How a 19th-century philosopher predicted our modern struggle with information overload and revealed the secret to true learning The difference between collecting books and gaining wisdom In our age of endless scrolling, bookmarked articles, and information overwhelm, a 19th-century German philosopher offers a warning that feels startlingly modern. Arthur Schopenhauer, writing long before the internet existed, identified a fundamental problem with how we approach learning: the dangerous illusion that accumulating information equals gaining knowledge. "You...
Tag: information overload
The Dancing Gorilla
Can I have your attention for a few minutes? Great, that is exactly what I want to talk about today, getting people's attention! I'd also like to talk about what should happen once you get people's attention. In a meeting a few weeks ago I talked about my "dancing gorilla" experience when I lived in Oregon which I hoped would effectively articulate where most companies are from a communications standpoint and what it takes to...
The Information-Confusion Curve
Finding the Sweet Spot in a World of Information Overload Look at the graph above. At first glance, it appears deceptively simple: a U-shaped curve showing the relationship between information and confusion. Yet this elegant visualization captures one of the most significant challenges we face in the modern world: finding the optimal balance between too little and too much information. This phenomenon explains why both inadequate information and information overload lead to increased confusion, while...


