Connecting the dots

I posted earlier that Danny Meyer advocates "always be collecting data", when you collect the data, you can connect the dots and get to use the information to your advantage. Sometimes that advantage is to someone wanting to do evil as indicated with this InformationWeek story where a bug in Yahoo IM software was described in such detail, it provided the last clue for the hacker to figure it out and develop an exploit. Clearly a single instance of this type of connecting the dots for malice but the concept works! How do you learn?