Book review: The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption

I read “Information Diet” by Clay Johnson last Christmas. Central ideas of the book:
– information is like food – bad consumption habits are bad for your health
– it’s too easy to get yourself into information bubble: “When we tell ourselves, and listen to, only what we want to hear, we can end up so far from reality that we start making poor decisions”
– fight your addictions: disable all notifications on your computer and check email only once in a while, not every 5 minutes to improve your attention span
– media serves what people want to consume, if you want to et objective picture – learn to go down to the facts instead of relying on pre-processed information

I’m conflicted about recommending this book. On one hand – it’s 4 hours of your time that can be spent on better. On the other hand – it made me reconsider my own information diet and I see how I can now do more in a day because of that. So next time when you want to open IM, GMail, Twitter or Facebook, consider reading this book instead.

Update: after  months trying to follow the recommendations of this book – I have noticed that I have significantly improved my productivity. Topic of responsible information consumption also came up many times in conversations I had with many smart people in the past few months. There’s definitely a tectonic shift going on when it comes to information consumption habits.


Comments

4 responses to “Book review: The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption”

  1. How To Help Someone Who Is Depressed

    … – When a depressed child may be great, they can't cope anymore. All families seem to be completed for the frequency and duration of hay how to help someone who is depressed h… Ivan Kuznetsov › Book review: The Information Diet: A Case for ..…

  2. Belle Cremean

    Hello, I was just checking out your website and filled out your contact form. The “contact us” page on your site sends you messages like this via email which is why you are reading through my message at this moment correct? This is half the battle with any kind of advertising, getting people to actually READ your advertisement and this is exactly what you’re doing now! If you have an advertisement you would like to promote to lots of websites via their contact forms in the U.S. or anywhere in the world let me know, I can even focus on particular niches and my pricing is very reasonable. Write an email to: trinitybeumer@gmail.com

  3. Jame Keats

    Hello, I was just visiting your website and filled out your contact form. The “contact us” page on your site sends you messages like this to your email account which is the reason you’re reading through my message at this moment correct? That’s the most important achievement with any type of advertising, making people actually READ your message and this is exactly what you’re doing now! If you have something you would like to blast out to thousands of websites via their contact forms in the US or anywhere in the world let me know, I can even target particular niches and my charges are very reasonable. Write a reply here: Phungcorsi@gmail.com

  4. Catalina Fink

    Hey! Do you want to Get Back Your Ex? Watch Video From Here: https://bit.ly/3OEGcBp

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.