Managing Information and Communication Overload

Unscientific Americans

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:39:42 PDT

From a National Science Foundation's biennial report on the state of science understanding, research, and education, of 1,574 adults surveyed:

* 54% knew long it takes the Earth to orbit the sun. In other words, 46% did not know.
* 51% knew that antibiotics kill bacteria but not viruses.
* 48% knew that the earliest humans did not live at the same time as the dinosaurs. So, an astounding 52% did not know.

What kind of information are Americans likely to know? Lindsay Lohan's lapses with the law, the domestic discord of Tiger Woods, or and who Brad Pitt was married to before Angelina Joli…

makes me weep for the state of our collective intelligence.

Bogus Information for the Masses

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:50:46 PDT

For at least the last six years, several times a day, I've received various ridiculous "help me move my fortune from my third-world country" email letters. How can the same transparent tactics be employed more than 6,000 times unless there are legions of recipients who actually respond to such letters?

How difficult can it be for email account users in 2010 to figure out that these bogus claims are perpetrated by career criminals whose thievery is largely untraceable?

It's Official: Multi-tasking Sucks

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:58:04 PDT

Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, quoted in Time Magazine: "Decades of research, not to mention common sense, indicate that the quality of one's output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks.”

Antidotes to Racing the Clock

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:09:29 PDT

A read says, “No matter how conscious I am of saving time throughout the day, I still find myself racing the clock. What, if anything, am I doing wrong?

Answer: Consider the following example: any one-hour activity that you undertake in the course of the day will consume one solid year out of the next 24 years of your life. One hour is to 24 hours as one year is to 24 years. With this realization, consider the cumulative effects of reading junk mail for only 30 minutes a day, or of spending 15 minutes a day in line at the bank which could be avoided if you judiciously used mail, phone, or email services. Make each 30 or even 15 minute segment count.

Processing New Info at any Age

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:23:30 PDT

Matthew Blakeslee writing for Discover says, "If old dogs haven’t been able to learn new maybe that’s because no one has known how to teach them properly. Until quite recently orthodox neuroscience held that only the brains of young children are resilient, malleable, and morphable—in a word, plastic."

"This neuroplasticity, as it is called, seems to fade steadily as the brain congeals into its fixed adult configuration. Infants can sustain massive brain damage, up to the loss of an entire cerebral hemisphere, and still develop into nearly normal adults; any adult who loses half the brain, by contrast, is a goner. Adults can’t learn to speak new languages without an accent, can’t take up piano in their fifties then go on to play Carnegie Hall, and often suffer strokes that lead to permanent paralysis or cognitive deficiencies. The mature brain, scientists concluded, can only decline."

"It turns out this theory is not just wrong, it is spectacularly wrong. Two books, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain (Ballantine Books, $24.95) by science journalist Sharon Begley and The Brain That Changes Itself (Viking, $24.95) by psychiatrist Norman Doidge, offer masterfully guided tours through the burgeoning field of neuroplasticity research. Each has its own style and emphasis; both are excellent.".

Manage Info with Helpers

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:12:41 PDT

When you have good help on board, your ability to manage information increases. For example Christie Ray Harrison who has helped me in various capacities is a conscientious worker who gets the job done. She reads instruction guides and tells me the handful of things I need to know, registers me for certain sites, handles inquiries, and keeps information organized. Among 100's of her peers who I have known, she is among the best of the best! Christie is a self-starter who stays focused on the task at hand, which free me to focus on speaking and writing. When I need to tackle a tough information-laden project, with Christie on my side, I have a lot going for me. With her broad-based education, determination, and grit, she is destined to be a leader in her field. So, look for the Christie's of the world and watch your ability to manage information and communication-related tasks grow.

Magazines Come and Go

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:42:30 PDT

Watsonville, CA - “Hundreds of new magazines are launched every year in the United States and Canada but most cover the same topics as what's already available on the newsstand,” according to a study by Wooden Horse Publishing reveals.

"Magazine publishers seem content to follow each other like lemmings," remarked Meg Weaver, owner of the Wooden Horse Magazines Database, an online magazine resource for publicists, writers and researchers with information on over 2,000 US and Canadian consumer and trade publications. "And over the proverbial cliff most of them go as 60% of all new magazines fail in the first year."

