I just got word from the editors of Harvard Business Review that a letter I wrote in response to an article on information overload was included in the January-February 2010 edition.
Unfortunately, they don’t carry letters online and it takes ages for my copy to reach Jamaica, so if anyone can confirm its inclusion would you let me know?
Here is an excerpt of the letter I sent, which I am fairly sure has been edited down to size.
“Death by Information Overload” (September 2009) by Paul Hemp was a well-written and provocative piece that I’m sure had many heads nodding. But I fear that the author did more to inflate a popular complaint than he did to guide readers toward a proper answer.
By the time I finished reading the article, I had the distinct feeling that we were all victims of the proliferation of information, and that we had no choice except to suffer from the “floodgates” of content that were “rush(ing) towards us in countless formats.” Hemp suggested some weak remedies, such as putting in place filtering software or getting others to send fewer messages — actions that hardly seem designed to stem the tide.
I went on to argue that the real problem is one of time management.