Minding the Information Gap

In Freakonomics, a book written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, the authors discuss the disappearance of the “information gap” as driving the demystification of professionalized industries (e.g. real estate, medicine, etc.).  I think that any argument rebutting their contention would be difficult to defend; yet, as much as knowledge and, in turn, information are empowering, what’s the threshhold for information overload, the point at which additional information generates decreasing returns?  From social networking to emailing, I find myself spending an increasing amount of time maintaining my information channels to ensure greater capacity for more information.  I find the process to be analogous to mowing and fertilizing my lawn; the more maintainance I perform, the greater my maintenance overhead.

Moreover, as the barriers to information have dissolved as a result of the Web, I feel compelled to gorge myself on every trivial bit of information I can find.  Please don’t mistake my observation as a criticism.  My inability to restrain myself is no basis for condemning the temptation; yet, given the sheer volume of data available for my consumption, I am inclined to gloss over concepts which require a much deeper analysis.  I don’t believe that I am alone in this dilemma.  After all, there’s only so much information that the average human mind can retain and, more importantly, recall, so, as a society, we’ve resigned ourselves to a superficial understanding of complex phenonema.  Granted, the nature of humans to make decisions without all of the relevant details has been crucial to our survival as a species, but the proliferation of information has not only made us better informed to make decisions crucial to our survival but has also mired us in a morass of topics which are merely diversions we seek out due to our mental inertia, which stems from our overcivilization.

I’m reminded of traveling the London transit while being warned over the loudspeakers to “mind the gap”, drawing my attention to the space between the station platform and  the train door  so as to prevent me from falling in.  I often feel as if I’ve fallen into the “information gap”, but at least I’m in good company.

Extreme Irony or Simply Information Overload

I have become fascinated as of late with the extreme irony I have been encountering on a regular basis. For instance, when I created this blog, I couldn’t help singing “INFO SUEY!”, replacing “Hong Kong Phooey” in the theme song of the 70’s cartoon of the same name. I, of course, had to find a clip of the cartoon on YouTube to bring my wife Richelle up to speed, since she had never heard of the show. An obscure reference, without question, but the very next day we got out the Sublime boxset I had purchased her over a year ago, and as we were watching the bonus DVD, lo and behold, the same footage of the Hong Kong Phooey opening sequence began to play along with a Sublime cover of the theme song. So, in summary, a nonsensical blog name based on a System of a Down song sparked my memory of a cartoon from the 70’s, which I had all but forgotten, which prompted me to find footage of it on YouTube, which happened to coincide with a song by Sublime, which we discovered the following day by watching a DVD from the band’s boxset, purchased over a year prior.

My first reaction to this amazing coincidence was how frequent such scenarios have become. One day I make a reference to some obscure show from my childhood, The Greatest American Hero, for example, and the next day I hear the theme song (“Believe It or Not” by Joey Scarbury) or I see the logo from the lead actor’s costume on a T-shirt in Hot Topic. This particular reference isn’t an arbitrary one; looking for the theme song to The Greatest American Hero is how I first became aware of the power of the Internet. My college roommate and I, during the course of one of our many inane conversations, began discussing one of our favorite shows when we were kids: The Greatest American Hero. Neither of us could remember the theme song, which nowadays requires nothing more than a simple Google search, after which you’re presented with numerous sources, but back in the mid-90’s, Google didn’t exist and even two tech-savvy college students weren’t aware of the endless supply of trivial information available through the Web. I decided to jump online, and within a matter of minutes, I was singing, “Look at what’s happened to me. I can’t believe it myself…” (the first lines from the song, for the uninitiated). I’ve been hooked ever since, which brings me to the most likely cause of what I perceive to be coincidental: information overload. I’ve become so inundated with pop culture that I can’t help but find correlations, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does shed light on a topic that I will address in subsequent posts: how information overload biases our perspective of the world.

And So It Begins

I have retired my first blog, but given that I never posted any content on it, the transition should be fairly easy.  INFO SUEY! is dedicated to, as the tagline reflects, random thoughts by a random guy (i.e. me).  The title of this blog is a tribute to three of my passions: Informatics, Asian-American cuisine and nu metal music, namely “Chop Suey!” by System of a Down.  Given that I am fanatical about movies, pop culture in general and boxing, have received my MBA and spent my career working in business, and am currently pursuing a PhD in Informatics, you can expect a variety of discussions on technology, design, cognitive science, business and my general musings on what I deem culturally relevant, mostly movies, music and books, with boxing thrown in for good flavor.  I have every intention to resist the urge of allowing this blog to digress into a dumping ground for every thought which enters my mind; towards this end, I will incorporate references and encourage feedback.  I hope that I won’t bore you.