Over the past decade, with technology’s assistance, we have more control over when, where and how we access information. As new devices (Tivo, iPod, mobile phones) and technologies (Wifi, RSS, podcasts) have appeared, it has become possible to spend more of each day absorbing new information. For some time, I’ve been inclined to use these new methods to take in as much as possible.

Years ago, I’d read a dozen or so trade publications each month. Then came the web, and various newspaper and technology sites. Then I expanded that to include the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal technology sections. Next was RSS content, through an aggregator that flowed into my e-mail. But text has its limits, more so for me because I read slowly. I envied those who could read a book in a day and apply that bandwidth to taking in multiples of what I can consume. So when the combination of the iPod and podcasts appeared a couple of years ago, I thought it was great, because I could start absorbing information during my commute, thus making use out of what had been an hour or more of what had been largely wasted time, other than when I was on my mobile telephone. During these years e-mail came into existence, steadily increased in volume, and instant messaging joined it as an important business tool.

Today it is possible to be fed a nearly continuous stream of new information, and the temptation to optimize use of time to learn more has been great. But the more optimized I’ve become, the more I realize that there is something very important missing, and that’s the time to think. Management has sometimes been described as learning how to make good decisions with imperfect information. If we spend all of our time absorbing information, we have no time to analyze it, and we lose the perspective of what information is necessary and sufficient to make a reasonable. It actually helps to constrain the amount of information one has available.

Since information is becoming easier and easier to access whenever and wherever we want, we need to start thinking about how to create and apply constraints that limit how much time we spend acquiring it, and move on to analyzing what we know and making decisions.

This problem creates opportunities for companies who can take products to the next step. Today we have technologies that filter information, but the result is still a flood, and the flood is addictive. We need products to help people define how much information is enough, and help them analyze and make use of it. When it comes to information, more is not better, and in some cases is even worse, as Malcolm Gladwell describes in the story about diagnosing heart attacks in Blink. Though it will take many years for software to come up with compelling solutions, the need is growing fast, and the opportunity is large. As an IT software company, we’re working to help our customers save time by not just making them efficient so they can spend more time consuming more information, but by helping them gain insight into their business to help them make better decisions. Personally, I no longer envy those who can read fast and absorb huge amounts of information. I continue to rely on a number of information sources, but I’ve turned down the information spigot, am spending less time gathering and more time thinking, talking about and applying what I’ve learned. I’m convinced that that balance is important to making good business decisions.

Posted by Roger Greene
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