Kirsh & Cognitive Overload
David Kirsh has A Few Thoughts on Cognitive Overload. The main ones for me were:
a) the distinction between information overload and cognitive overload, and
b) the broader context (overload is not something that just happens in your computer - phone calls, letters to sign, meeting arrangements all contribute).
His thoughts are very much worth a read if you have time.
Kirsh's essay identifies cognitive overload as distinct from information overload, and then asks how our better understanding of it can be used to develop better work environments - again, not just software but environments as a whole. I'm not convinced he gets too far in the second, but it's the framing of the question that he scores on.
Eye-catchers for me were:
Inventory Control Strategies
Kirsh breaks down the cognitive overload along the fairly traditional push/pull divide. In terms of the 'push' - dealing with all that stuff that gets shoved your way - he talks about 5 different strategies people have for coping.
Blind Accumulation
Keeping all the information you can for possible, even if not imaginable, future use
Just-In-Case Learning
The gathering counterpart to Blind Accumulation. It involves learning whatever you can, just in case.
Surface Clutter
Keeping "stuff" at easy reach, even though the more you keep the harder it is to reach it.
Just-In-Time Information Gathering
Like waiting to be told you have to do a presentation tomorrow before doing your research. Local maximizing strategy, with all the attendant local maxima problems (e.g. what if you can't find the information just in time?)
Trashing strategies
Depending on your view of the utility of knowledge, you are more or less likely to bin things. Just-in-case types say keep it, just-in-time types tend to say trash.
Different work environments probably support these different types, and it struck me that again (and at last!) we seem to be beginning to move in the direction of actually looking at how people use knowledge. [rant] High-level talk about Knowledge, with a capital K, and how to manage it in theory, what sort of types there are is all fascinating, even useful. But if you want to design a system to support people, it doesn't matter whether that system is made out of bricks or silicon, if you ignore the users (however stupidly they might act) chances are you'll end up with a solution desperately seeking a problem.[end rant]
Utility of knowledge
The second eye-catcher was this natty little diagram. I love the a little knowledge is a dangerous thing representation!
Content, tasks and format
The third, my last here, but not the last in Kirsh's stuff was a simple explanation of why content format needs context. Take a set of numbers, any numbers. How do you represent them if e.g. you're hoping to add them, search them, or find out the spread? And does it make a difference? Well, which of the bottom three would you choose? And yes. Very much.
