A boy puts up his hand in class and asks,
"Mr. Osborne. May I be excused? My brain is full."
(Gary Larson, from
The Far Side 2007 Page-a-day Calendar)
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Intellectual overload
I wish this header meant we'd talk about what it's like to be too smart. That honour I shall reserve for someone who could lead that discussion from experience ~;->
I mean somewhat the opposite: the way our brains become less efficient at processing information when they're receiving too many messages at once.
Look at the photo here. It's my dining room table a few weeks back, around 2:30 in the afternoon.
Now, what's the first thing you feel when you see it? Does the techno-salad make you energetic? Anxious? Indifferent? And, what about the papers lining the frame? You might be wondering why one would need so many different media at once.
Looking at the photo, and writing about it, I admit to feeling a bit anxious. And it's my office. Being a consultant gives me greater ability to control my space. But I'm still a creature of the culture within which I work. So here are all the "tools" that I refer to daily - for most, hourly - to conduct my business.
Here's an example. On a typical day, I'll go to my daytimer (bottom-left corner) to mark a date, after reading an e-mail in the laptop (opposite corner)where someone had asked whether I could send a document in .PDF format (using same laptop) on the day I'm now marking down. Underneath the deadline note, I'm adding a reminder to install the new PDF conversion software beforehand. That is how I will meet my client's expectations.
In this action alone, I've had to use two separate media from the spread in the photo, and think about three (including the software decision and follow-up plan). And this kind of processing happens repeatedly, as I navigate how I'm going to use time to please my customers and keep making money.
If you're reading this, you too are likely part of a culture one where we need to be reachable frome several places simultaneously. And, it's expected that we will process information in several formats quickly.
And - if you're in many businesses, including mine - many clients will expect you to deliver high-quality information, quickly.
And then there are all those less-sexy thoughts that enter our minds while we're using all the tools to work in warp speed.
Like the meeting with your son's teacher and why he's been coming home so tired the past few days; or the pile of cat vomit next to the litterbox, both of which need to be cleaned; or whether you remembered to pay your VISA bill - and did you pay the "after due date" amount when you didn't need to?!
I've left kiddieland, dear reader. This is a new discussion I'm excited about, because I find it compelling. And, I suspect that if you're still here, then you do, too.
But, it is Monday, so let's not barrage ourselves with too much more on this...Post a comment, or come back soon to hear more about this topic that's burning my (info-addled) brain.
Let's also continue the discussion about Intellectual Property (IP). And you can win something!
Question of the week: strictly speaking, was it stealing to publish that photo of the Dora chocolate last week? Lemmeknow what you think by posting your comment below through the Comments link. I'll be collecting comments and drawing a commenter's name at the end of May - the winner will receive a Best Buy gift certificate worth $25.
2 comments:
Hmmm...a challenge on a Monday (or a Tuesday, which is when I'm reading this. I'm not sure how much HTML Google supports in comments, but let's see, if this works the Post a Comment link should work.
What I did was add a link tag, using html. To see the tag, right click on the link, choose copy this link and then paste it into a text editor or a Word document...you should see the HTML coding.
Thanks for the insight into how you organize yourself. I'm always trying to figure out the right balance between on-line stuff and paper. Using both is OK, but that holy grail of one system that ties everything together still eludes me.
useof technology to complete every day tasks, ability to communicate with coworkers, family and acquaintances in a variety of formats and mediums; these are all important progressions and milestones in the evolution of technology, but are we in turn losing the ability to communicate in other, may I say, stone-age type methods? The decision to send someone a note, an invite for lunch, a birthday card. I am able to accomplish all these things without ever speaking with or seeing the intended recipient. What does that do to our skills and abilities to communicate orally with other members of the human race? do our social and verbal skills suffer? Do we lose the ablity to express ouselves with proper modulation and intonation as neither of these are important when expressing yourself via email or blogs or thru your 'crackberry'. What about the written word? the ability of our high school and univeraity graduates to write a paragraph using proper grammar, structure and language is becoming a thing of the past. The sheer effort and exursion of handwriting an essay or journal entry can leave me unable to hold a cup of coffee due to muscle spasms and cramps in my hand. Writing by hand? who would do that anymore? Will there be a new science of studying type face and font selection as a way of analysing a persons intellect and mental capacity? Personality assessments based on the colour of your Blackberry instead of the colour of ink and size of nib on your pen. The topic makes me morose. I better go do finger pushups in preparation for my next essay.
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