Work when you work, and play when you play. Assuredly, if you play when you should be working, you will have to work when you would rather be playing.
Homework Corollary:
If the teacher gives you class time to work on homework, do it. That means less homework later.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Determining What's Not Important
I often wonder why some people have more difficulty telling background information from important, or foreground, information. Leading the reader to the important points in a printed (or visual) piece is critical to getting your message across to your audience. Finding out how to facilitate that and what prevents it are important to communicators.
David Shenk's book Data Smog talks about this difficulty in a larger context. One of his ideas is that we are drowning in information, with little time between to make sense of it. He points out that for most of human history, the production, distribution and processing of information were fairly matched in timing. That is, we could take in information about as fast as it could be created and delivered to us. Obviously, that has changed.
In ways we choose and ways we do not, information comes at us almost constantly. In his book, Shenk paraphrases psychologist Stanley Milgram, saying that "individuals adapt to stimulus overload by...blocking reception whenever possible, and installing filtering devices to keep the number of inputs down to a manageable level." Think of the times you've explained something to a spouse or co-worker only to have them ask you about it 30 seconds later, as if you had not told them anything. Think about listening to your child talk about her day at school, listening but not hearing anything until the word "detention" grabs you.
Then there are the gaps in my memory that I assumed were due to advancing age (it feels advancing anyway). Shenk has found research that shows at least some of the increase in "spotty memories" is due to "cue overload." Human memory works within a context, and if the context for too many pieces of information is too similar, it's harder for your mind to create the context cues that help you retrieve information you have acquired.
Shenk not only covers the problem of information pollution, he offers ideas toward a solution, both personal and collective. For example, watch less TV, and choose in-depth news instead of sound-bite news. Edit the excess out of anything you write. Don't re-send email jokes to everyone you know. Cancel subscriptions you don't take time to read. For the truly inundated, Shenk suggests "data fasts," scheduling time away from all distractions and interruptions, for an hour or even a week if that's what it takes to "cleanse" your brain for more effective thinking.
One concept holds a special challenge (and opportunity) for those who make a living by communicating. Shenk quotes professor Hugh Heclo: "In the long run, excesses of technology mean the the comparative advantage shifts from those with information glut to those with ordered knowledge, from those who can process vast amounts of throughput to those who can explain what is worth knowing and why." (Emphasis mine)
(Condensed from the original article published in January 1999 in Money, Marketing & More, copyright L. Goodenough)
David Shenk's book Data Smog talks about this difficulty in a larger context. One of his ideas is that we are drowning in information, with little time between to make sense of it. He points out that for most of human history, the production, distribution and processing of information were fairly matched in timing. That is, we could take in information about as fast as it could be created and delivered to us. Obviously, that has changed.
In ways we choose and ways we do not, information comes at us almost constantly. In his book, Shenk paraphrases psychologist Stanley Milgram, saying that "individuals adapt to stimulus overload by...blocking reception whenever possible, and installing filtering devices to keep the number of inputs down to a manageable level." Think of the times you've explained something to a spouse or co-worker only to have them ask you about it 30 seconds later, as if you had not told them anything. Think about listening to your child talk about her day at school, listening but not hearing anything until the word "detention" grabs you.
Then there are the gaps in my memory that I assumed were due to advancing age (it feels advancing anyway). Shenk has found research that shows at least some of the increase in "spotty memories" is due to "cue overload." Human memory works within a context, and if the context for too many pieces of information is too similar, it's harder for your mind to create the context cues that help you retrieve information you have acquired.
Shenk not only covers the problem of information pollution, he offers ideas toward a solution, both personal and collective. For example, watch less TV, and choose in-depth news instead of sound-bite news. Edit the excess out of anything you write. Don't re-send email jokes to everyone you know. Cancel subscriptions you don't take time to read. For the truly inundated, Shenk suggests "data fasts," scheduling time away from all distractions and interruptions, for an hour or even a week if that's what it takes to "cleanse" your brain for more effective thinking.
One concept holds a special challenge (and opportunity) for those who make a living by communicating. Shenk quotes professor Hugh Heclo: "In the long run, excesses of technology mean the the comparative advantage shifts from those with information glut to those with ordered knowledge, from those who can process vast amounts of throughput to those who can explain what is worth knowing and why." (Emphasis mine)
(Condensed from the original article published in January 1999 in Money, Marketing & More, copyright L. Goodenough)
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