Journal. I can’t really argue with this as a resolution (though, if you scroll down you’ll see that not being stupid will have to be my #2 resolution), however what Henninger is calling for just may not be genetically possible for some folks?
Henninger’s main point is that the Web, Internet, etc. caused stupidity amongst our financial industry workforce by creating a nation of info overloaded, attention deficit disordered workers. Financial types “clicking” from Web link to Web link and from email, text or Twitter message to email, text or Twitter message, lost their abilities to really focus or “go deep” analytically on what was happening in fanancial markets, which ultimately resulted in a massive financial bubble and 2008’s collapse.
While all of this may be true, I would suggest that Henninger’s point is actually more far reaching than just financial markets. Are we becoming a nation of attention deficit disordered workers — constantly ping-ponging from websites to messages all day long?
Perhaps. And even if this is a little bit the case, how do we get back to the good old days of sound analysis, due dilligence, planning and execution?
Might I suggest a “2 Channel” approach. One channel of information for the stuff that is time sensitive and urgent — like when my wife texts me asking if I can pick up a People magazine on the way home from work (ok, I use the term urgent a bit loosely here). This channel would always be “on” and would be responded to in real (or near real) time. People would use SMS and “@name” on Twitter for this channel of communication.
The second channel is the non-urgent channel. This is where email would serve it’s purpose. And then we could have national email reading hours — say one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which would be plenty since none of these email messages would be time sensitive.
Imagine how much time then you’d have in a “2 Channel” world like this. You’d actually be able to review a proposal in depth, conduct a strategy session with a group of colleagues or even do an employee interview that lasted more than 10 minutes.
Imagine working like this? A little bit of less is more, but the less would certainly be more valuable.
Originally published on Medium on January 8, 2009. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.