This means we are willing to admit what we do not know. We need instead to enter an environment, and listen on a bandwidth where the information is much greater. Recall from Part II of this series that one definition of information is uncertainty and surprise. High uncertainty environments are more likely to be meaningful to me than low uncertainty ones. Meaning is another loose synonym that I've been using in this series for information.
Information is a message to which the receiver assigns some meaning.
On a daily drive to work or a walk down a familiar corridor, there is little uncertainty, and therefore little information. There's nothing to pay attention to. This high information environment is rich with opportunity to learn, discover or create something new. Phase I in the growth of a weak signal is placing yourself in the path of high-novelty signals in an uncertain environment. Phase II is composed of four stages.