I’ve always been hungry for news. I like to know what’s happening – and I like to know when it happens.
The thing is, I feel I’ve reached saturation point.
I jokingly summed this up in a recent tweet:
#AppleEvent and #BakeOff on the same day. TOO MUCH
— Ben Barden (@benbarden) September 7, 2016
Throw in Pokemon Go (I’m not ashamed to say I’m still enjoying it) and I’m torn between the buzz of feeling in the loop, and information overload.
Fear of missing out
“Fear of missing out” is starting to get the better of me. I don’t want to be totally out of the loop, but I’m aware I don’t need to know as much as I currently do.
Keeping up with current events is not inherently bad, but it can easily go too far, and obsessing over “what’s going on right now” as opposed to doing something about it benefits no one.
When keeping up is hard
I looked around for some tips on reading and organising articles. This post by Gregory Ciotti was a good read.
But how do you keep on top of multiple things? Aside from general news, each of the following areas are pretty big:
- web development: my career, which includes a huge range of languages, frameworks, tools, and methodologies – plus different roles such as coding, testing, UI design, devops, project/product management and more;
- publishing: the industry I currently work in – and while I might go into different industries in the future, I find publishing particularly interesting;
- music: beyond keeping up with the musicians I enjoy listening to, I also compose – which means keeping an eye on music software, online services, promotion and so on;
- gaming: I call myself a casual gamer. I’m a long-time fan of Nintendo, currently enjoying Mario Maker and Pokemon Go – eagerly awaiting the new Zelda.
Pick just one of the above, and there is an incredible amount of information to keep up with. Try to keep up with all of them? That might be why I’m feeling overloaded with information at the moment.
The solution?
I haven’t found it yet… but I’ll let you know when I do.
