Morgan Freeman, a greatly respected American actor.
information as power
Get things done
Getting Things Done by David Allen is one of the staples of personal and professional productivity. Getting Things Done, or GTD for short has been on the top sellers’ list for more than a decade (it first came out in 2001) and with good reason.
David Allen has managed to create a system that you can use both at work, at school and at home – it is almost universal. The book though is rather complex and lengthy and you can get lost in the nitty-gritty of the it all.
Knowledge Is Power, But Not In The Way You Think
She was that person everyone liked, but no one could work with. Eventually, she was fired. Her biggest issue was that she was a hoarder—of knowledge. Jenny (not her real name) thought knowledge was power and while she was smart about creating it, she never wanted to share it.
Jenny was right. Knowledge is power. But she was wrong about what do to with it. Actually, knowledge can change the world—or the company—but only when it is shared, and shared in the right ways.
Information density describes a situation where many people in a company know many important things. They know them in the moment—in real-time when it counts most to inform their decision making. The information-dense company is one in which people are informed and in which there is a level of radical transparency.
In Germany, a tendency to know-it-all is spreading. That could be politically dangerous
NZZ. December 2022. Germans don’t tend towards extremism – actually. But in the political and media sphere, know-it-alls and paternalism are increasingly noticeable. Contempt for the normal is a cause for concern.
For a long time, modern Germany was not a country to worry about from a democratic point of view. According to a study by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion from this year, 25 percent of Germans place themselves exactly in the middle of the democratic opinion spectrum; 36 percent slightly to the left, 29 percent slightly to the right of this center. That’s 90 percent between center-left and center-right. Actually calming.
The eternal know-it-all of Western Europe
Berthold Löffler lived in Poland for a long time. He explains how Eastern Europeans think of Germans
The Weingarten professor is an Eastern Europe expert. In an interview, he explains why countries like Poland and Hungary see the EU on the wrong track.
“Professor Löffler, when it comes to taking in refugees, Germany is usually alone in the lead. The countries of Eastern Europe refuse this humanitarian act. Do you understand that?”
“Absolutely, because politicians should first and foremost represent the interests of their own country. This is exactly what the governments in Warsaw or Budapest are doing. But the Eastern Europeans also have Europe in mind. From this point of view, too, they consider Angela Merkel’s policies to be naïve and without prospects.”
Know-It-All: dealing with Dr. Clever
Every company has them, nobody particularly likes working with them and they can drive every colleague to the brink of despair: know-it-alls. They have to give their two cents on every topic, have a different opinion on everything and no matter who makes a suggestion, the know-it-all will certainly have a better idea ready in his eyes.
You can certainly imagine how quickly this behavior overstrains the nerves of colleagues. But what can you do to defend yourself against the constant know-it-all attitude? Which colleagues tend to be particularly know-it-alls and how you can deal with a Dr. Bypass smartness in your department?
After the presidential election in France: German know-it-alls don’t help
German nagging at the European policy proposals of the victorious French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is counterproductive.
Had Marine Le Pen been elected President of France, it would probably have spelled the end of the EU. This warning could be heard all over Europe until last Sunday evening – not least in Germany. Now the social liberal Emmanuel Macron is the new head of state in the neighboring country, and what is happening in Germany?
After the first sigh of relief, a reflexive debate is held as to whether or not the frowned upon euro bonds will come with the change of power in Paris. On the one hand this is a phantom discussion, on the other hand it is a symptom of Franco-German alienation.
Moralizers and know-it-alls – German arrogance
If Europe were a school class, the roles would be assigned quickly. There would be the notoriously offended, the rioters, the bullies, the followers and model students. And there would be the know-it-all: This is Germany. Not only does he know everything very well, he also likes to teach his classmates. And he thinks he’s highly moral: sometimes he thinks he’s something better.
German know-it-all attitude after the floods helps no one
July 2021. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But accusing politicians and disaster management officials of “system failure” underestimates the forces of nature, DW’s Fabian Schmidt writes.
It’s all too human to look for someone to blame after a huge natural disaster, but that doesn’t help anyone — certainly not the victims, the survivors or the people whose livelihoods were washed away by the masses of water within minutes.
This know-it-all attitude gets on my nerves: Just like Germany has 80 million football coaches after the national team loses a game, now everyone seems to be a disaster relief expert. And not just in Germany.
Why Schäuble sees too many Germans going it alone
Wolfgang Schäuble has been a member of the Bundestag for exactly 50 years, making him the sole record holder. For the anniversary, the CDU politician will basically be with Markus Lanz. He criticizes Germany’s “know-it-all” on many issues, which means that Germany is met with a lack of understanding from many international partners and allies.
As an example, Schäuble cites the discussion about the “One Love” armband at the World Cup in Qatar. This moral exaggeration does not fit the federal government’s gas deal with Qatar. Germany needs this relationship right now. And don’t stick to what other countries would like to dictate.
But even in the debate about the raid in the “Reichsbürger” milieu, an internal contradiction becomes clear. Such a successful search is only possible thanks to a certain level of surveillance of suspects, for example by wiretapping communications. Here Germany must find the right balance between freedom and security. And between security and morality.
It is similar for Schäuble in energy policy. Germany has been going its own difficult path here since Nord Stream 1. But with Nord Stream 2 at the latest, they have moved far too far away from the other Europeans and the Americans.