How much information can you process

I'm constantly amazed at just how many blogs some of my friends have subscribed to.  I've seen aggregators with 50, 100, even 500 subscribed blogs!

The title of this post probably should have been "How much information do you think you can process?" because, I often wonder whether these people realize that, no matter how clever they are, or how fast they can read, or what elaborate system for managing information they have "invented", reading blogs is just that... reading. 

Within a certain tolerance we can all do so much "stuff" in any given day.  If you choose to process several hundred blogs per day then, you've chosen to "give up" those cycles.  That's right... they're spent.

Now, I'm obviously not going to say what I think is "the right number" of blogs that you should be reading but just be aware, if you are processing a high number - such as the numbers that I've mentioned - then something else is either a) not getting done, or b) not getting your fullest attention.

5 Comments

  • I guess you could say the Robert Scoble is insane reading in excess of 1000 blogs.



    Not to mention being subscribed to various aggregated sites such as weblogs.asp.net/blogs.msdn.com/dotnetjunkies.com etc...



    As well as picking up posts via PubSub which return results on keywords that he specifies (sometimes this amount can be quite substantial).



    The other thing is, not all bloggers post often. So it doesn't mean that you'll always be reading feeds.



    And then there is the "I feel like i'm being left behind the pack" when you don't read your feeds, or miss out on a few items occassionally.



    But you're right, there are things that aren't getting the same attention they otherwise would if a large amount of time wasn't spent reading blogs.

  • I find being "on-line" in general is a huge distraction. Often I "un-plug" just to focus myself and get something done.

  • What aggregator are you using? How active are the blogs?



    I subscribe to a couple hundred blogs - but utilize a few methods to keep it managable. OnFolio has really helped (amazing - I can scan/read a couple hundred postings in 10 minutes).

  • I should clarify - I have no association with onfolio - just pointing out the correct rss reader will help alot.

  • Sorry, a little irrelevant, but I figure, it is worth mentioning. I read it once in an article. I think that people will always want more information. Or rather misinformation. The power of opinion is so strong these days, it is destroying our culture. Companies like Sony, are having their name dragged through the dirt. They worked hard to keep their head above the water. No matter, how many facts they throw around. Misinformation always, under minds any of there efforts. How much writing can people do? Is too much information bad?

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