William Van Hecke
The Megaphone Cyclone Interview
Tell us a little about yourself!
I haven’t had to answer a question like this in a good while! At work I’m a software designer; I try to envision and prototype out bold ways of solving big complicated problems in a way that makes some sort of sense and that respects people’s time and attention. Apart from that I’m interested in a whole lot of things including baroque creativity, quiet, coming up with systems for becoming wiser, grace, philosophy of science, and wistfulness.
I’m less and less present on the internet anymore but there is a website where I try to present myself and collect some updates.
How do you define whether information has value at a given point in time?
A couple of years ago I decided that I ought to be able to explain every decision I make, down to the tiniest thing like whether to go eat some donuts after finishing this interview, in terms of one huge overarching goal. The goal is expressed as a perfect moment that I someday want to live — really it’s just a macguffin, a device for helping to think about decisions. “Will this help me get there? Is there some hierarchy of micro-goals, goals, and mega-goals that starts with a donut and ends at that perfect moment?” Even if the moment never comes, it’s a helpful way of thinking more deeply about what you value and checking in often on whether you are heading in a good direction.
Thinking about information got a lot easier within this system. Things that I used to feel like I *ought to* keep up with, just because I always had and because I identified as a person who cared about those things, sort of lost their allure. And I don’t miss them: unhealthy online communities, much of the news, and a few hobbies that are fun in the moment but don’t lead anywhere helpful.
Do you feel that the value of human communication and feedback is critical in your decision making process?
Plenty of things seem obvious in retrospect but need to come out in conversation in order for the brain to latch on to them in the narrative sort of way that it prefers to communicate with you. I deeply enjoy developing a shared lexicon of themes, terminology, and imagery with someone over the course of many conversations, together building the tools we need in order to think about things. When you can simulate someone else’s mind inside your mind — “what would this person say?” — you’ve reached a special level indeed.
If you were alone on an island, how would your perspective of information overload change from now?
Of course we introverts and highly sensitive people spend much of life wishing that we had more time in between all the *living* to slow down, be quiet, reflect, and read. This makes the island scenario kinda tantalizing. But in reality there is surely *some* proper ratio of life-to-life-processing-time that isn’t 0:1. Assuming I had a good traveling chest full of books, perhaps after a year or two I would really miss contact with the world.
How do you measure the value of information from online social networks?
I follow a ten-day rhythm that affords just one day for contact with the wider internet, on the view that anything not still interesting after ten days was not interesting in the first place. Time scales are a helpful way of thinking about value: how much of your time do you want to spend on things that may or may not be relevant tomorrow, like social media stuff from people you aren’t even really friends with? How about on things that retain their value for decades or even centuries, like books? And how about things that are valuable indefinitely, like understanding fundamental truths about the universe we live in?
Have you ever felt conflicted about leaving a social network because of the information the network contains?
Yes! I identified with my Twitter account for a long while indeed, and the goings-on at that particular website had a disproportionate influence on my emotions day to day. It was hard to let go because plenty of meaningful relationships and experiences came from spending so much time there. But I needed to realize that just because something has led to good results in the past, doesn’t mean you need to keep that thing around forever. You can fill more than one lifetime worth of meaningful relationships and experiences without needing to latch your attention to the noise and despair of online life.
What questions do you want to ask the next person?
- What is your ideal balance of information input, among information that will stay relevant for one day, ten days, one year, ten years, the rest of your life, or beyond?
- How do you think the world would be different if everyone had exactly the right information input for them?
- How do you think we can get there?
- Do you consider your part in the exchange of information symmetrically between how you want to create and how you want to consume? Or do you have different rules for yourself in one role versus the other?
- What’s the worst that could happen if your attempts to reduce your information input cause you to miss something?
About
Megaphone Cyclone is a series of interviews about information overload. We have a line-up slated, but we’re always looking for more. Please email megaphone@lot23.com if you’re interested in being interviewed. Thanks!
