Information Management: Working with Information, Part 4 – Conveying Information

Discipline in thinking requires regular and long-term immersion in a topic. Discipline in presenting information involves monitoring your material selection and constantly evaluating (including through empathy) how others might react to your prepared content.

At the initial stages, the simplest approach is to quickly run through the questions (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW MUCH, HOW), noting whether each is answered and whether you’ve included this information in your text. Also, consider how different communities might react to your message and how you might rephrase it for better understanding by a wider audience.

An important aspect of creating engaging material is what’s called “respectful thinking”—treating your future reader with respect. This means choosing words that are clear and non-offensive (ethically, nationally, religiously, or politically). It’s also important to find visuals that enhance understanding and to create schematic “translations” of your research to convey your ideas as accurately as possible.

In just six months, you can learn to express your thoughts clearly and concisely. The next step is mastering more complex information skills, such as summarizing and synthesizing texts.

Building Coherent and Persuasive Material

Creating coherent, understandable, and well-argued material is achieved by developing systematic models for verifying information and carefully selecting elements that help the reader follow your narrative. The structure is usually set by a study plan, not a restrictive outline. A study plan allows for deviations, as long as they help reveal the topic more fully.

The “Collect” algorithm (steps 1-3) helps form a solid foundation for research. After proper selection and classification of information, you can perform research actions and mental experiments (steps 4-6) to find meaningful order and logical completeness. This order must then be conveyed (steps 7-9) in a way that is understandable to others.

Today, we have a vast array of presentation tools and research methods. All are valid, provided:

• The information is carefully collected and assessed as potentially reliable.
• Mental experiments with the material are thoroughly conducted.

It’s important to note that data that seemed surprising or inspiring during collection won’t always result in a brilliant study. The brain can subtly filter out “inconvenient” information during analysis. Therefore, a key rule is: All research information deserves to be analyzed and recorded. All mental work is done by a specific person, based on their knowledge, which the future reader or opponent may not have. This must be considered when preparing materials for others.

The Third Stage: Conveying Information

The third stage of the algorithm, “Convey,” includes:

• Discussing research results and external peer review to improve overall quality (step 7).
• Forming a historical image and model for understanding the event (step 8).
• Creating presentable data sets and research conclusions in a format that is easy to verify and engaging (step 9).

Even with exciting new data, people may distort findings to fit existing narratives, driven by the desire to be liked. Not every new solution is correct, and the feeling of discovery can be intoxicating. That’s why discussion and dialogue (step 7) are crucial—they provide feedback, new perspectives, and opportunities to re-examine your arguments. However, discussions should also record points of agreement and disagreement, not just become endless talk.

Research can end here, but most people want to share their discoveries with a wider audience. For this, you need a clear, well-argued story (steps 8 and 9). Developing such a story requires a clear model of understanding—an idea that others can grasp. In film, this is called a logline: a concise summary of the main idea. The shorter and clearer the expression, the better the researcher understands the topic.

The image is formed by detailing information and drawing from the conceptual field, creating a connected informational picture with events, people, and processes. If you don’t understand the main idea you want to convey, further detail will only clutter the message and hinder understanding.

The “Collect → Understand → Convey” Algorithm

This algorithm aligns with modern scientific practice. Its uniqueness lies in how information is prepared (stages 1-3), how it’s verified (stages 4-6), and the emphasis on creating a clear, verifiable justification (stages 7-9)—that is, how research results are presented to an audience. The final stage is crucial: a discovery presented poorly may go unnoticed or even discourage further research.

The first four stages relate to the “context of discovery.” Stages 2-6 relate to the “context of justification.” There’s no strict boundary between these stages; discovery and justification often overlap. Luck in research is often the result of thorough preparation and hard work. Stages 7-9 help you refine your skill in conveying information accurately and justifiably. The main goal is to reveal the essence of what you’ve understood and transmit it without distortion.

Working with this algorithm also develops self-organization and a culture of sharing verified data. Self-organization and a culture of quality exchange (step 10) are a bonus: once your brain experiences the satisfaction of making accurate predictions and reducing errors, it will continue to work this way.

Following the information management algorithm helps break the automaticity of perception and notice new details. This new way of interacting with information generates a constant flow of meaningful content, minimizing boredom.

Ethical “Bonuses” of Information Management

• A culture of consciously limiting the spread of poorly verified information.
• Self-discipline in interactions.
• A culture of public expression and critique based on thorough research, focusing on ideas and conclusions, not personalities.
• Self-discipline in expression.
• A habit of verifying material at all stages: input quality control, self-monitoring, and voluntary external review.
• Self-discipline in learning.
• Understanding that in real life, we deal more with the probability of truth than with absolute truth.
• A habit of doubt.
• Publicly presenting information that challenges established views is valuable for collective understanding.
• A habit of honesty.

These ethical principles shape the researcher’s value orientation, focusing on the path to truth rather than winning arguments. Any knowledge can be revised in light of new discoveries. Any thoughtfully expressed idea can become a missing link in understanding accumulated information.

---

Modern Challenges and the Need for Information Management

Today, people face new challenges, mostly due to the overwhelming abundance of information. In this flood, we must find our own understanding of the world. Mass replication of knowledge fragments, without understanding their true meaning, has become common, resulting in information noise and mountains of unstructured data.

