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Avoiding quasi journalists


Nowadays everyone is an expert in everything. Everyone’s an analyst in everything. Having a blog or a twitter account qualifies one to pontificate on any subject under the sun. And every time they prove those words of wisdom – “Open your mouth, and reveal your stupidity.”

Now, what qualifies me to write this? Look at me! I have been writing on few things, I am not an expert on! Though, a voracious reader of everything that internet can dish me out, I am in no way qualified to interpret or even make a meaningful observation on say politics, or sports or even technology! But guess what, of all the articles I have written on this blog the most popular ones are the articles that I cannot claim any bonafide authority. Either I underestimate myself or like me, people on internet just read anything that is handed out to them.

I remember the time when the badge of “Analyst” was almost equivalent to Olympic gold medal to achieve. People did their MBAs, CAs, CFAs, and worked for years before they could qualify for that position. Alas, like all debasement these days, an analyst now is somebody who can talk about something totally unknown using just few jargons. People who have walked the fire know how insulting it is. And to top it all, there are many streams to choose your trade. You can be a political analyst, to a social analyst, to a stock analyst, to a media analyst, to economic analyst, to an education analyst, or what the hell, anything that you want to analyze on. It doesn’t really matter whether you know anything on that matter. Anyway, it will be several blog posts before people can catch up to a sneaking suspicion that these guys know nothing, but then you change the stream and topic from the next post! Job done!

Now, don’t get me wrong I am not against Free Speech. Everybody has equal right to post their sense and nonsense as anybody else with an internet.

As a researcher I understood something very early. The best and the most authentic posts, views and opinions, which have bucket loads of insights don’t exist on the front page of Google search. They are buried in layers and layers of obscurity and SEO mismanagement. What further hurts our ability to reach out to the real mavericks of the game is the zillion pseudo quasi analysts who have nothing to say about something.

I had pretty much forgotten my own rule but was reminded this past week like a bolt of lightning. I discovered a whole set of blogs literally, the quality of which are mind boggling. These are true professionals who having spent lots of years or decades honing their skills write with no concern or care if their work is recognized. They don’t do it for money, nor do they do it for seeking attention. They are down to earth, humble, matter of fact and truly experts. Well, if stupidity flows out when we open the mouth so does the wisdom!

I realize there are very best authors out there, but who are crowded out by pseudo-media and mainstream media. Its time we give them a thought and some time, we will be far richer for it. The first way to do it is, look at the blog roll of your favorite reliable websites and visit every one of them. It’s time we stray away from our routine jogging tracks on internet and discover and explore some site. You are sure to find few gems you will be proud to hang around.

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