A very smart post from David Allen, the king of GTD (Getting Things Done), discusses what exactly email overload means. In his view we don't so much as live in information overload as we live in meaning overload. Now at first glance that might look like semantics, and it is a little, but the difference is how we might overcome this problem.
His example of walking in the forest provides a clearer reason for his distinction. He says that when you take a walk in the forest you feel relaxed and calm even though you are experiencing a lot of different information come in. In this way the information overload is actually a good thing.
What then does he believe is the solution to the email problem? Being able to decide quickly what meaning they have to you. Do they have meaning as long term information storage? Or do they require specific actionable tasks from you? Once you decide on the meaning you know what to do with it.
So meaning about things is more important then the information itself. It's good, according to David Allen, that we live in world with such rich information all around us.
I think this is a pretty radical idea. And maybe explains some of our need to increase the amount of information we live with on a day to day basis.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
The power of ideas
Data is everywhere. In particular as technology increases we are able to increasingly gather more and more data about everything we do in life. This information can be used both for good reasons and bad. This video is about the gamification of everything. The last 8 minutes in particular outline some of the ways in which Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, believes we could see our everyday data used to encourage us to interact with the world around us.
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