People are less inclined to spend time on learning, preferring entertainment. The allure of leisure is everywhere—from billboards to social media. Each new distraction “calls” us to relax and do nothing, as is the norm today.

Evaluating the reliability of information is becoming increasingly difficult. Information management offers a practical approach, providing a sequence of steps to work with information at a new level of understanding.

Applying the Third Stage: “Convey”

Finding the right way to convey information to others is a complex task. To do this, you need to:

• Develop the skill of persuasive presentation.
• Develop the skill of scientific presentation: introduce the problem, provide a brief research history, state your hypothesis, and convincingly prove it with materials that anyone can verify—even if your view differs from the accepted one.

Your presentation should be clear, well-argued, accessible, and impressive. This means following a familiar narrative structure: introduction (problem), posing a key question (hypothesis), developing the story through research “events” that change the audience’s perception via argumentation, and a conclusion that confirms or refutes the hypothesis based on a well-formed image of the research object.

Research begins with selecting material for your future reader. Remember, people can’t absorb entirely new material (paradigms and mental models get in the way). So, rely on known facts, familiar associations, and traditional scenarios. Preparing explanatory texts is not trivial. “Knowing” is very different from “being able to explain.” Often, it’s hard to put your understanding into words.

Coherent text is created both for self-checking and for peer review. Professional discussion focuses on facts, events, collected data, and questions—not the researcher’s personality. All questions are asked clearly and respectfully. Criticism is based on the opponent’s own research and sources. This approach prevents “trolling” messages from entering the discussion. If the researcher accepts valid criticism, they adjust their study to get closer to understanding the issue.

Learning is a key path to understanding the past and present—and, above all, to understanding yourself. The search for new knowledge rarely leads to complete understanding or final truth, but gradually mastering information layers allows for reflection, new questions, curiosity, and self-discovery.

General Rules for Creating a Persuasive Narrative

• Carefully develop a preliminary plan with visualizations (models, diagrams) that consider how the information will be perceived.
• Refine and adjust the plan to improve material delivery.
• Recognize that unusual or paradoxical results are not a barrier to building an argument, but non-trivial ideas require extra clarity and visual support.
• Thoroughly plan the sequence of materials and context to help others understand your information. This requires both general knowledge and the ability to select what’s important.
• Consider how people perceive information and present your research in different “languages”: verbal, visual, numerical. Skillful translation between these types helps reach diverse audiences.
• Self-critique and critical review improve quality. A healthy dose of perfectionism is welcome when preparing the final version.
• Record and, if possible, check all new ideas that arise during finalization. This helps avoid errors and improves research quality.
• Structure your text using the principles of dramatic genres: introduce the problem and hypothesis, create a narrative conflict moving from ignorance to knowledge through argued facts, and conclude with a well-supported confirmation, refutation, or transformation of the hypothesis.
• Present controversial issues openly for further research and discussion.

---

Changing the Way We Process Information

Following the information management algorithm changes how we process information. By breaking automatic perception, we can move beyond established paradigms and deconstruct existing worldviews. Information management enables deeper, multi-faceted understanding of research topics and helps create well-argued materials for others.

Instead of an Epilogue: Does Truth Exist?

The possibility of attaining truth has always been debated. What’s clear is that our knowledge changes as we accumulate new facts. The world is knowable to the extent of our passion and dedication to learning. All knowledge involves errors and misconceptions at some stage. What we can do is systematically identify and correct mistakes—deconstructing accumulated knowledge and actively seeking new explanations in light of new connections and influences. This moves us from ignorance to knowledge and understanding.

Today, Truth seems elusive. Few pursue it relentlessly; most simply drift along, absorbing fragments of reality. The mental world has become fragmented. Bits and pieces of knowledge fill our minds, making thought erratic and unsynchronized.

Anyone can embark on the path of learning. First, it takes courage: your familiar worldview may fall apart, and that can be scary—until it opens new horizons. This is the moment of active deconstruction of previous knowledge, freeing you from distortions and allowing you to see the world with new questions. Second, it takes persistence: you’ll need to search, check, and double-check. At first, this is hard, but soon you’ll develop a habit of doubting and anticipating hidden patterns. This is where the joy of discovery comes in—finding the “missing link” in your research, the “needle in a haystack.” This feeling inspires you to keep going. Third, you’ll need creativity: you’ll have to build your own universes of meaning. They may surprise or scare you, but they’ll also inspire new searches. Fourth, you’ll need bravery: to defend your viewpoint. You may feel like an outsider, but eventually, you’ll become a wise one whom others seek for advice. Fifth, you must respect others’ opinions: this is the best way to hear important ideas and hints from the universe, spoken by others. This skill is always valuable.

Where is Truth hidden, and how do we reach it? Perhaps the Creator never hid it, but gave everyone a piece, which, when put in place, opens the portal to Understanding. All that’s left is to find your piece of Truth among the data and step into the circle of seekers. Maybe your fragment will help decipher the pattern on page 2018 of the Book of Genesis—or open a new page, gathering valuable information to help make the world a better place.

End