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It was 1439 when arguably the greatest invention in human history came into being—the printing press. Though the printing press had been independently invented in South Korea a century prior, it was Johannes Gutenberg’s moveable type that hoisted Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance and beyond. Elizabeth Einstein, author of The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, stated that the printing press was “a decisive point of no return in human history.”
With expanded access to information, Europeans were able to share discoveries, copyright materials, and spread ideas at a rapid pace. If you look at the number of books printed in Europe since the introduction of the printing press, you can see this well:
And this trend continues today. With the advent of the internet, the democratization of information has progressed more rapidly than ever before in human history. And with this abundance, a new problem has emerged. Whereas centuries ago we used to have trouble finding information, now the issue is filtering it. As Elizabeth Einstein notes:
"There appears to be little reason to be concerned about ‘the loss of mankind’s memory.’ There are good reasons for being concerned about the overloading of its circuits."
This is the question of our time. How do we know what information is useful and what isn’t? How do we separate the signal from the noise?
So, how should you spend your limited attention? Is there an optimal way to consume information?
I have thought about this problem a lot because I spend so much of my time consuming information. Between my job as a data scientist and writing this blog, I am constantly in a state of information consumption. This is why I read 40-50 books a year. No TV. No sports. No video games. I read.
And after doing so much reading, I have realized that there is an optimal way to consume information. You should focus on the information with the longest shelf life that took a considerable effort to create.
FULL ARTICLE: https://ofdollarsanddata.com/the-bes...e-information/
With expanded access to information, Europeans were able to share discoveries, copyright materials, and spread ideas at a rapid pace. If you look at the number of books printed in Europe since the introduction of the printing press, you can see this well:
And this trend continues today. With the advent of the internet, the democratization of information has progressed more rapidly than ever before in human history. And with this abundance, a new problem has emerged. Whereas centuries ago we used to have trouble finding information, now the issue is filtering it. As Elizabeth Einstein notes:
"There appears to be little reason to be concerned about ‘the loss of mankind’s memory.’ There are good reasons for being concerned about the overloading of its circuits."
This is the question of our time. How do we know what information is useful and what isn’t? How do we separate the signal from the noise?
So, how should you spend your limited attention? Is there an optimal way to consume information?
I have thought about this problem a lot because I spend so much of my time consuming information. Between my job as a data scientist and writing this blog, I am constantly in a state of information consumption. This is why I read 40-50 books a year. No TV. No sports. No video games. I read.
And after doing so much reading, I have realized that there is an optimal way to consume information. You should focus on the information with the longest shelf life that took a considerable effort to create.
FULL ARTICLE: https://ofdollarsanddata.com/the-bes...e-information/