Info that Shouldn't Be Revealed

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:17:50 PDT

Katharine Herrup, writing in the New York Sun says, “Exhibitionism in America has always existed. It has been particularly evident in the newer media. The degradations of Reality TV were pretty bad — before then, no one could imagine so many minutes of tears on television. Newer media are allowing people to further degrade themselves. Many sites can be fun and useful, but can also be sorely abused and depressing. When 13- year-old girls promote their body measurements, as they do on such sites, something is wrong….”

Information Defined

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:22:26 PDT

Information is a message received and understood.
Information is a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.
Information is statistical data.
Information is knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction.

“Information is that which reduces uncertainty.” Claude Shannon

Information must be something or about something, although the exact nature – substance, energy, or abstract concept – isn't clear.
Information is not a repetition of previously received message.
Information must be true. A lie or false or counterfactual information is mis-information

“Information is that which changes us.” Gregory Bateson

The High Cost of Noise

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:36:38 PDT

“The high noise of modern life may affect speech and language development in the very young, according to a study that found the auditory parts of the brains of young mice are slower to organize properly in the presence of continuous sounds. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, reared a group of rats in an environment of continuous background noise and found that their brain circuits that receive and interpret sound did not develop at the same rate as animals that were raised in a quieter environment.

Edward F. Chang and Michael Merzenich, co-authors of the study appearing in the journal Science, said that the continuous noise delayed the organization of auditory neurons during a critical two- to three-week period after the rat pups were born. Although the rat is not a perfect model for what happens in humans, the authors note, the study does suggest that high levels of noise might possibly affect some language learning in infants.

"These findings suggest that environmental noise, which is commonly present in contemporary child-rearing environments, can potentially contribute to auditory and language-related development delays," the authors write in Science. The authors noted that although the brain development was delayed in rats exposed to the noise, “their brains did eventually mature normally.”

Spreading the Word About You

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:26:17 PDT

No one can tell your story as well as you can! Dan Janal, Founder and President of PR Leads,
says that if you have the skills -- say, you are a former reporter, PR person or writer -- then "definitely do your own PR. If you don’t have the skills, there are many places online to learn how to do the essential tasks of PR. If you like to learn and can follow instructions," Dan suggests, "consider doing your own publicity. PR is not rocket science. You can do it with a little hand-holding. Consider hiring a PR coach to get you started in the right direction."

Dan is a successful entrepreneur, professional speaker and marketing coach who helps clients build their businesses by improving their strategy for using publicity, marketing, Internet marketing, e-commerce and sales. "If you have the skills," he observes, "but your time is better spent on something else, then by all means, do what brings in the money." Parting words: "You can always hire people to work for you do to PR."

Growing Your Key Talent

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:04:54 PDT

News you can use: In her blog, Grow Your Key Talent, prolific author and speaker Rebecca Morgan lays down a challenge and some solutions:

"You say you don’t have any budget for professional development? Do you have budget for recruitment costs and training your key staff’s replacements? How about the loss of productivity when these folks leave and there’s no one with the same skills to fill their spot?"

"Wouldn’t it be cheaper to find some ways to keep them learning without spending a bundle? If you’d like a list of 10 inexpensive ways to develop your key talent, just email me and I’ll send you the chart, including typical costs for each."

Write to Rebecca at Rebecca@RebeccaMorgan.com to receive the PDF chart.

Great Expectations

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:21:51 PDT

"Technology reduces the amount of time it takes to do any one task but also leads to the expansion of tasks that people are expected to do." --Juliet Schor

Who Needs More Paper?

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:06:36 PDT

When my brother and I were just becoming baseball fans, my father took us to see a Mets-Dodgers game at Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York.

We arrived at the field early, which was a treat for us, and we got to see the players warm-up. Our box seat was rather back from the field, but with hardly anyone in the stands, we ran down to front the railing where John Roseboro, the Dodger's starting catcher, was standing. He spoke to us for a minute or so, and then my brother asked, "Can I touch your glove?" Roseboro said sure.

