The Power of Reliable Alert Services: Getting Smarter Without Doing Anything?

by Seb

Please answer the question before reading on:

Is it possible to accumulate information and “get smarter” effortlessly
without spending time to research or consume it?

At first it seems to be an unbreakable rule that in order to expand our knowledge, we need to actively take in new information. Unfortunately, finding relevant information and consuming it takes time and effort – especially in today’s world of information overload this can be quite tedious.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we did not have to consume any information and still expand our knowledge as shown in the following picture, therefore sidestepping information overload? 

Surprisingly, there is a way to achieve this. The secret lies in reliable alert services that only inform you if a specific event has occurred, therefore also telling you something if no message is sent (so that you know nothing has happened).

For example, imagine an alert service which notifies you every time a US tennis player wins a tournament on the ATP tour. If you haven’t received an alert for the last two months and somebody asks you about it, you could tell that in the last 2 months no US player has won a tournament – without actively following the tennis results.

In other words: you have increased your knowledge over time without having had to consume any information. The beauty of reliable alert services is that they don’t just provide value when they inform you but also when they keep quiet.

Many examples can be found where such alert services would be very useful. The problem today, however, is that it’s not easy to find those alert services. Or very often, they do not exist at all.

An attempt to change this is SpecificFeeds.com which we launched recently. It’s an email alert and reminder platform which allows publishers to set up reminders and alerts with minimum effort and low maintenance. We’re always looking for good ideas what alerts and reminders could be added to the platform, so if you have any good idea please let us know. For example, what did you recently miss out on and want to get alerted about in the future? Any input welcome.