Instant Research

Yesterday, I received an email from my wife on a topic we were discussing the night before.  I mentioned to her that I needed to do some research on it and get back to her to carry out the conversation to its conclusion.  She then send me an email with said “research” which was a selection of a Wikipedia page with about 75% of the content removed and practically nothing added.

It occurred to me at that moment that the phrase “I need to research that” should be eliminated from my vocabulary.  Today, in most cases 80% of the value of “researching” something can be derived by a 2-5 minute reading of that subject’s Wikipedia page. Granted some topics can’t be covered by that 5 minutes, but my experience shows that most can.

So,why talk about researching something in the future when you have a question about something now? From now on, I will simply get out my phone, read what I need to, and move on to the action phase faster which will keep me acting rather than talking.

How useful do you find Wikipedia in the moment? Do you still find yourself thinking in the mindset that detailed and easy-to-find information isn’t at your fingertips 24 hours a day?