There’s a new reward structure and set of goals over at the BE Budget Explorers’ Patreon. (It’s still being fine-tuned with regards to presentation, formatting, and such…)

It was bound to happen. Going into the project, I could guess what sorts of rewards would be interesting and not-too-time-consuming, but as it moves forward, I’m getting a better idea of what the reality is of working on this.

It’s very exciting.

I’m discovering, for one thing, that the reflection posts are quite fun to write. Sometimes when I think something is “too basic” just because I’ve been exposed to it for most of my life, I am confronted by a reminder that there is plenty of stuff that other people can’t believe I don’t find basic. And it helps to remind me that we all have knowledge that’s important to figuring out how to get by in this world, because we’ve all got different experiences of getting by.

Pretty cool that we get to live in this age of knowledge transfer, in which it is so simple to put our knowledge out there and find the knowledge that people similarly experienced or inexperienced have also shared.

There are downfalls to easy access to people’s thoughts on a wide array of topics, of course, and one of those frequently mentioned is “accuracy.” Things posted online may not all be accurate.

So what if it’s not all “accurate”? There are definitely times when accuracy is important (like news sites and scholarly sites, really, they need to be accurate, since they are there for the purpose of providing accurate information), but accuracy is not the be all end all of communication goals.

I think what really matters is learning how to discern what things are accurate, so that misinformation is not passed on, and when distributing knowledge, be clear about the accuracy level being presented and the purpose of the presentation. This is evident in so many arenas, but particularly, I think, when it comes to information regarding money. If you are struggling and looking for advice on how to deal with money, and you find information about how the economy is doing, well, it might be plenty accurate, but is it helpful? What is the purpose of it? To provide accurate infomation, sure, but its purpose is not to help you as you try to improve your situation.

Now, I’m not saying to just find the facts you want to believe and believe them (to paraphrase the pilot of Newsroom), but I am saying to be particular not just about the accuracy but also the purpose of the information you consume, and let both of those be a factor in the way you take them in.

What do you think? What do you look for in information that you take in?