Google’s Eric Schmidt Explains Google’s Culture In An Era Of “Instant Information”

Eric Schmidt does a short interview of sorts in the New York Times, in which he discusses how Google and its culture are responding to the age of “instant information” and relentless technological change. It’s a short and interesting piece.

He outlines several “principles” of this new era: 1) no falsehood can last, 2) people expect an immediate answer, 3) you can measure everything, 4) managers need new ways to listen to information and uncover the gems, and 5) managers need to devise clever strategies to obtain everyone else’s information, even as they risk sinking in the proverbial sea of information.

Google’s culture has been written about extensively, and it’s clearly one of the stories behind the company’s current success. Whether it can adapt to increased growth and corporate maturation is a question to be answered later.

There’s something not entirely savory, however, about a view of a future that continues to accelerate. What’s next after this era of the short attention span, the ADHD decade?