Why Context is more Important than Content

Content is a commodity. Content is the digital equivalent of pig iron.

Information today—content today—is a commodity. It's a very low value offer. What do we value? What creates value? Well, what creates value is context.

What's the story behind the data? That's context that explains what is important.

'Stuff' is all about content.

Context beats content.

Context seeks to explain what is going on in the world so that we can make sense of it. Context takes this commodity and transform it into meaning.

Rule number 16 says, 'Facts are facts. Stories are how we learn.'

Stories are how we connect with each other and how we make meaning in our lives. They provide context. They provide connections. They provide community.

Brands are stories that we tell. Brands are promises that we make as business people.

Brands are stories that we tell. Brands are promises that we make as business people.

Fast Company, when we started it, didn't have a founding story, so I made one up. Because the nice thing about stories is they don't absolutely have to be true literally, they have to be true to the spirit of the story you're telling.

"The news is 24/7. What's not 24/7 is how do I make sense of the news? Why is it happening? What's your point of view about why it's happening? Help me understand how I, as an individual, organize my mental framework for the news that is going on around me."

More important than making decisions is making meaning, is helping everybody make sense out of a complex world. I describe it in rules of thumb as changing the signal-to-noise ratio. We have too much noise—that's content. . . . What we lack is the ability to separate the signal from the noise—and that's what context is all about and ultimately that's what leadership is about.