Comments on: Yes it IS Information Overload, Clay Shirky, not only Filter Failure

By: A Skewed Web: Innovation is in the outskirts of social media | Biznology

A Skewed Web: Innovation is in the outskirts of social media | Biznology — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:48:33 +0000

[...] some still beg to differ about information overload not being an issue – after all, our email inboxes, RSS readers and [...]

By: A Skewed Web: Innovation is in the outskirts of social media « The bamboo raft

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:52:21 +0000

[...] some still beg to differ about information overload not being an issue – after all, our email inboxes, RSS readers and [...]

By: Marcellus

Marcellus — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:51:33 +0000

Some things to consider:

- a day still has 24 hours
- data and information are two different things
- quality of information is another thing
- time and priorities are related
- productivity and efficiency are related as well
- the more data, the more information, the more relevant information but also the more irrelevant information
- time spend on irrelevant information is time you cannot spend on relevant information
- availability of information is not the problem, but finding the right kind of information in the fastest way is
- and since the publication of information seems to repeat itself in time in: 1) many ways, 2)via many channels and 3)exponentially. The need for filtering becomes increasingly more important.

Though human brain is very well able to make fast selections, simply by ignoring what is relevant (according to our view) and what is not, you may miss that one article that really brings you one step closer to the thruth.

By: Information overload vs. filter failure « TimeBack Management

Information overload vs. filter failure « TimeBack Management — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:12:13 +0000

[...] observer of the email hell in which most corporate employees find themselves trapped. Recently, he rebutted Clay Shirky’s argument (here and here) that “It’s not information overload. [...]

By: Phil Simon

Phil Simon — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:28:15 +0000

Interesting post…

CYA, reply to all, office politics, etc. are all reasons for information overload. Coupled with insecurity over jobs these days, you can see why everyone’s overdoing it.

While my post isn’t exactly on point (dealing more with pleasure reading than mandatory work stuff), there’s some overlap:

http://www.philsimonsystems.com/blog/writing/misc-writing/tell-me-a-story/

By: Rebuttal to “Filter Failure” Argument « KnowledgeForward

Rebuttal to “Filter Failure” Argument « KnowledgeForward — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:29:47 +0000

[...] Zeldes did a much more detailed rebuttal – and more insightful I’d say. It’s called Yes it IS Information Overload, Clay Shirky, not only Filter Failure: The Black Death was caused by flea-carrying rats; yet no one would say “It wasn’t a terrible [...]

By: Nathan Zeldes

Nathan Zeldes — Mon, 24 May 2010 05:22:22 +0000

Ahh, J.D., using email like IM is such a common abuse… I see it all over the place. As one company actually measured it, 70% of emails get handled within 6 seconds of arriving in the Inbox. And to think that email used to be such a superb asynchronous tool…

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Sun, 23 May 2010 22:34:24 +0000

Good read.

It’s a Darwin world and this is just another test in our information age — survival of the information saviest.

Clay did a very clever thing by shifting from the stimulus to the response (as Covey would say, it’s not what happens to us, it’s how we respond.)

I’ve helped people out of info overload everytime with the following pattern:
- setting objectives (your main filters for what’s relevant)
- prioritizing (your main filter for what’s next, and how much to invest)
- setting limits – time, sizes, and quantity (your main filter for when you’re “done”)

I’m in a particularly tough environment so it’s battle-tested to the extreme cases (it’s Microsoft, where we use email like IM

There’s lots of ways to filter, but the most important starts with objectives, priorities, and limits.

We can borrow from the military too — the military uses some effective filters such as RAT (relevant, actionable, timely) and the air force uses checklists to avoid task saturation (which leads to compartmentalization, channelizing, or shutting-down.)

Usually the most important thing I help somebody with is actually “managing action.” The single most important thing here is factoring the true “action” items from all the “reference.”

I summarized a simple approach for keeping your inbox empty in “zen of zero mail” (should be the first google hit)

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:59:37 +0000

Very well reasoning, thoughtful and I have nothing elase but to agree with your point: IO is a real problem.

By: Jacob Ukelson

Jacob Ukelson — Sat, 22 May 2010 06:25:57 +0000

Nathan,
Good post. I think part of the solution to the problem is to move some of the filtering back to the source – i.e. the person sending the email. I don’t mean spam (which can be handled by filters), but business related email that you received that isn’t really urgent (or even meant for you). That is why I discussed the notion of “business class” email – like regular emails but with more built in mechanisms for management and monitoring of a conversation (or process).
Business email is a bit more “expensive” for the sender (e.g. in that it can be traced back to them, it is tracked, it takes up space in the sender inbox). A business class email also encapsulates a conversation and is “process related” – it is linked to all the other back-and-forth emails for a certain business process. All these mechanisms make the recepient more confident in the real need (for them) to read that email before they take their kid to game (or not).
My post on the subject is at http://blog.actionbase.com/human-process-management-and-the-email-filter-failure-problem

Jacob Ukelson – CTO ActionBase