The Web Poses A Problem Of Plenty

Call it information overload or an abundance problem, the Internet, even while providing a wealth of resources, can sometime pose a problem of plenty-where there are no constraints, where erstwhile expensive and complex processes can be done for free and within mere minutes. How do we take action then when it becomes harder to choose among hundreds and thousands of relevant material on the web?

Cory Doctorow, author and co-editor of Boing Boing, faced a similar problem while self publishing his books. With a plethora of Internet tools available for publishing, automated ebook workflow and publicizing his work, Doctorow realized that having many possibilities and no constraints hampering work too can be a problem that must be overcome to get work done. So far, Cory seems to be doing well with his self-publishing books.

He writes in the Guardian:

My internet problem is the one so many of us struggle with: how do you choose when the constraints of geography, income and circumstance disappear? What goes in a playlist when all the music ever recorded is one click away? Which experts’ thought processes should you tap into when tens of millions of them are on Twitter? How do you choose a book from the millions that you can discover with a Google Books search?

But as hard as it is to navigate the infinite universe of potential input, deciding what to do with all that information is even harder.

But more than ever, I’m realising that the old problem of overcoming constraints to action has been replaced by the new problem of deciding what to do when the constraints fall away. The former world demanded relentless fixity of purpose and quick-handed snatching at opportunity; the new world demands the kind of self-knowledge that comes from quiet, mindful introspection.

An abundance of opportunity is a funny kind of problem to wrestle with, but it is a problem – and a hard one, since abundance manifests itself as noise that must be ignored in order to stop reacting and start introspecting.

Guardian: “The Internet Problem: when an abundance of choice becomes an issue”