The relationship between information, knowledge and risk is complicated. Individuals and organizations are constantly weighing options based on what we know, what we think we know, what we feel, what we want, but not necessarily in that order. While rules based systems automate some of these decisions based on some predefined set of data conditions, sometimes these rules can be clunky and the results less than ideal.
The current approach to information and knowledge management is inadequate. Even with massive computing power, the pressure at the seams of technology is palpable. The volume and velocity of data creation is expanding exponentially and pushing human systems to their limits. Increasingly, the management and processing of this data are increasingly being left to algorithms or even algorithms of algorithms. It has often been said that the future is writing itself, but in the age of generative artificial intelligence, data is writing itself and processing itself. In this age of rapid data generation and increasingly specialized knowledge, a new approach to information management and collaboration is needed.
While machines are able to produce vast amounts of data, humans still have human brains with all of its inherent capabilities and limitations. Tools may be able to augment human capability, but it is ultimately humans that have to put the pieces together in order to make something new and valuable.
And we need to belong…Finding the right information at the right time provides lasting leverage. But information is a constantly moving target and filtering the signal from the noise is not an easy task. It is still human insight that delivers insight and innovation, not machine learning or large language models.
While information travels fast, it does not have on-ramps, exits, signs and maps. Structurally, the Internet may have some similarities to a highway system, but information really doesn’t. Information moves across the Internet at fiber optic speed but is only observed when it is not moving. But the value of information is not the speed of transmission (except maybe in the rapid transaction world of high finance), it is how it is used to make new connections. The connections between bits of information are often what leads to the creation new knowledge. This is what HUMANS are good at!
With the volume of information produced today, the temptation is to look at information quickly, assess its value and move on. Some people have systems of storing information that they want to refer back to at a later date, but even deciding if something is worth coming back to and flagging it in some way takes time.
The pressure to keep up and the fascination with the “New Thing” forces many of us to make snap decisions about information. This is both necessary and insufficient.
The value of information varies with time. You can be too early, or you can be too late. It all makes a difference. How do you know what you are looking at and how to spot things that you aren’t looking for at the moment? How do you focus on the moment and keep your eyes and mind open for new information that you don’t have that might actually be way more important.
Information management didn’t emerge with computer age or with the Internet, It is a core human capability that is key to human survival. The methods of information management and transference have evolved through the years, but individuals still process information in largely the same way.
Humans have always acted on a combination of prior knowledge, new information available, intuition, risk tolerance and the ability to make choices at the appropriate moment to achieve their goal at the moment — whether it was escaping an immediate threat or working toward some longer-term goal. Information systems have moved from unwritten, to documented, to digital, to algorithmic, and now to multi-algorithmic.
With data and artificial intelligence (AI) in nearly all aspects of life, it is important to think downstream a bit from the data and the algorithms. Is all this efficiency and so-called optimization based on information and data counterproductive?
Lex is about a new path for using information systems in our lives and our organizations. Creating systems that empower and enable rather than deferring to the algorithms that will hinder insight, innovation and creativity. There is not one right answer for everyone, but there are a lot potentially wrong answers.
The goal of Lex is to explore systems and processes that leverage information, but also to look beyond the data to venture off the path to find better solutions than the data will ever show you.
It is a hypothesis and an exploration. It is not an answer, but rather a question that we should be asking. If any of this rings true to you, I’d love to hear from you.
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