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Another tech journalist slammed by bits

Over at TechCrunch, yet another technology journalist admits that he can't manage his incoming bitstreams:

I need less data, not more data. I need to know what is important, and I don’t have time to sift through thousands of Tweets and Friendfeed messages and blog posts and emails and IMs a day to find the five things that I really need to know.

He's exactly right in his diagnosis of the problem: too many bits, from too many bitstreams.

But as for the solution... if you've been following my recent posts, you know exactly what he writes next: the Technology Wish. Here it comes, the very next paragraph:

So where is the startup that is going to be my information filter? I am aware of a few companies working on this problem, but I have yet to see one that has solved it in a compelling way. Can someone please do this for me? Please? I need help. We all do.

In other words, "I have too much technology - so, please, let's create more technology!"

He should read Bit Literacy instead.

(TechCrunch is the #1 technology website in the world, or close to it... this is the voice of the technology industry - being strangled by incoming information and waiting in vain for a tool to solve the problem.)

See also:

The journalist's Technology Wish

A geek who can't use email


3 Comments:

Scott Souchock — Apr 23, '08 — 10:34 AM

Yeah, he should read Bit Literacy. It was an amazing feeling a week ago at one minute to five when I reached the zero inbox state. And it's been that way since. Still working through the other aspects but an empty e-mail in box rocks!

Nick Marsh — Apr 25, '08 — 8:17 AM

Yeah, I know someone who every three months deletes her entire inbox, and then emails alls her contacts saying - "I've lost/broken/had stolen my latop, if you sent me anything really important in the past month, please re send it." She gets five mails back.

Tim — May 2, '08 — 1:22 AM

Bit Literacy helped me immensely, many thanks. Yes, I delete and move and delegate and manage bits until my inbox is empty at the end of the day. I would also highly recommend David Allen's "Getting Things Done." I'm told that there are several websites dedicated to this guy who is viewed as a guru of managing the information flow. I think it's a very handy companion piece to Bit Literacy!


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Bit Literacy, the book by Mark Hurst, shows how to solve email and info overload.