Everything is Miscellaneous
This is rapidly becoming my favorite subject - I’m fascinated by the way our brains are being changed by technology.
David Weinberger writes in his thought provoking book Everything is Miscellaneous about the ways that virtuality is changing how we organize information. We’re moving from physical heuristics to systems of self-organization - this is how Ithink about the world, so therefore, that is how it is organized for me.
Whereas physical layouts (think retail stores) limit the number of connections products can have (e.g., a product should be shelved in one or two places in the store tops, in order to maximize return on limited square footage), in the virtual world, anything and everything can be linked. As the brilliant Kati Sciortino says, it’s all about the meta.
And information is now accessible, easily and cheaply. Look ups are at our finger tips. Perhaps we can finally move from educational systems of rote learning - memorization - to schools that teach us how to think.
The implications on us - as marketers, parents, educators, thinkers, citizens - are monumental. And we’re just beginning to think about what they will be.
Everything is Miscellaneous is a really intriguing read. I highly recommend it. (And thank you to J. Duncan Berry of Applied Iconology for recommending it to me!)
July 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Isn’t it interesting how we get so used to every piece of information being networked for easy and intuitive access? I actually get highly agitated if anyone makes me think about how to get information. Even a second attempt at a Google search will send me into twitches of frustration. If I get onto a website and can’t find contact information within 20 seconds, I am likely to leave the site in disgust never to return. (There is simply no excuse in this day and age for bad UI, don’t get me started, I can wax poetic on that topic for the length of a Russian novel.)
It’s hilarious when you think about how we used to find information just 10 years ago. Remember the Dewey Decimal system? Remember endlessly reciting your social security number and standing in interminable lines just to register for college? Remember Phone Books? Remember calling your answering machine from a pay phone to see if your friends had left you a message of where to meet them at a crowded event? Remember waiting for them?
But what this fully linked information gives us is elevating everyone to non-linear thinking (should be read: strategic problem-solving). Very rarely is someone’s job description truly administrative in this day and age. Your average executive simply does not need a full time employee to organize and look up phone numbers for him/her anymore. And, so everyone moves up the value chain where creativity and initiative outshine rote and organization. How exciting!
It is a brave new world, and I, for one, am not complaining. Pass the soma!
August 1st, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Definitely agree with Alison - our expectations on accessing any kind of information have been radically shaped by Google. Even though the technology is named a “search engine” - we have no stomach for a real “search” - it’s really just a “find engine”. I wonder what kind of information is left that we really enjoy “searching” for - i.e. the pleasure of the hunt. Does that even exist anymore?