On Amassing Information
13 November, 2018
Having a large store of information doesn’t make us smarter. I don’t even think it makes us better informed. It just means we have more information.
Is that necessarily a good thing? Most people don’t need a fraction of the information they ingest, either personally or professionally.
Even if you get information from multiple sources, you’re not necessarily getting more depth. With news, for example, a good chunk of the information overlaps. You’re not getting much that’s new. It’s mostly repetition.
Instead, try to focus on the quality of information rather than the quantity. One article from Aeon Magazine or Nautilus is worth a month or more of drivel posted at the Fox News website.