Age of Information, Looking for an Answer

[Oscar Carter]

The Information Age is an exact and accurate description of this time in history.

I just got back from a book fair in Harlem, New York. There must have been over 100 authors displaying, promoting and selling their publications. Many of them handed me their business cards and fliers summarizing their stories and documentaries. When I got home, I opened my computer as usual and took note of the vast amount of information on the Internet. All of it, of course, was available before the Internet but access to it was not readily available and in many cases not shoved in front of me in the form of email auto-responders, pop-up ads over the Internet and booksellers literally sticking their fliers and business cards in my face, well sort of, you know what I mean.

Notwithstanding the extraordinary amount of information presented to me in one form or another, I am a sucker in giving attention to too much of it. I can not seem to get rid of this feeling that I am going to miss out or loose out on something. I truly believe most of it would have some value to me, however, there is no way to sift through and pick out those items that would provide the most benefit in the most time efficient manner.

How can one most effectively deal with this situation? HELP!

Oscar
http://www.oscarcarter.com

[Oscar Carter]

Thank you very much for your suggestion, Richard.

I read most of Think and Grow Rich sometime ago. I prebsribe to it's teachings, although I found it difficult reading. I found The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles as valuable with the same teachings and easier to read.

I was not aware of the thought being given to "The Attention Age," but I am impressed by it. I would like to follow that conversation.

[Richard Parsons]

Hello Oscar, my suggestion would be that you compare other books to the best selling book by Napoleon Hill, 'Think and Grow Rich', published in 1937. My understanding is that, whilst the content is attributed to interviews with some of the most successful business people of the preceding 25 years, this book was actually produced between 1933 and 1936 while Napoleon was helping Franklin D Roosevelt with the creation a Master Mind to address the aftermath of the financial crisis of the 1929 Wall Street collapse.

It maybe that we are now in the 'Attention Age' as described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy where 'the consumer's attention becomes the scarce resource to be allocated'.....

Describing 'information' as 'relevant data' means that attention needs to be focused on the precise 'matter at hand', perhaps......