Following the theme of my last posting, I have had two more conversations in the past two days that circled back to the theme of the proper advice and proper time for it being proffered.

Conversation 1

A blogging friend was considering opening up a line of discussion on his blog, with the topic being somewhat sensitive to his business and potential partners. After a discussion of the propriety of this line of blogging, a decision was arrived at that the topic would be blogged with a heavy amount of editing.  The other concern voiced, was the fact that many readers of the blog would then start chiming in via the comments (I should have that problem on my blog…)   As with so many other media forms, everyone is an expert when there is no barrier to entry. I cautioned that he should take all of those comments with a barrel of salt.

Conversation 2

A discussion about marketing plans for a new product my firm will be debuting in the next few quarters. The lady I was chatting with has most impressive credentials, and was truly a pleasure to chat with. We somehow got on the topic of data driven decision making, versus intuitive decisions. Of course, intuition is always a factor in our daily lives, but does not an expert make. Second guessing kills us, and going to experts to ratify our decisions provides some comfort level. However, where data can be gathered, shouldn’t it be done?