Addicted to Information
Posted on July 6th, 2003
Even if you paid me, I couldn't think up crazy shit like this. From today's New York Times, an article called "The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive?" has the following:
"Ten years ago, you had to be in the office 12 hours," said Mr. Mehlman, who said he now spent 10 hours a day at work, giving him more time with his wife and three children, while also making use of his wireless-enabled laptop, Black Berry and mobile phone.
"I get to help my kids get dressed, feed them breakfast, give them a bath and read them stories at night," he said. He can also have Lego air fights -- a game in which he and his 5-year-old son have imaginary dogfights with Lego airplanes.
Both love the game, and it has an added benefit for Dad: he can play with one hand while using the other to talk on the phone or check e-mail. The multitasking maneuver occasionally requires a trick: although Mr. Mehlman usually lets his son win the Lego air battles, he sometimes allows himself to win, which forces his son to spend a few minutes putting his plane back together.
"While he rebuilds his plane, I check my e-mail on the BlackBerry," Mr. Mehlman explained.
That reminds me of an old Sesame Street skit that went something like, "Three of these things belong together, one of these things is not the same..." In this case, the things are: father; son; Legos; Blackberry. I'll go along with the idea that collecting information can become addictive, but only to a degree. There has to be a cutoff point where you say, That's it, I'm done for the day. Or, in language closer to what I would use, Screw you guys, I'm going home.
I wonder if that's the inevitable progression with information consumption, though-- that you can only take in so much before you become, like this guy and others like him mentioned in the article, an addict. I did notice that the premise of the article seemed hollow, as if the reporter came up with the idea first, and dug up supporting evidence second (it should be the other way around). A recurring theme in all the article's quotes is that consumption can get annoying, but it's not debilitating in the way that a bona fide "addiction" can be. Call it pseudo-attention deficit disorder, or call it online compulsive disorder, but at the very least, make sure whatever it is is really there.
Personally, I'm all for consumption. Many of my projects address ways to consume information either in larger quantities or with greater precision. You get to both places by getting organized; computers can organize things far more reliably and accurately than humans, if you give them the right instructions. The notion of addiction deals with the issue of balance. Some people are way off balance and probably need a good kick in the ass. But that's a matter of what you do with the information you consume more than it is a matter of how much you consume.
If you really want to spin this out to its farthest orbit, consumption for the express sake of competition is bad while consumption for the sake of information is okay. That's my black-and-white view. What information is being collected when the guy's kid is rebuilding his Legos? Work related information probably. Things that he feels he needs to know in order to achieve or maintain his competitive edge as well as his company's. He's probably not waiting feverishly for a friend to send a great new recipe for dinner, for example, or hot-off-the-presses tips on building better Lego planes. That's my bet for the root of the problem. If you compete too much, you can't easily turn it off. You may be well informed, but you're also running in widening circles that are taking you further and further away from yourself.