I can't remember whether or not we asked him for an autograph, but touching his glove, the one with which he caught the fastballs and curveballs of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale was a big enough reward. The strength of that memory surpasses any autograph we might have obtained.

Advice from a Fellow Speaker

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:08:06 PDT

Have you noticed that your productivity is down because you're constantly checking email? If so, consider using a spare computer or laptop that is not connected to the Web. For certian types of tasks, your productivity will be amazing.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:09:16 PDT

In an interview published in Newsweek, Jeff Bezos of Amazon offers a quick course on:

1) effective management
2) the future of information dissemination
3) opportunities for alert executives and entrepreneurs.

Read it and reap.

Language and Economy

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:10:22 PDT

According to the New York Times, only about half of China's population can speak its national language, which is Mandarin. China’s 55 ethnic minorities, and the majority Han population, converse in a total of 1,599 dialects, most of them incomprehensible to Mandarin speakers.

With the bewildering array of information that cannot easily be conveyed, it might be a while still before China’s economy becomes all it could be.

6 Keys to the Future, circa 1990

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:12:13 PDT

In his 1990 book, Powershift, author Alvin Toffler proclaimed that the top six keys to the future are:
* interactivity * mobility * convertibility
* connectivity * ubiquity * globalization.

When combined, said Toffler these six principles point to a total transformation, not nearly in the way we send messages to one another, but in the way we think, how we see ourselves in the world, where we stand in our relationships. Put together, they will make it impossible for any institution to manage ideas, imagery data information or knowledge as they once did.

Still true? Looks like it.

Ads that Make Me Sick

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:14:17 PDT

“Quick, the boss is coming!”

“Hide any open window in an instant with the touch of a button with HideWin. With this free program, you can assign each and every utility currently running a Hot Key, which will completely remove or restore a window on your screen. It even disappears from your Task Bar! Too cool!
Learn more and download this today!”

In other words, goof off all day, hide your activities, and later claim that you’re overwhelmed at work.

Self-Induced Lost Opportunities

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:15:14 PDT

"For all the hand-wringing about Generation M, technology is not really the problem... It's not so much that the video is going to rot your brain, it's what you are not doing that's going to rot your life."

– David Levy, Ph.D., University of Washington Information School

Overload leads to Waste

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:25:07 PDT

Here are various proclamations about wasted time, resources, and days; sad if even half true!

* Americans waste 9 million hours per day searching for misplaced items.
* The average adult spends 16 hours a year searching for lost keys.
* 80% of the items we file, we never look at again
* The average person spends 8 months of their life reading junk mail.
* 90 million trees are consumed each year to provide paper for junk mail.

Paperless Office, Where are You?

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:26:11 PDT

Interesting insights contained on http://www.mindjack.com/:

“Tiffany Wilken in her essay on the myth of the paperless office reiterates, ‘paper usage seems to be increasing, rather than decreasing. What gives?’ Though we take advantage of digital technology for info-searchs, email, chats, and games, we don't quite trust it. We've all been burned by our computers at one time or another. In the back of our minds is the haunting doubt, ‘What if my computer crashes and I lose all my files?’ A hardcopy back-up still feels safer than something on hard-disk.

“The major obstacle to reaching the paperless office may be sociotechnical, according to a report funded by the Electronic Document Systems Foundation. People like the smell of opening a book. We may simply prefer paper…” !

Death by Powerpoint

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:30:00 PST

What audiences find irritating about Powerpoint:

speaker read the slides 60%

text too small to read 51%

text too wordy 48%

poor slide color choices 37%

moving text or graphics 25%

irritating sounds 22%

complex charts 22%

The Importance of Being Concise

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:27:42 PDT

Here’s a good article by Dr. Donald Wetmore on the importance of being concise in our communications. In a nutshell, appropriate “concision” benefits all parties!

An Involuntary Offer

jeff@breathingspace.com (author Jeff Davidson) — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:35:04 PDT

With 14,200,000 Google hits for the phrase "thank you for your patience," it seems to me that legions of people are presuming am awful lot about others...