Plants process information just as animals do, but for the most part they do this much more slowly. Is life in the slow lane worth less than life on the fast track?" -- Peter Wholleben
This week, I am going on a little bit of a self-examining tirade.
We all acknowledge that information is coming at us faster. This has been true of all information technologies. In his book The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin addresses this, noting that due to so much information:
”The Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger (tutor to Nero), . . . recommended focusing on a limited number of good books, to be read thoroughly and repeatedly."
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"Descartes complained that 'even if all knowledge could be found in books, where it is mixed with so many useless things and confusingly heaped in large volumes, it would take longer to read those books than we have to live in this life and more effort to select the useful things than to find them oneself.'"
We are Flooded with Information
Neither Seneca the Younger, nor Descartes, had the flood of information the 21st century experiences, yet both of them shared wisdom for our day. We need to selectively place our focus on the things we need to live our lives, deliberately organizing our minds in line with the purposes we want to achieve. We can't know everything. We are limited in our knowledge capacity, and as Levitin notes, "attention is a limited capacity resource."
We need to jump off of the fast track for periods, giving ourselves time in the slow lane, so we can think, absorb, grow.
These aren't easy thoughts for me. I love information. I have a large personal library of over 10,000 volumes between hard copies and digital copies. Large numbers of books are found in almost every room of my home. My wife decorates around books. I possess over 1,500 Kindle books, and over 3,500 other digital books. This is without counting my books scattered in the libraries of my 4 married daughters, PDFs that are archived, or magazines that are scattered about.
Recently, I considered that I won’t be able to completely read all the books I own in my lifetime, not to mention the books that are still on my Master Reading List, To Purchase Someday List, or even my To Check Out From My Library List. How many trees lie dead boxed in my basement? How much energy is used maintaining my digital books? How much have I contributed to the deforestation of planet Earth because I love information?
I do. I love information! I love turning pieces of information into knowledge! I love learning! I want to learn it all! <maniacal laughter>
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We Can Develop New Skills, But There are Neural Limits
Over the years, I have tried to hack the system. I’ve tried to speed up. I have worked to improve my reading skills (and I have always read pretty fast). I have learned the art of chunking information, skimming repetitive sections, whole chapters, or certain types of books.
I’ve studied how to read a book fast and when to read a book slowly. I’ve made use of audio books, digital books, real books that I can hold in my hand. I continue to improve how I take notes, so I can rediscover information when I need it, offloading my brain into digital space so that I have more room to learn.
These are all good methodologies, powerful tools, but I can’t learn it all! There are limitations. I need to be selective. I need to learn where to focus. I need to understand as Levitin says, that “all this stuff is competing for neuroattentional resources with the things we need to know to live our lives.”
Levitin goes on to say, “. . . it’s not that we need to take in less information but that we need to have systems for organizing it. Information has always been the key resource in our lives. It has allowed us to improve society, medical care, and decision making, to enjoy personal and economic growth, and to better choose our elected officials.”
Information is a Powerful Resource
Yet, I look around at the current state of things. While I agree with Levitin that information is a powerful resource, a flood of too much information, with little associated thought can be deadly. We need to learn from the trees. We need to slow down, analyze much of the information that comes our way, learn how to selectively consider it, then learn to limit our focus on resources that as Descartes stated are, “mixed with so many useless things and confusingly heaped in large volumes.”
Photo by Andre Alexander on Unsplash
So this is my wise thought for the week: Take a break from the fast lane.
Slow down. Save a tree. Sit in some shade. Think.
Further Reading
The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin
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