| All knowledge workers of today can attest to the | | | | not a big problem. Today, the analogy of drinking from |
| overwhelming amount of information they need to deal | | | | a fire hose pales in comparison to the flood of |
| with on a daily basis. This constant state of information | | | | information rushing at you from all directions. |
| overload is caused by several conspiring factors: | | | | Not only has the speed of delivery increased over |
| #1 - More Information Than We Can Process | | | | time, but it continues to accelerate, creating an |
| Search the web for almost any topic and you will get | | | | exponential effect. |
| millions of web pages as a result. To this you can add | | | | #4 - Value of Information Plummets |
| hundreds of ebooks on the topic and most likely a | | | | The information age was based on the principle that |
| dozen traditionally published books available on There | | | | information was scarce and valuable. In the Attention |
| is no way you can possibly process all this information | | | | Age with a glut of information available, the perceived |
| in your lifetime. And this is just for one topic you're | | | | value quickly approaches zero. This applies |
| working on this week. | | | | indiscriminately to all information since we have no |
| How do you know which of all this information is | | | | effective mechanisms to evaluate what is truly |
| remotely important, or even factually correct? Google | | | | important, what is simply redundant and what is plain |
| tries to rank their search results by relevance | | | | junk. |
| according to their own secret algorithms. Traditional | | | | All marketers of information products should be |
| book publishers filter out most book proposals and only | | | | gravely concerned about this trend. How can you sell |
| publish a very small fraction of the books they are | | | | products at a profit in the future when the perceived |
| offered. Presumably only the "best" books get | | | | value of all information is $0? |
| published with this process. But according to what | | | | Furthermore, it will probably not take long before |
| criteria? | | | | people realize that some information is worth less than |
| Just to discover who is an authority on the topic that | | | | $0. Given that our attention is the most scarce and |
| your are trying to research, adds another dimension to | | | | valuable resource in the Attention Age, processing and |
| your research. Which in turn results in more information | | | | evaluating information comes at a severe cost. This |
| that you need to process. | | | | cost should be deducted from the previously |
| #2 - Bombardment of Unsolicited Information | | | | perceived value of the information, to arrive at its true |
| How many unsolicited emails do you receive each | | | | value. |
| day? And that's after your SPAM filter has done its | | | | #5 - Amount of Contradiction Increase |
| best to spare you from the majority of the onslaught. | | | | With a thousand voices screaming at you, who do you |
| But do you really trust your SPAM filter? Don't you | | | | trust? The one with the loudest voice? The one with |
| occasionally check the SPAM folder to see if | | | | the largest group of supporters? How do you evaluate |
| something important didn't slip through? | | | | contradictory information in a subject that you are just |
| How many email lists or ezines have you subscribed | | | | beginning to research? |
| to that were once relevant to your work, but are now | | | | In previous ages the number of information sources |
| just sending your irrelevant commercial offers? But | | | | was significantly smaller, even orders of magnitudes |
| since they once contained valuable information you | | | | smaller. Back then, these information sources assumed |
| stay on the subscription list because there may be | | | | the role of an authority since they practically had a |
| something useful yet to come. | | | | monopoly on information distribution. Think about your |
| When you search or browse the web you are | | | | old hometown newspaper. What they printed was |
| constantly bombarded with ads that are tailored to | | | | universally accepted as "the truth". |
| appear to be relevant to what you are looking for. | | | | #6 - Our Information Needs Increase |
| Since there might be something useful in these offers, | | | | "The one with the most money wins" has been |
| you click on the ads. Leading to even more unsolicited | | | | replaced by "the one with the most information wins". If |
| information that you need to evaluate and process. | | | | you know something about the market that your |
| All this adds up to increasing amounts of unsolicited | | | | competitor doesn't, then you have an advantage. This |
| information that you need to deal with, just to get to | | | | information arms race leads to an ever increasing |
| the information that you have requested and really | | | | appetite for more information. Which of course feeds |
| need. | | | | into the previous bullets in a vicious circle. |
| #3 - Speed of New Information Accelerates | | | | These bullets were inspired by Rich Schefren's recent |
| Back when the majority of your information was | | | | report: The Attention Age Doctrine. A following article |
| delivered by the postman and the newspaper boy | | | | will deal with strategies for surviving information |
| once a day, keeping up with the information flow was | | | | overload. |