information diet
It's amusing to reflect that at an earlier stage in the history of the web, information overload was widely held to be a temporary issue.
oliverburkeman.com • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
The mind that isn’t fed intelligence is usually fed useless information. Your mind becomes disciplined or weaker by what you feed it every day. What you put in your mind should be congruent with your future vision if you want to turn aspirations into reality.
Peter Voogd • 6 Months to 6 Figures
Critical ignoring is the ability to choose what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities. Critical ignoring is more than just not paying attention – it’s about practising mindful and healthy habits in the face of information overabundance.
Ralph Hertwig • When Critical Thinking Isn’t Enough: To Beat Information Overload, We Need to Learn ‘Critical Ignoring’
Hunting has two main modes: searching and chasing. With searching you look for something to chase. With chasing, in contrast, you have a focus of attention that drives your actions. You may find something else worth chasing along the way, and then switch your focus to a new chase, but you’ll still maintain a focus.
Robin Hanson • Chase Your Reading
Most would be more intellectually productive, however, in chasing mode. It helps to have in mind a question, puzzle, or problem, and then read in order to answer your question, explain your puzzle, or solve your problem.
Robin Hanson • Chase Your Reading
To return to information overload: this means treating your "to read" pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don't feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because t... See more
Oliver Burkeman • Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket
People often hope that search-mode reading will inspire them to new thoughts, and are disappointed to find that it doesn’t. Chase-mode reading, in contrast, requires constant thinking, in order to evaluate how the current source addresses your chosen focus. This tends to make it easier to notice missing holes in the literature, where your new idea ... See more