Do your own research on DYOR
Dear SJ,
I guess the first thing to check is, do you know what DYOR is? I can’t tell anymore where the jargon boundaries are between generations, industries, or online communities.
In case not, DYOR means “do your own research.” It seems like good life advice but it comes from sometimes-condescending crypto jerks who, in my opinion, want to avoid liability for giving you bad advice more than they want to help you out.
I still use the term because if you say it to yourself as a word, “die-or” it starts to sound kind of like “dire” — a great word to describe the situation you’ll get into when you don’t have the skills to 1) sort through the flood of information you consume each day and 2) reason through the information you do pay attention to.
So what does sorting and reasoning look like?
For now, let’s stay high level with this DYOR concept: you are “doing your own research” on how to start a business.
Your first instinct is to browse YouTube. There’s a lot of info out there on the psychology of how we choose what we pay attention to, like this example from Psychology Today or this one from Verywell Mind. One way to help yourself sort through is to have a clear set of criteria that you’ll use to decide if you should pay attention. It’s okay if the criteria are superficial for now.
For example, you might decide to only pay attention to videos that are at most 10 minutes long, were published in the last 6 months, and are relevant to where you live. (You might decide to revise your search to “how to start a business in [your state]” as you list your criteria.)
Immediately you can filter the results and start reviewing the videos that remain.
You pick one and watch the video. Now it’s time to reason:
Don’t just believe what you hear and see. Ask yourself questions, like “Can trust this person? How did I decide to trust them? How do I know what they’re saying is factually correct?* Is this actual content or is this someone (maybe an influencer?) selling me something?”
(After I registered my business, I received an onslaught of paper mail that was actually just junk advertising disguised as official government correspondence. YouTube won’t be safer.)
This sorting and reasoning will take time to build into a reflex, but once you have it, you’ll be able to DYOR instinctively, and in a way that you can defend.
*When it comes to how to start a business, you can fact check videos on YouTube against your state’s Department of State website. The Department of State’s information on starting a business is always your source of truth.
⭐ Key action: Repeat the scenario above. You can pick a different research topic if you want.
▶️ How to do it: Before you start browsing online, what criteria will you use to sort out what you want from what’s being offered? Write out at least 3 ahead of time. This is important because you are actively thinking before you let Internet content suck you in.
💭 Think about it: Follow the reasoning questions above. What are your answers? How do you know that what you’re seeing and hearing in the video is factually correct?
