I don't think information overload is a function of the volume of information. It's a derivative of the volume of information plus the sense-making tools you have.
Paul SaffoThe goal of forecasting is not to predict the future but to tell you what you need to know to take meaningful action in the present
Paul SaffoIf you look at the last 150 years, about every 30 years or so, a new scientific discipline emerges that starts spinning out technologies and capturing people's imaginations. Go back to 1900: That industry was chemistry. People had chemistry sets. In the 1930s, it was the rise of physics and physicists. They build on each other. Chemists laid the experimental understanding for the physicists to build their theories. It was three physicists who invented the transistor in 1947. That started the information revolution. Today, kids get computers.
Paul SaffoDigital technology is the solvent leaching the glue out of all of our traditional institutions.
Paul SaffoThough I carry enough electronics to get nervous in a lightning storm, I love paper and I always have a Moleskine journal with me to capture notes, conversations and ideas.
Paul SaffoI think of futurists as people who have a particular attitude about the future. They're advocates for a certain kind of outcome. As a forecaster I am something very different. I am a professional bystander. I have opinions about the future, of course. But my whole posture is to be detached and to identify what I think will happen and not allow my judgments of what should happen to get involved.
Paul Saffo