musings on interesting ideas

This is related to the “Data Overload” we are all experiencing.

One argument is that today is the first time in our evolution that we have produced an environment which can affect the way we think and work (for good or bad). With the wide variety of information available and its easy access we are profoundly affecting the way we think. We have TV’s and radios, computers, mobile phones, portable stereos etc.

As we live with all these devices we are constantly being interrupted by some other information input. This makes some of us start doing multiple things at the same time, for example watching TV whilst playing on a computer whilst listening to music. Is this is good thing or a bad thing? How does this behaviour affect our ability to focus and our depth of attention? How does it affect our stress levels? Are we designed to multi-task or is this something that we are learning?

Does it make us happier?

If data is “stuff” and information is “useful stuff” then this raises some interesting questions about what we are doing to ourselves in our society at the moment. We all seem to be suffering from data overload which cause stress, ill health, long working hours, etc. Maybe what we have been doing with all those computers and bits of technology is capturing and disseminating more and more data? But have we spent any real effort in trying to figure out now to turn the data into information? Surely if we could do this then we could decrease the data overload problem?

In your work and personal life how could you:

• Decrease the amount of data that you need to handle?
• Increase the amount of information that you handle?
• Develop techniques for converting data into information?

One way of looking at human history is that we have been and are going through three major revolutions.

Firstly there was the Agrarian revolution. Before this revolution took place most people had no idea it was going to happen and what the effects would be. At the end of it, looking back, everything that happened seemed fairly obvious. What did people in the middle of it think?

The second major revolution was the Industrial revolution. As with the agrarian revolution it was a bit of a surprise when it happened. Also, looking back on it, it seems really obvious as most radical changes do. But what of the people in the middle of the revolution? Some could see where it all was going (or at least a part of it) and were wholeheartedly embracing it and encouraging it. Some were fighting tooth and nail for the “good old days” and doing everything they could to sabotage it.

Which brings us to the third revolution which I believe we are in the middle of right now. Some people have called it the I.T. revolution, in which case we are probably starting to approach the end of it. However we could view it as being an “ideas” revolution in which case we are only just starting.

Maybe the I.T. revolution has been necessary so that ideas can be transmitted cheaply, easily and rapidly all around the world. This would then be only a necessary precursor just as the printing press was for the industrial revolution.

So here we are in the middle of it. Some people want to go back and some people are starting to glimpse what it might look like at the end of it. Maybe t his could explain a lot of the seemingly diverse bits of stuff that are going on at the moment such as:

• A fascination with technology.
• The difficult time that conventional business structures are experiencing.
• The interest in some of the applied (and wacky) areas of psychology and pseudo psychology.
• Movements to free up and constrain the flow of information.

Surely this would be exactly what it would be like if we were going through such a revolution? If this is the case then what would the end of this revolution look like?

What is the difference between data and information? One way of drawing this distinction is as follows:

Data is just data e.g. £2 is data. It is by itself and is not connected with anything else.

You could then think of information as being data with “hooks on”. Information tells you something e.g. a beer costs £2. This may be useful or not depending on whether you want to buy a beer.

The interesting thing about bits of information is that you can connect them together with their hooks. So one bit of information might be “I want a beer” and another might be “a beer costs £2″. Join the two bits of information . If we could add another bit of information to this e.g. “I have £2 in my pocket” then we get yet another bit of information “I have enough money to buy a beer”.

The information that we have and the way we connect these bits of information allow us to do things. So some questions to think about are:

• What data do you have and how could you put some hooks onto it?
• What information do you have?:
  • Could you break this information into smaller bits of information?
  • How can you connect up your bits of information differently.
• Would it be possible to develop a theory of what data and information is and how information can be connected?

Great add from Honda about how hating something can be extremely positive!

hate something

And then choose “See the film” (at the bottom of the screen) and then “Watch the film”.