Thriving on Overload: The 5 Powers for Success in a World of Exponential Information

detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair.”4

signal-to-noise ratio, the proportion of useful information to meaningless noise transmitted over a channel.

As we grow to understand cognitive bias, we need to be highly attentive to whether we want new information to be true.

We should adopt as a core precept the adage of influential social scientist Gregory Bateson: “Knowledge comes from but a single perspective; wisdom comes from multiple perspectives.”

We need to acknowledge opposing information, strive to reconcile it with our existing frameworks, and if necessary, evolve our models or sometimes completely throw out old ones to adopt a more useful way of thinking about the world.

In selecting your frame, the most important consideration is utility. Some topics can simply be too broad to pretend to keep up with. Being more focused allows you to maintain your edge and expertise.

The Kaplans proposed that there are two types of attention: directed attention and fascination. Overuse of directed attention, which is what we primarily apply in our everyday world of information immersion, is not sustainable, leading to “directed attention fatigue.”19 Being in nature draws our attention, not in a highly directed fashion, but in f

Review your information purposes and start with a blank slate. If you were setting up your information portfolio from scratch, what portals would be most important? Which outlets, if any, are worth going to directly? Can any media aggregators be useful, perhaps with some setup? If you choose to build feeds of media or individuals, how will you sele

Rather than sources, we should think about “portals,” the doorways through which we discover information, each with distinctive characteristics in how they filter and aggregate inputs.