Selection of information sources

You have selected a role, named a discipline in which you can find role objects of interest and concepts denoting them. Now you need to choose high-quality sources from which you can extract more precise information about the objects.

Information sources can be searched using various methods. For example, information from applied disciplines can be found by relying on the role exocortex or exotelo. For instance, an accountant uses software like "1C" to conduct certain operations with objects such as "financial balance," "cash flow statement," and so on. A chef uses culinary knives, cutting boards, stoves to create the desired dish. An operations manager relies on task trackers: electronic (e.g. YouTrack, Trello) or paper-based (e.g. board with stickers in the office), which include "tasks," "deadlines," "network charts," and so on. Accordingly, you can take a standard role exocortex and see which objects are suggested to operate in it: in general and for a specific task.

Moreover, if it comes to performing a role in an enterprise, you can use the existing standards for carrying out specific tasks (by role) at the enterprise. Often they are written in documents defining the functionality of a department or employee. In some companies, there are corporate knowledge bases where algorithms for performing tasks can be found, often presented in the form of checklists. If your company lacks any of the mentioned above, it is worth considering establishing such descriptions. They significantly save time in organizing work at the enterprise, allow identifying typical tasks, and shifting part of the employees' workload from sudden one-time tasks to planned and systematic ones.

When it comes to learning, it is useful to pay attention to both the materials of the course itself and the course's bibliography. For example, when studying "Modeling and Coherence," it is possible (and recommended!) to refer to the text "Systems Thinking" and (if necessary) other courses, such as "Systems Engineering." The texts of these courses can help clarify the topic of "roles" and provide additional examples of roles. In addition, for a better understanding of the topic "Type Assignment," it is highly recommended to study the book "Business Objects: Re-Engineering for Re-Use (BORO book)" by Chris Partridge. Thorough study of the book using writing thinking methods, described in the chapter "Attention Retention," allows acquiring the skill of precise and fast type assignment. Furthermore, the course also provides other literature as additional reading. Choose a topic that you need to delve into more and study this literature.

It is helpful to seek the required information from professionals in the field. These are agents who:

• Have sufficiently qualified mastery that is confirmed by projects in the physical world *or at least rely on information from agents who have such implemented projects (it is interesting to receive information from those who have successfully acted in the role and lived through that experience themselves);
• Are currently dealing with the topic of interest to you, i.e., possess knowledge of the current context, understanding what is happening now (if a person was an expert in the topic some time ago, but has not worked in it for 5-10-20 years, they lack a quality understanding of what is happening in that area of knowledge);
• Put their skin on the line, i.e., risk something by voicing their opinion rather than simply expressing it from the couch (a nuclear scientist commenting on a coronavirus vaccine does not risk anything);
• Do not have (known to you) reasons to distort information (or you understand how information can be distorted and take this into account when making decisions). For example, if you are looking for political scientists, you must always consider the sources of funding and personal grudges (often present in "downed pilots" who lost in political selections).

If there are different experts adhering to different points of view but at the same time meeting the criteria of a reliable source of information, it is worth including the information from such experts in the list of "tracked" information. It is possible to look for gaps, contradictions between information from such experts and experiment: to test the methods proposed by such experts.

If there are experts whom you know possess good mastery, you can ask them to recommend quality information sources. You can survey several of them at once and ask for 5+ recommendations, then compare the lists and choose intersecting information.

The format of consuming information can be chosen freely. However, for active learning, text is usually the most beneficial: it is easy to search by keywords, easy to return to, no need to rewind to the right minute, and finally, it requires more active actions from the learner. Audio (and video) is convenient for immersion (getting used to the information). Small niche podcasts that dive deeply into a specific applied theme, such as B2B sales, can be extremely convenient for feeding. This allows faster adaptation to an unfamiliar role.

If there are no standards, literature, or understanding of where to turn, another method of searching for applied and sometimes intermediate-level information from disciplines is to name the discipline in which you will seek information - and then navigate to the Amazon Kindle Store (preferred) or LitRes in the category that is named as that discipline (for example, leadership or marketing). Then you can find 5-10 bestsellers from different authors on the topic and examine the structure of the books: what common information is provided by all these authors? This "common" is likely to be the most useful information: it is the "core" that no book on the discipline can do without. Without this core, no other life hacks can be applied. Therefore, such information is typically the most valuable for problem-solving.

If information from fundamental disciplines is needed, it is best to find those who engage in fundamental disciplines and learn from them about the best textbooks to study on the topic. For example, the SHS promotes the idea of the intellect stack: that there is a set of fundamental disciplines that collectively form a "knowledge core" and enable solving any problems, including frontier ones for which no one has ever come up with solutions. Accordingly, by studying the disciplines of the intellect stack and acquiring good intellectual mastery, one can invent exciting creative solutions and easily change the applied specialization when necessary. Disciplines such as "Coherence" and "Ontology" are part of the disciplines of the intellect stack for study. Other disciplines included there can be read in the "Intellect Stack" course (you can at least glance at the structure of the course). Therefore, you can take textbooks from SHS on the respective disciplines and additional literature as pre-selected sources of information.

Quality sources should rely on SOTA (state-of-the-art, the most modern, newest) information. However, it is essential not to overdo it: it is necessary not just to have contemporary information but quality SOTA information. For example, in this course, as additional reading, BORO by Chris Partridge is recommended. This book was released in 2004 but is still good enough for use today. Additionally, in the management course, one of the recommended books on strategizing is Richard Rumelt's "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" from 2009, which provides quality material for reflection. Therefore, pay attention to the quality of information, and then to the publication year, especially when it comes to fundamental information.

For a deep dive into a discipline (and the corresponding role), it is recommended to study 10-20 textbooks on the topic - and then embed the information from them many times (100+ times). Of course, it is impossible to study each role you play in life in such a way. However, it usually makes sense to identify 1-3 most important roles for you and devote enough attention to them (instead of performing 20+ roles not very well for your entire life).

Add to the post the titles of 1-3 roles that you want to study deeply enough. Do you have selected sources of information to study the corresponding disciplines?