Comments on: How info-starved were our ancestors? http://information-overload.nzeldes.com/blog/2010/02/how-info-starved-were-our-ancestors/ Insight, debate and solutions for restoring productivity and work/life balance in this age of Infoglut Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:35:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Brian Landberg http://information-overload.nzeldes.com/blog/2010/02/how-info-starved-were-our-ancestors/comment-page-1/#comment-294 Brian Landberg Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:35:52 +0000 http://information-overload.nzeldes.com/blog/?p=162#comment-294 Well, thinking back to my student days, it was certainly much harder to come across many kinds of information. I distinctly remember writing to the U.N. and posing as a grad student in order to get latest info about a specific African country and it's foreign policies. Encyclopedia Britannica was not too helpful. Time magazine, maybe... I remember being starved for information, especially the day before my book reports were due! I believe a lot of "simultaneous and independent" discoveries in science took place in 18th~20th centuries, precisely because information was slow to get around. Perhaps this is not the same as "info starved" but it is like Aesop's frog in the pond. And yet, aside from the "current" type of info, when it came to basic studies like physics, in a sense less was more. Having only a few books at the local library was a blessing, since it forced one to actually spend time and read them carefully. The lack of info deluge, which the internet now affords us, actually served as a filter, combing out the mediocre stuff and keeping the best (on average). Well, thinking back to my student days, it was certainly much harder to come across many kinds of information. I distinctly remember writing to the U.N. and posing as a grad student in order to get latest info about a specific African country and it’s foreign policies. Encyclopedia Britannica was not too helpful. Time magazine, maybe… I remember being starved for information, especially the day before my book reports were due!

I believe a lot of “simultaneous and independent” discoveries in science took place in 18th~20th centuries, precisely because information was slow to get around. Perhaps this is not the same as “info starved” but it is like Aesop’s frog in the pond.

And yet, aside from the “current” type of info, when it came to basic studies like physics, in a sense less was more. Having only a few books at the local library was a blessing, since it forced one to actually spend time and read them carefully. The lack of info deluge, which the internet now affords us, actually served as a filter, combing out the mediocre stuff and keeping the best (on average).

]]> By: Jonathan http://information-overload.nzeldes.com/blog/2010/02/how-info-starved-were-our-ancestors/comment-page-1/#comment-264 Jonathan Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:17:34 +0000 http://information-overload.nzeldes.com/blog/?p=162#comment-264 Quite right. I'm closing my browser now and going to sit in the coffee shop to think. Quite right. I’m closing my browser now and going to sit in the coffee shop to think.

]]>