The words to the famous Bob Dylan song (c. 1964) were ringing in my head the other day as I walked into a mass exodus of high school students.  Needless to say they all looked young, but my other observation was that literally everyone I saw had a cell phone in their hand as they exited the building.

In light of Jeff Ivory’s recent work as it relates to the changes in technology and its impact on financial infrastructure, I thought that I am seeing it right in front of me.  In addition, there is a movement now to allow texting during movies – the reason is that some people can’t be without their cell phones for two hours. The ramifications are numerous.

How is this generation going to learn communication skills other than texting? There is now actually a website devoted to cell phone addiction.

In a minute (or seconds)  you can Google diversification strategies and investment returns on your phone, how does the financial services industry plan to add value?

With all this data available, how do we apply it? I heard recently the distinction between knowledge and wisdom – knowledge (data) is knowing that tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to include it in a fruit salad.

In closing, it seems to me that over time that anytime there was a small repository of data or knowledge those that held it had some level of control – that is just not true anymore. It used to be all knowledge was housed in a library – not anymore; all stock sales went through a broker – not anymore; all telephone calls went through an operator – not anymore. In my view, the key is not just having the data, but knowing what to do with it.

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