Herbert Simon on Information

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 12:00:00 +0000

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

It sounds quite like the Scientific American article The Tyranny of Choice which says that after a point, more choice causes unhappiness. The satisfaction of picking the best choice is less, because the second best is almost as good. And you’re more likely to not pick the best – because there are so many choices – and will regret it more often.

Comments

Anonymous 14 Dec 2005 9:52 pm: date is wrong
S Anand 15 Dec 2005 12:37 pm: Just fixed it. Thanks!

Slow down

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:00:00 +0000

It’s time to switch off and slow down.

Ads when idle

Fri, 01 Sep 2000 12:00:00 +0000

AdReady has a neat idea: pop up advertisements near the mouse pointer, when the mouse is sitting idle. Cool. But I don’t want anything popping up when I’m reading! Besides, since this is an easy idea to copy, I doubt they should have it as their USP.

attention-economy on S Anand

Herbert Simon on Information

Comments

Slow down

Ads when idle