Why we consume information
There is so much information out there — both online (blogs, videos, articles, e-books, music) and offline (books, discussions, concerts). On the other hand, time is increasingly limited.
So much information — so little time. How does one decide what to consume and what not to?
We can indirectly answer this question (I think) by understanding why we consume information.
Why we consume information
I feel I consume information for one or more of three reasons.
- To Understand. We consume information to understand the world better. This might be as simple as looking-up the definition of a word in a dictionary — or spending a couple of weeks “acquiring a specialization” on Coursera.
- To Create. We might not do this consciously, but often we make connections between different pieces of information we have consumed to produce new and sometimes original information. Unlike “To Understand”, we do not consciously seek specific pieces of information because we think it might make us creative.
- To Stimulate. Finally, we consume a lot of information, for no other reason, except because it is fun, enjoyable, or entertaining.
Now that we have specified our goals, I am going to present some speculations on how these goals might be met.
On Understanding
Whenever we consume information (be it watching, listening, or reading), are brains are bombarded with ideas, concepts and images. Some of these we remember, others we do not. In fact, at the time of consumption, our brains have a sort of “buffer” which temporarily stores the pieces of information.
Some forms of information need larger or deeper buffers, while others can do with smaller, shallow buffers.
Maintaining a deeper buffer needs more mental effort. Often, our buffers “run out” and we need to re-consume information, to make use of it (e.g. Re-reading a section of a book which is profound, or otherwise difficult to understand).
Our brains also store information with significant redundancy — meaning that the same information is stored multiple times in many places. Hence, repetitive consumption of the same information often results, not just in easier recall, but also a better understanding of that information.
In fact, in many disciplines (e.g. music) memorization (acquired through repeated consumption) has been considered essential for a more complete understanding.
On Creating
As implied above, by “creativity” I’m specifically referring to the “creation of ideas”.
My mental model for describing “how creativity happens” goes something like this: two or more ideas or pieces of information join or combine to form a new (sometimes original) piece of information. Matt Ridley describes creativity as what happens “when ideas have sex”.
Creativity is intricately connected to the process of understanding. The more ideas and concepts we deeply understand, the larger opportunity for ideas to combine and recombine to form novel ideas.
On Stimulation
What makes an idea stimulating?
For me, the process is akin to resonance. Just as a glass shatters when subject to a loud voice that exactly matches its natural frequency, we find ideas stimulating when we feel some familiarity with the idea.
However, its not familiarity alone — but a combination of familiarity and variety. We are stimulated the most when we consume information which is familiar, but also novel and imaginative in some way. If information is familiar alone, it is boring. However, if it is pure variety, with no familiarity, we are confused.
Thus, that is why we consume information. To understand, to create, or to stimulate…
