True But Useless (TBU) and True And Useful (TAU)

Daily we are bombarded with information, every piece vying for our attention. The problem is each; fact, statistic, survey result, opinion, piece of anecdotal evidence, has it own subjective truth.

So, the question is not so much – Is it true, but is it useful?

Much of what we hear and read may well be true but is often pretty useless. It’s the information equivalent of fast food. It may taste good but it has no nutritional value.

This type of information is clogging up the system and making decision making more difficult. One approach is to use the abbreviation TBU = True But Useless, to tag information.

Here is a challenge. Tomorrow write down anything that you see/read/hear that is

‘True But Useless’ in terms of you making decisions. I am confident you will be surprised at how many things you write down. This is the clutter that is potentially hampering your ability to make good decisions.

There is a serious point to this game. By raising your awareness in this way it encourages you to focus and to start evaluating what you are told or read, not on the basis of whether its true, but on whether its useful. It shifts the emphasis from being ‘I don’t believe YOU/IT’ (Extrinsic) to ‘Its not useful to ME’ (intrinsic).

Of course, what we need is information that is TAU …. True AND Useful !

This is unlikely to occur by asking more and more questions in the hope that something useful will drop out.

What is needed is deep thought about what we are trying to achieve. What is the purpose?

Only then will the TAU information present itself.