Next time you get a new assignment, project, or question to answer, ask yourself: Who knows more about this than I do? Consider all the possible answers you can think of to the question:

  • People you know personally
  • People you know online
  • People networked with people you know
  • Current experts
  • One time experts
  • Journalists, authors, bloggers
  • Anybody else?

Now, get lazy, and reach out to the people you've identified and see if they can do a better job than you in helping complete the task more effectively.

I'm not completely advocating being lazy, because you still have to distill their insights into a coherent response. But there's nothing wrong with letting real experts weigh in with perspectives when they're better informed than you are. - Mike Brown