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Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
11–20 of 79 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#12>Does anyone else feel like this? I have, and I called it "info gorging", and I would occasionally indulge in it. But the problem is that you don't fully integrate what you've seen with what you know or believe. At best, you've accumulated a set of superficial ideas to be fleshed out later. At worst, you've given yourself a feeling of preemptive failure, looking at all the things you could do, and yet not doing them.…
> Old fashioned discipline starts in the mind. You must be ruthless with yourself, and make a determination
Well, I think we're kind of in agreement here. I'd now need to essentially torture myself to do something that used to be a fun hobby, and required zero effort.
> I'm reading this book
Ok, but the problem is, _which_ book?
Let's say you search for a JavaScript book on Amazon. It seems to yield more results than all the books they had in my local computer bookstore! Pick one at random? But what if it has low reviews? Pick one with the highest rating? But maybe it was published 2 years ago, so maybe it's already outdated? Anyway, I saw on HN that everyone is using Rust now, so perhaps instead I should read a book about that? That's the analysis paralysis I mentioned.
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#13>Does anyone else feel like this? I have, and I called it "info gorging", and I would occasionally indulge in it. But the problem is that you don't fully integrate what you've seen with what you know or believe. At best, you've accumulated a set of superficial ideas to be fleshed out later. At worst, you've given yourself a feeling of preemptive failure, looking at all the things you could do, and yet not doing them.…
> Old fashioned discipline starts in the mind. You must be ruthless with yourself, and make a determination Well, I think we're kind of in agreement here. I'd now need to essentially torture myself to do something that used to be a fun hobby, and required zero effort. > I'm reading this book Ok, but the problem is, _which_ book? Let's say you search for a JavaScript book on Amazon. It seems to yield more results than…
>torture
It's not torture though, its a fight. Your mind is lying to you. Right now, you're not in control of your attention, and your mind doesn't want to give up that control. It's a mutiny! And you'll enjoy being the captain!
>Ok, but the problem is, _which_ book?
It seems you're a beginner programmer; you could do worse than "Eloquent JavaScript":
https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?mtype=B&keyword=eloquent+...
The tricky part is that you'll want to do some exercises, which means turning on the computer, which means a risk of distraction. Go ahead and turn off the network when you're not using it; you can also modify your hosts file (look it up) to "uninstall" distraction sites by redirecting their name to 127.0.0.1.
You may also want documentation while offline. You can do this by following the instructions here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/plus/docs/features/offli...
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#14I read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler for the first time a couple of years ago, on its 50th anniversary. It's an interesting read on a number of points, both in documenting the history of information overload, but also in laying out predictions for what the future might hold. As with most sets of predictions, some are more accurate than other, though the patterns there are themselves interesting. Ultimately, time is f…
Ultimately, time is finite, attention is rivalrous, and information is not infinitely actionable. ... added to https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#15>Does anyone else feel like this? I have, and I called it "info gorging", and I would occasionally indulge in it. But the problem is that you don't fully integrate what you've seen with what you know or believe. At best, you've accumulated a set of superficial ideas to be fleshed out later. At worst, you've given yourself a feeling of preemptive failure, looking at all the things you could do, and yet not doing them.…
Sometimes it helps to decide on one book and go and read it in a public space like a park, library or museum. That can reduce the required discipline somewhat. Ideally a place where it is socially less acceptable or inconvenient to stare at a phone, but these are rare.
Also taking notes can help.
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#17I think of this as all you can eat restaurant, just because the extra helping is free doesn't mean I should have it.
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#18I read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler for the first time a couple of years ago, on its 50th anniversary. It's an interesting read on a number of points, both in documenting the history of information overload, but also in laying out predictions for what the future might hold. As with most sets of predictions, some are more accurate than other, though the patterns there are themselves interesting. Ultimately, time is f…
Ultimately, time is finite, attention is rivalrous, and information is not infinitely actionable. ... added to https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
Incidentally reflecting one of the better mechanisms for information filtering.
Party A states some claim / makes an observation.
Party B curates that as relevant.
This isn't always viable, and can of course be gamed or subject to low-quality curation. But it at least disintermediates interests.
The Internet Archive uses a similar mechanism in choosing which YouTube content to archive. It monitors Twitter for YouTube links, and uses that as a filter for curating YouTube content. (Brewster Kahle in an interview or documentary I'd watched / listened to recently. Probably a video as it doesn't seem to be in my podcast episodes index.)
Oh, and thanks ;-)
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#19I don't think so exactly. I was born the same year as Google.
I thrive on information, I might make 20+ different Google searches an hour on a random assortment of topics.
Modern smartphones + 4G really is a blessing in that regard. If I was born a decade earlier, I most likely would have read many more books.
I will say social media does overwhelm me, as a lot of it is low density information with very short lifetime. Facebook and Twitter are the worst, certain parts of Reddit as well.
I think I survive because my internet usage is heavily question driven. So it is very transactional rather than passive.
HN can be great as it can offer many jumping points for new questions.
Re: Ask HN: Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of information?
#20Not much pre-www experience here but I'll say "usually not". As a software dev, my approach has always been to just start doing the thing and search only when I get stuck on a specific concept.
And I say "usually" becase right now I'm learning a new cloud (Azure) and the docs insist on force feeding me, with equal parts minutia + core knowledge. I am indeed overwhelmed, trying to separate and apply the useful bits.