Comments on: Antidote to Overload

By: Idetrorce

Idetrorce — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:38:54 +0000

very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce

By: Deborah Barlow

Deborah Barlow — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:31:00 +0000

Every one of us has strategies to both manage the excess and bask in it as well. This topic is so personal and yet it has global quality of life implications.

And yes MadSilence, complexify is a neologism. But since there’s no question that anyone would know what it means, I give myself permission to deviate from the canon…

By: Aria

Aria — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:12:37 +0000

I definitly know I am too connected and too plugged in. I can’t sleep with out the TV on (usually on CNN or BBC), check my email and facebook a million times a day, even via cell phone. I tried cutting down and I get edgy, fidgety and sleepless. This is what’s wrong with todays society.

By: MadSilence

MadSilence — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:49:24 +0000

Just read Deborah Barlow’s comment: Excellent link to 101 Reasons to Stop Writing: Confronting the pandemic delusion of talent.

A serious question for every blogger:
Does what we write improve upon the silence?

MadSilence

By: MadSilence

MadSilence — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:42:59 +0000

Just this week I had some long conversations with my spouse & one or two old friends concerning WHY WE ARE ALWAYS SO BUSY. One common theme dealt with the information overload that has “complexified” (is that really a word?) our lives. A proposed solution: Step back a bit & reduce the input. Turn off CNN, reduce the internet surfing, and yes, even cut back on the blogging. Go to places where technology isn’t: the park, the beach, a show, an art exhibit, etc. Get together with friends for an old-fashioned game night. I received Netflix as a gift & have been viewing old movies: Jimmy Stewart in his Capra days, Judi Dench, etc. A good way to adjust the input & realign the message. Read more & savor it. I’m reminded of The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. The thought is the thing: say you are burdened by responsibilities & it is so.
MadSilence

By: the individual voice

the individual voice — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:51:59 +0000

I love the word logorhhea, Elatia. I will have to add it to may favorite word list which I was starting today with mellifluous, pellucid, and that helpful Yiddish word “farcocked.” And Deborah, all of your recent blog posts have been exceptionally inspirational and packed with stimulating ideas. I think I have been gradually moving towards more quantity and lower quality. Shorter, less thoughtful posts, but lots more of them. Like sound bytes. I think I get reinforced by the bigger blogosphere response to quick blasts. Then again, I slapped a really long short story on my blog today, one I wrote a year ago that needs work. I’m always testing out what people will and won’t read and respond to. But frankly, if I had to cut out anything in my life in would be my paid professional job. I want time to just be.

By: alaleh

alaleh — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:30:20 +0000

very much to the point in interesting ways… thanx for sharing.
xox

By: Deborah Barlow

Deborah Barlow — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:49:28 +0000

E, Such good thoughts on the effort to be concise and the fact that few of us have those gifts and/or skills (which has resulted in the online problem of TMI and TMW–too many words.) Perhaps you know of the blog called 101 Reasons to Stop Writing: Confronting the pandemic delusion of talent. (http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/)

What struck me particularly in the article on Ferriss is the enslavement of 24/7 accessibility. It’s hard to modulate when everyone knows you are Blackberryable at any time. I’m so fierce about my privacy I can’t imagine being tethered so tight.

Thank you Cyril for the heads up on Tim’s own site. I’ll take a look.

By: Cyril Barot

Cyril Barot — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:58:06 +0000

Information overload certainly is quite a load. Thanks to http://www.timferriss.com, I could gather quite a number of good pointers on that.

By: Elatia Harris

Elatia Harris — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:16:38 +0000

I read that Suze Ohrman has “her people” recast all incoming emails so that when they reach her, she has only to reply either “Yes” or “No.” While my heart leaps that I am not employed as one of her people, and my head questions whether intelligent communications can be reduced to such queries (if they can, it should be tried out on Hillary…), I’m almost with her.

The trouble is that concision is far more painstaking than wordiness, so that a perfect short email, the very distillate of process, can take more time than just keyboarding away in the confidence that your inchoate message will not be too miasmal to be read and understood.

One thinks of Pascal’s apology for a too-long letter: “Forgive the length of this letter — I had not the time to make it short.” Self-editing is a chore, one reason why logorrhea spews from every electronic portal. The more severely restricted emailing becomes along the lines that Ferriss envisions, the more editorial overhead must be involved, so that eventually there is drastically more work for drastically less output. And it is at that point that everyone in Cubicle Nation may feel like a real writer.