The myth of the information overflow

It used to be the case that news was limited. A newspaper has only a certain amount of pages. The TV news are condensed into 15 minutes once a day. These artificial limitations are gone — thanks to the internet.

It seems that this change happened too fast for some people to slowly adapt this in their behavior. They go out and call it productivity decreasing and bad for sanity. This happens every time a new medium is introduced to the mainstream public. And it just means people haven’t found their way to deal with the new circumstances.

Here’s how I try to avoid overflow with e.g. Podcasts (this applies to text RSS and other new forms as well).

1. What is the feeling when a new episode is available for download? If you’re excited about new episodes coming out, everything is alright. If you feel like work has been added to the system, delete the feed.
2. If you come back from a vacation or else, and your list of unread items overwhelms you, relax and do not hurry through. There will be a moment where you have enough free time to be happy about an unplayed episode.

On the other side I definitely see the point made by Dilbert creator Scott Adams (original link behind paywall): When I’m bored or with no brain-challenging activity I get the best ideas. In my case it’s often while driving, listening to music or showering.

But does this mean to go back to old habits and be bored “on purpose” in every situation? Please, don’t. It just means you have to carefully choose how you kill your time.

In the end the web and new opportunities to harness it (in form of gadgets) give you not only more possibilities to consume — also to produce. Eventually I end up using iPhone voice memos to record the ideas instantly when I get them.