I hit an idea on my Google+ feed about Information Diet. This has been presented as a summation of the concept:
#1 Productivity Tip: Spend 10% of your time consuming and 90% of your time producing. Make more stuff. Watch less. Read less. Do.
Really, this is hard to argue with, but hard to follow, as Tim O'Reilly said.
So, I go around looking at more. While I think the author of Information Diet and I probably wildly disagree on key points of ideology, I would guess that I could find lots of points of commonality. I'll have to do some reading to decide that.
But I found something else that I strongly and intensely disagree with.
So, I go around looking at more. While I think the author of Information Diet and I probably wildly disagree on key points of ideology, I would guess that I could find lots of points of commonality. I'll have to do some reading to decide that.
But I found something else that I strongly and intensely disagree with.
#2 Decentralise your media consumption This is a bit of a heretical idea too - technology is geared towards central entertainment systems for our homes. But you know what? They are hateful, terrible devices. Ten years ago, if I'd wanted to listen to music, my flow chart would have looked like this:
Now it looks something like thisSWITCH ON STEREO > INSERT CD > PRESS PLAY
SWITCH ON PC > WAIT TO BOOT > LOG IN > MORE BOOTING > UPDATES START ROLLING > CLICK ON ITUNES > WAIT SEVERAL MINUTES WHILE IT BOOTS > GET BORED, OPEN EMAIL/BROWSER > ITUNES UPDATE REQUIRED > START DOWNLOAD > START CLICKING ON FEEDS > ITUNES UPDATE DOWNLOADED > INSTALLING > RESTARTING ITUNES, MORE WAITING > ITUNES OPEN > ! WINDOWS UPDATE FINISHED, MANDATORY REBOOT...
Funny, in 2001 and before, my process for listening to music, more often than not, was:
OPEN WINAMP > CHOOSE A SONG > PRESS PLAY EITHER GO TO MY WALL OF CDS (HOME) OR MY SMALL MOBILE COLLECTION > LOOK FOR CD > LOOK AGAIN BECAUSE WITH THAT MANY CDS, YOU NEVER FIND IT ON FIRST ATTEMPT > IF FOUND, INSERT CD AND PRESS PLAY, ELSE FAIL 
So I'm Clay, and I'm the Information Diet. (http://amzn.to/infodiet). And man, I'm excited if you're ideologically in disagreement with me -- that's part of the reason I wrote it: we need better practice having honest disagreements.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the author of the post you're quoting isn't me or affiliated with the book. It's, well, not something I agree with either.
The thing I'm trying to point out about my book is that though it's because of technology, it's not really about technology. It's Just like people could get fat, biologically, before the industrialization of agriculture: sure, it's easier now, but a not eating fried chicken every day was as deadly then as it is now.
Getting wrapped up in the particulars of technology isn't very helpful, and it's why the concept of "information overload" doesn't make much sense. Instead I think it's about measurement, quantification, and making healthy decisions off of that data.
Oh, and obviously I'm not actually the Information Diet. I'm the author of it. Now you can see why I didn't self publish. Need editors!
ReplyDeleteClay, you blog at InformationDiet.com, so you can say that you're Information Diet the same way I sometimes say I'm /var/log/rant. That's perfectly justifiable.
ReplyDeleteI do get that SciencePunk's position doesn't really reflect much on yours, beyond searching on "Information Diet" will have you find that page, too. I will say that if the writer needs to have just an iPod and clock radio to keep on track, more power to him.
Bad on me for not making it more clear that it was a link that was in the greater cloud of "links about this subject" rather than a chapter in your book.
I haven't really read more than your Scribd first chapter yet, but it strikes me that this will hit me similar to the GTD thing. When I heard Leo LaPorte talk about that, I said "Wow! I have to look into this!" because it directly addressed issues I had in my work life.
I hope to get to your book soon enough. Thanks for responding.