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18 Comments

How do you stay on the edge of the information overload?

Hi guys!
Hope you’re all good!

While discussing with some friends, we actually realized that we were suffering from a common pain:

we love to keep ourselves up to date on interesting topics but tons of articles are being published every day on the Internet and we can’t read them all, so we have this feeling of missing out on lots of information!

Do you have this same feeling? If so, how do mitigate it? What would be your perfect solution to consume information differently in a way that you would always be on the top of a topic (or as close as you could be)?

We would love to hear more from you guys so thanks in advance for your feedback!

  1. 4

    Have the same problem. In the past, I saved articles to pocket and never read them. Now I try to paste the link to Roam and set good labels to structure all content. If I have time, I‘ll work through these articles and relate them in roam, too.

    Main challenge is (as said in comments) Fomo-ing into bookmarking content of unknown quality. Related I feel the „weight“ of unread content, and the pressure to „make time to read“.

    I‘m try now to read more time-tested content instead, rather than the latest.

    1. 1

      That's a really good feedback @MGFFM1! Thanks a lot!

      With my friends, we are currently coding the first version of a free web-app that aims to solve this exact problem we all have! Would you accept to test it once it's live? We need lots of feedback to solve this issue in the most effective manner so we can all improve ourselves 🙏

      1. 1

        Yup, totally up for feedback. Disclaimer: Working in Product for a while now, so biased.

  2. 4

    I have your exact problem. I bookmark everything that seemed interesting and promise myself I will get back to it later so I can focus back on the task at hand.

    I dedicate a couple hours on the weekend as a bookmark/notes review time and lo and behold all the new things I bookmarked thinking they're important weren't really that interesting at all.

    So now, I decreased my consumption of new/trending material and focus more on proven/time-tested stuff. This has decreased the overload to a manageable level.

    1. 1

      Many thanks for your feedback @mskr!

      With my friends, we are currently building the prototype of a free web-app that will allow users to organize and interact with their reads in an effective way!

      Once our first version will be live, would you accept to test it? We could definitely use your feedback and hopefully we will solve your (and our) current problem! 💪

  3. 3

    this resonates with me

    I had these steps in relationship with information:

    • curiousity
    • desire to be versatile
    • lost of focus on what's really important
    • information overdoze
    • information noise
    • information pollution
    • focus on what I really need

    Whenever I feel there's something I don't really need at the moment of my journey, I simply "draw the curtain" and focus on my thoughts

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot for your comment @valeriefenske! Useful information here!

      We are currently prototyping the first version of a free web-app (as part of our coding bootcamp project) that aims to solve some issues with all this information noise and pollution so you can focus on what really matters for you!

      Would you be willing to receive a link to the first version of the web-app once it's live so you can tell us if it indeed changes the way you consume information (ie. more focus, more productivity, more fun)? 💪

  4. 3

    I think we all consume way too much information and take too little action on it (see Neil Postman's Information-action ratio).

    Reading about a lot of things is great, but it's entertainment, not work. I don't stress about not having read the things I saved to Pocket. They're there at my leisure.

    Generally, I divide resources into 2 piles in my mind:

    1. To act on
    2. To read if I want to

    The first pile is relatively small - just the stuff that is directly relevant to my work at the moment.
    The second pile is larger, but I don't stress about it.

    This distinction gives me peace of mind.

    Hope this helps.

    1. 2

      Thanks a lot @vitabenes for your super useful feedback!

      The web-app we are currently building is exactly aiming to solve that "taking action" issue that we all have! We would love to send you a link for a quick test of the app once it's live so we can check if it is indeed solving your problem! 💪

  5. 3

    This is called FOMO :)
    Nowadays I try to have less of everything. It's not easy, but I think our brains also need some rest. We don't need to know everything about everything. In the end, the result is the same. We do things or we don't do them. There is a great chance that by keeping up with everything out there we do nothing for ourselves.

  6. 3

    Common problem, I saved interesting articles in different ways to read them once I got the time, it hardly ever happens or not as often as it should. And it is not really about not having enough time either. Hmmm

    1. 1

      Well thanks a lot for your quick feedback @Kalevra!

      Same issue here! So what would motivate you to go back to these articles once you saved them? And why do you save an article in the first place instead of reading it when you see it?

      1. 3

        Sorry for my late reaction. As mentioned by others a tool to just saved interesting reads is not enough, they just keep piling up anyways. Ideally I would use something where I can not just organize my articles but also something that will encourage me to do so and that will allow me to add comments etc. I know quite a lot of my colleagues have this pain and to be honest I think that a tool that would solve this pain will elevate people to the next level simply because articles are nowadays more educative than books!

        1. 2

          @Kalevra we can not thank you enough for taking the time to provide us with this valuable feedback!

          The web-app we are currently prototyping will allow people like us to actually organize and interact with our reads in an effective manner! This includes encouragement and comments features 🔥 Can we send you a link of the web-app once it's live so you can check if it indeed solves your issues? We would love to have your feedback again!

          1. 3

            You think it would be possible to have a feature where I can access others people comments assuming they are reading the same article as me ofc? That would be awesome because that means I won't miss out on interesting findings that I might not see but others do! Yes please keep me posted, as a data scientist I could definitely use a tool like this.

            1. 2

              I completely agree Kalevra!
              You seem to have thought hard on this, do you have any other ideas? I feel inspired by your comment. Peace

  7. 1

    That's something i personally strugle in a daily basis. For me what seems to work is realising i'll never ever be able to read the entire amount of articles or books about a specific topic, so i use that to not blame myself and cope with Fomo.

    Also, every time i'm reading a book, i always make big notes on how to effectivelly apply what i'm reading. By doing this and actually applying what i wrote, i usually get the feeling that a took real knowledge from the time i spent reading.

    (Sorry for any broken english, i'm from Brazil and kinda of a rookie in this whole community thing)

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