A bit of fluff

I have been noticing more and more lately that there is too much fluff in this world. What do I mean? Well, to me, fluff is anything that's put in somewhere for the sole purpose of filling time, space, silences, whatever. For example, when you are listening to the radio and the DJ's clearly have run a subject through it's course, and they don't really have anything else to say. One of the hosts will just blurt something out. This morning on my way into work I was listening to a morning show and in one such pause in the conversation, one of the hosts just blurted out "How long does your meat stay fresh?" Whew, radio show saved by, wait, what the...? That doesn't have anything to do with what you were just talking about, and really? Is that what people want to hear about on their way into work? Ok, so that's just one example, and perhaps not even a good one. But, my point is there is a lot in this world that people just throw in to things to fill space.

Last week at work, I was asked to add some more fluff to a study we were working on to look more impressive (and for those of you who read last weeks blog, this is one of the things that set me off). I responded, if the quality of our, and specifically my work is not enough to impress our clients, then we should figure out what we are not doing right and fix it. Putting in fluff that doesn't mean anything is a waste of our time and insults the intelligence of our clients. Now don't get me wrong, some of the bank presidents could use a healthy dose of insults, but not from us when we're trying to squeeze a project out of them.

Maybe I'm a little too touchy about my work, but wouldn't you want to see only what you need to know in order to make an informed decision? Wouldn't you be more impressed by a 5 minute presentation that told you exactly what you need to do and why instead of a 45 minute collage of "pretty" maps that have been "tweaked" to display the results that we wanted? I would, that's for darn sure!

Even outside of work, if we as a country cut out even 20% of the fluff in our lives, we'd be where people in the 50's thought we'd be by now: flying cars, universal bliss, and chocolate that doesn't add copious amounts of fat to your midsection. Seriously, go through your day today and for every little thing you do, ask yourself, do I need to be doing this, or am I just doing this to fill time until I go to sleep? Yeah, it's a bit scary, but I'll tell you what, you'll be surprised, shocked, and maybe even scintillated by the results. Hm.. that sounded a bit like a self help book didn't it? Maybe this can be my big break into politics, I'll start the anti-fluff movement!