I joined Linked-In to commune with the social networking business community and I have been interested to see how many posts are to do with the 7 things you should/should not do, the 10 most important things for your business, the 5 this and the 8 that. And I see that this way of thinking has even drifted into philosophy and existentialism with questions such as sum up in 6 words what life means, in 5 words can you say what is most important to you.
When I used to fund raise there was a push to grab the attention of busy executives by summing up in two sentences an entire project. And then expanding that summation in a summary of two pages. Of course the easiest and sometimes most successful projects are those with one vision.
But neither human beings nor life is to be summed up. Its an exercise is compression nothing else, it means nothing and achieves nothing. There are a thousand assumptions unsaid, a hundred questions unanswered in every list. Surely we don’t actually believe you can sum up anything to do with communities and ideas in brief synopses?
The world is a complex joy and we try to pare away at it to grab little bits of meaning for ourselves without realising we limit our own functions as intellects. With every summary we blind ourselves by concentrating on the summary, and not the facts. Its a great way to focus business, its a lousy way to live.
And yes I answer them:)