Too Big to Know
David Weinberger
24 min
9 Key Points
4.7 RateWhat's inside?
Explore the transformation of knowledge in the digital age, where information is abundant, experts are accessible, and collective intelligence outshines individual wisdom.
You'll learn
1. How the digital age changed what we know2. The internet's effect on our info processing3. The move from solo smarts to group genius4. How connected knowledge affects different sectors5. The good and bad of too much information6. Tips for handling and using the new info landscape.Key points
01We're in a weird spot where we're both struggling with and celebrating knowledge
Let's take a trip down memory lane, back to when knowledge was a precious commodity. Picture a time when scholars and professionals were the gatekeepers of information, spending years studying and earning degrees to validate their expertise. They'd share their wisdom through books, lectures, and other media. This knowledge was carefully checked and double-checked to ensure its accuracy. This system worked like a charm when knowledge was primarily stored in libraries and shared through paper. Fast forward to today, and the digital age has turned this model on its head. Knowledge isn't just confined to libraries or the minds of experts anymore. It's a property of the network, a sprawling web that includes not just academic institutions, but also businesses, governments, media outlets, and even individual minds. This network is always growing and changing, with new information being added and old information being revised or discarded. This shift has led to an incredible celebration of knowledge. Information is more accessible than ever before, and anyone with an internet connection can add to the collective pool of knowledge. This democratization of knowledge has a lot of perks. It allows for a greater diversity of perspectives, sparks innovation, and empowers individuals to learn and grow. But there's a flip side to this coin. This shift has also led to a crisis of knowledge. The internet is a wild west of misinformation, rumors, and outright lies. Without the traditional gatekeepers to check and validate information, it can be tough to tell fact from fiction. Plus, the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming, leading to information overload and making it hard to focus on any one piece of information for long. Take the BP oil spill, for example. This disaster showed the limits of expert knowledge in tackling complex problems. Despite the vast amount of information available, it was tough to figure out the best course of action to prevent such a disaster. Or consider the story of John Updike, which raises questions about how we understand and interpret the works of artists in the digital age, when drafts and notes can easily get lost in the digital ether. So, here's the crux of the matter: "We are in a crisis of knowledge at the same time that we are in an epochal exaltation of knowledge." This statement captures the dual nature of knowledge in the digital age. On one hand, knowledge is more accessible and democratic than ever before. On the other hand, the abundance of information and the lack of traditional gatekeepers has led to a crisis of misinformation and information overload. This paradox is at the heart of our current understanding and handling of knowledge.
02We're drowning in too much information, and it's changing how we live
In our modern world, we're constantly bombarded with information. This isn't a new concept. Back in 1970, Alvin Toffler coined the term 'information overload' in his book "Future Shock". He described it as a sensory overload, a state where we're hit with so many sensations that it becomes too much. Toffler suggested that too much information can actually mess with our thinking abilities. Imagine our brains as a computer. If you try to download too many files at once, the computer slows down, right? The same thing happens to our brains. We have a limit to how much information we can process at once. When we go beyond that limit, we get confused and our productivity takes a hit. Fast forward to today, and the internet is a perfect example of this overload. There are over 133 million blogs out there, with more than 9,600 being abandoned every day. The web is bigger than anyone could have imagined. In 2008 alone, Americans consumed about 3.6 zettabytes of information. To give you an idea of how much that is, let's use the electronic version of War and Peace as an example. It takes just over 2 megabytes of space on a Kindle. A zettabyte is equivalent to 5 × 1014 copies of War and Peace. If each copy is six inches thick, they would stack up to over 47 billion miles. That's like dividing the novel into two equal parts, 'war' would stretch the length of eight trips from the sun to Pluto, and 'peace' would stretch eight trips back. Our brains aren't built to handle such huge numbers. It doesn't matter how long the line of copies of War and Peace gets, or how determined you are, it's unlikely you'll get through even one of them in a single summer. It doesn't matter if that bookshelf continues to Pluto and then loops back another fifteen times. But here's the interesting part. Even though we're dealing with more information than ever, we're not freaking out about it. Information overload has become a different kind of problem. Today, when we talk about information overload, we're not talking about it as a mental health issue. We're not worried that all this information is going to make us go crazy. What we're worried about is not getting enough of the information we need. To deal with this, we've come up with some tools. These can be split into two groups: algorithmic and social. Algorithmic tools use the power of computers to sift through huge amounts of data to find answers. Social tools use our friends' choices to help us find what's interesting. To give you an idea of the scale of information we're dealing with, consider this: The difference between 0.3 and 3.6 zettabytes is ten times the total number of grains of sand on the earth. That's the size of the information overload we're dealing with today.
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03We need better ways to sort through all this info, not just trying to cram it all in
04Governments have been leaning on think tanks for advice for a century
05The internet has five key features
06A good long piece of writing carefully lays out its argument
07We need to build a new system for handling knowledge
08Let's figure out how to make the internet a better place for learning
09Conclusion
About David Weinberger
David Weinberger is an American technologist, professional speaker, and commentator, known primarily for his views on the transformative nature of technology. He's a senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and co-author of the influential work, "The Cluetrain Manifesto."
