Tag: information

Posted in Life, retirement

Too much information?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

My life is so filled with information that I no longer know what to do.

It was a lot easier when I was young. I’d get up in the morning and look out the window. I either saw the sun or overcast skies. I could see if rain (or snow) falling. If I felt cold, I out on a jacket or coat. And then, regardless of the weather, I headed out the door and walked to school.

Now I check my phone to check the current temperature as well as predicted highs and lows. I look at the hour by hour prediction of rain. I watch a moving radar map to see if a storm is headed my way. I zoom out to see if there are any storms in other places where I might be going that day. Should I bring an umbrella? Will an event be cancelled? Should I hunker down at home? Am I feeling lucky, as if I’ll be on the sunny side of a fifty-percent chance of rain? Sometimes I don’t know what to do.

When we picked up our Great Dane puppy, the breeder gave us tips from her years of experience. She advised us on the kind of food to get and when to neuter our female. When we got home, we took her to the veterinarian for her next round of shots. He gave us completely different advice about food and age for spaying. Of course, when I got home, I got online and did some research, hoping to break the one to one tie. That didn’t help. I found plenty of expert advice to support either recommendation.

It was a lot easier when I was younger. I brought home my first pup with a bag of inexpensive food and we were both happy for his fifteen-year life.

I don’t find online reviews to be helpful for much of anything. There are just as many negative as positive reviews for products, physicians, restaurants and jobs. Are those reviews even legit? Or are some of them fake? Who knows?

It was much easier to walk in the store, pick up an item, and buy it if you liked it. Or if you enjoyed the meal, go back to that restaurant. If not, go somewhere else.

In the wake of my retirement nearly two years ago, I still get conflicting information. “So-and-so was still preaching well into his nineties.” Another person kept working, fell ill, and never got to enjoy their retirement years. “You know, the bible never speaks of leaving the workforce.” And, “I’ve been retired more years than I worked. I highly recommend it.”

It seems like there are many more experts in this world than there used to be. If I listen to all their advice, I might not do anything, paralyzed by too much information. So I think I’ll just look out the window, play with the dog, purchase what works for me, and daily learn first-hand about life, retirement, and purpose.

Posted in God, Life

They’re watching me.

Posted on by William Douthwaite

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Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash

I know they’ve been watching me. I’ve known it for a long time.

No, I’m not paranoid. I’m simply aware that the advertisements that frame my searches and litter the news articles I read are not random. They are reflections of me. They are linked to things that I have either searched for, shopped for, or recently purchased.

As I was recently reading a New York Times article about Haiti and its people on my phone, I noticed that the advertisements that showed up every 300 words or so were for yogurt. Usually the ads are for Harry’s Razors (which I have purchased) or Stitch Fix (from whom I sometimes buy clothes) or some Mac maintenance software (I own a Mac). But yogurt?

After a bit of thought, I realized that I had just bought one container of yogurt at a local grocery store recently, after a long period of not buying any yogurt at all. Hmm. Another ad that kept showing up was for Target. I hardly ever shop at Target, but I had gone there just a week ago to pick up a few items. Hmm. I had been searching for some information on reading and writing short stories, and Medium suggested a few articles for me. Hmm. Someone is watching me. Someone knows what I am doing. Someone knows the places where I go.

Apparently, they are watching what I buy and where I shop, as well as what I am looking for. In some ways, this is threatening. In other ways, it’s kind of exciting. Rather than getting a lot of junk advertising – and I get plenty of that – I get stuff that actually interests me. And I learn some things about myself. I don’t pay much attention to what I buy or where I shop. But someone does, and if I pay attention, I discover something about me.

So now I am thinking, “How can I tap into this?” If someone knows what I am thinking and doing, then someone knows what other people are thinking and doing, too. Like the members of my congregation. Like the people I preach to each Sunday. If I could tap into that information, I could hit the nail on the head every week. I would know exactly what sins to mention and how to shape my presentation of the gospel. I could cut right to the chase each and every week!

As I write those words, they sound kind of crazy. But they aren’t. I could pay and get that info. I could acquire mountains of data and details about my members’ lives. But I don’t have to. Like wise Solomon said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” No one is inventing any new sins. We just keep doing the same old ones. Immorality, dishonesty, and hate. You got a body and a mind? You know exactly what I am talking about. I do. And I do.

More than a few times, someone has spoken to me after church and said that I must have bugged their home. What I talked about that Sunday addressed the very thing that had been going on in their lives that week. Of course, I hadn’t. And it wasn’t even me who was addressing the situation. It was God. It was his word speaking to them, to their situation, and to their hearts.

So I’m not all that worried about someone knowing where I’m going, what I’m doing, or what I’m thinking. Someone already knows. The one who counts already knows. It’s convicting. He’s forgiving. And it keeps me on my toes.

 

 

 

Posted in questions

Sounds good to me.

Posted on by William Douthwaite

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Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

I read a lot of articles on Medium, another publishing site, as well as blogs on WordPress and Blogger. A lot of pieces have titles that begin

“The ultimate guide to…”
“Simple tips to…”
“What it takes to succeed at…”
“How to become…”
“Strategies that really work…”

I know these titles are meant to get readers, reposts and ratings. And they work, because they get your attention and you think for a second, “This is just what I need.”

Maybe it is. But what do you know about the author? What’s his or her experience and expertise? What are their credentials? How do you know they know what they’re talking about? I’ll bet you don’t. Chances are you don’t check. Most of the time, you accept their words as authoritative. You read their advice, tips or strategies and think, “This is just what I need…”

That’s scary. Without knowing anything about the source, you are just taking someone’s word for it and implement their suggestions! Why is that? Why do we so easily give credibility to the massive amounts of information we take in each day via blogs, social media, and digital newsletters? On top of that, our friends and family are very quick to share, “So-and-so says we should try this…or go here…or eat this…” No wonder fake news works so well. Or bot-generated comments.

There must be some science to this. I’ll have to do a little research. What makes an anonymously generated idea so believable? Can we learn to be more discerning?

I’ll let you know what I find out. And I’ll bet you’ll believe me, too.