Why research is broken, the three killers, and where to start
Sixty percent of research time is spent finding, forty using. AI flips that - if you stop bookmarking and hoping.
The problem: data explosion, 1995-era tools (search, bookmarks, notes), most time spent on retrieval - 'digital archaeology'. AI changes keyword retrieval into synthesis with pattern recognition, static snapshots into continually updated views, solo work into human-plus-AI collaboration. Killers: scattered-notes syndrome, the rabbit-hole trap, insight paralysis (data without action). Research by function: marketing (audience, trend, competitor), sales (stakeholder psychology, solution mapping), finance (market, industry, regulation), operations (process, vendor, geography). Start: pick one high-impact area, write specific questions, build a simple capture-and-compound system, and only then experiment with tools.
Frames research as a repeatable discipline instead of browsing.
