If you really want to make yourself unpopular, then not providing enough information is a sure-fire way of going about it. If you’re a teacher advising your Headteacher, you need to provide sufficient information – whether you’ve been asked for it or not.
Read MoreProvide timely information (even if it makes you unpopular)
You would think that providing timely information would be just the thing to get you applauded. However, as the song from Porgy and Bess tells us, it ain’t necessarily so. It really all depends on what the information is, and to whom you’re making it available.
Read MoreComputing and ICT misinformation
Now, I understand this when it comes to a subject like science. I used to say to Elaine, over breakfast, things like:
Smart street signs
But a new idea, called Points, goes way beyond that.
Unreliable information is worse than no information
I will never understand why so many people think that Wikipedia is OK to use for serious research on the grounds that it is mostly reliable. Mostly? Some years ago I posited the idea of a wiki timetable, in which people get to edit train timetables how they like. Some of the information displayed on the electronic noticeboards would probably be accurate some of the time. Useful, eh?
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #4 Provide too much information
Too much information is such a ubiquitous problem that it even has its own three letter abbreviation: TMI – although that is usually applied in the context of someone online telling you something that you really didn’t want to know. However, it’s also a problem experienced by anyone who runs a team, or who requires information in order to take a decision.
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #3 Provide too little information
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #2 Provide timely information
You would think that providing timely information would be just the thing to get you applauded. However, as the song from Porgy and Bess tells us, it ain’t necessarily so. It really all depends on what the information is, and to whom you’re making it available.