Practical guide
How to build a professional information diet
Build from responsibilities outward. Include primary sources, specialists, dissent, and local context for each major decision area, then set a fixed intake budget and a regular source review.[1][2]
Why this gets difficult
A professional information diet becomes a status display when it follows prestigious publications without tying them to the decisions, risks, and communities the professional actually serves.[1][2]
A practical way through
- List the decisions, obligations, customers, markets, and risks in the role.[1][2]
- Choose a primary source and a small number of distinct specialists for each area.[1][2]
- Set daily and weekly review windows appropriate to consequence and update speed.[1][2]
- Review exclusions and remove sources that repeatedly add no unique evidence.[1][2]
An example
The situation: A policy consultant reads broad national news but misses local agency notices and specialist changes relevant to clients.[1][2]
What changes: Official dockets and local sources become the base, with a smaller national context layer and named specialist interpretation.[1][2]
What you get: The diet becomes less prestigious-looking and more useful to the work.[1][2]
What to watch for
Sources worth keeping
How Scottie helps
Scottie can rank a professional reading list against role-specific priorities, combine overlap, and show excluded items when the list needs adjustment.[3]