I can't process the information that is coming at me | Hacker News Reader

I can't process the information that is coming at me

48 pointstodaysAI35 comments

I'm a well-educated man yet I find it very difficult to process the information that is coming at me. The number of issues that hit me every day just makes me want to hide in a foxhole until it's all over like some soldier. Yet I know it will not be over. In fact, I know it will be progressively worse.

I'm educated and aware and I can't cope. How can anyone cope?

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I read somewhere that someone said (either about physics or CS): "There's 50 times as much going on as I can keep up with, and I only operate at 2% efficiency. So there's this factor of 2500 working against me, and every day I fall seven years further behind."

And that was professionally. That wasn't trying to keep up with the news, and your friends' every social media post.

So cut yourself some slack. Nobody can keep up with everything. You aren't broken, you aren't incompetent, you're just human, and humans have limited bandwidth. I think that's where the answer starts: Stop expecting that you can keep up. Stop thinking that it's reasonable that you can keep up. It's not a reasonable expectation; there's too much for that.

The next step, as others have said, is limiting what you try to keep up with. See, the news outfits make more money if they get you to consume more of their stuff. So does Facebook. There are very smart people trying very hard to make you want to consume their spew, for their benefit, regardless of whether it harms you or not. You have to deliberately defend yourself. Consciously choose how much you're going to take in, and of what. And then fight to maintain that, because they're going to tempt you to make an exception... and another... and a whole bunch more... and then your limits are gone. If and when that happens, recognize that it happened, remember why you put limits on, and go back to the limits.

>So cut yourself some slack. Nobody can keep up with everything. You aren't broken, you aren't incompetent, you're just human, and humans have limited bandwidth. I think that's where the answer starts: Stop expecting that you can keep up. Stop thinking that it's reasonable that you can keep up. It's not a reasonable expectation; there's too much for that.

This.

But I only learned this kind of self-compassion after having my pride eroded to a nub. :3

Also, embracing the futility and meaninglessness and briefness of life helps. Reflect on your mortality, and how it might come sooner than you think. AND NOT IN A SAD WAY; more like in a humorous way, salted with the gratitude to have been (and still be) a part of everything. xD

Here's how I cope:

Q: Where's my phone? A: I think it's on the shelf somewhere. Honestly I don't know.

Q: How many tabs do I have open. A: Currently 5 and never more than 10.

Q: How many times do I watch the news on TV. A: Never, I use youtube and I get the news from various sources on the topics that I want to hear.

Q: How many IM apps do I have open. A: Just one, Skype and is reserved for friends only.

Q: How many forums do I go to. A: Just two, HN and Reddit and on Reddit, I only browse the topics that I want to. I almost never go to the front page.

Q: How many social media sites have I joined. A: None. Not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other apps. Accounts created in the past were for test applications.

Q: How much unread mail do I have. A: None, I have 1 inbox for friends and family and another for spam / anything I opt-into.

It all starts with you. You have control over what you do and don't do. If you reduce your surface area, the number of issues will diminish daily.

I get the newspaper delivered. That way I can look at it once a day and get a concise summary. The rest of the time I don't need to consider it.

> Q: How many forums do I go to. A: Just two, HN and Reddit and on Reddit, I only browse the topics that I want to. I almost never go to the front page.

TIL Reddit has a frontpage.

Q: How many notifications did you get that prevented you from focussing on work? A: None. Uninstall all apps that do otherwise.

Q: What emails did you read with no actionable task inside? A: Every email with no task is another two minutes of lost time. Use GDPR if companies keep spamming you with nonsense.

First off, do you still read the news? If so, consider cutting them completely.

As for the rest, deal with issues in a sequential manner. Don't deal with multiple things at once. Be stubborn: pick one thing, kill it dead, move to another.

And consider adopting a GTD-like system. If you deal with information, you will benefit from having a clear distinction between actionable information (tasks) and non-actionable information (reference). See a task? Put in on a task list. Not a task? File it into notes and forget about it.

I've struggled with this. News and social sites like Reddit are what tipped me off early this was going to be bad.

Yet I empathize greatly with OP. It takes massive energy and time to deal with the sifting.

I've started trying to develop mental filters and guidelines for things I went let myself dig into, like opinion pieces and their comments. It helps a little. I suspect I need to do more though but don't want to risk being out of the loop on major global and local happenings.

I use skimfeed.com to attempt to get an overview of headlines in the world and delegate everything else to lists and work through them. Once an item is on a list, I no longer need the mental exertion to remember what I needed to do, and avoid getting into the "what was that thing I was meant to do and remember?" situation.

I also deliberately avoid WhatsApp and force people to email or SMS me. This massively reduced the amount of noise I had to deal with. Sure, I hear off fewer people but I actually get stuff done and if people can't be bothered to write an email, it's probably not important in the slightest.

This might not be an option for you but in any case it is reducing the amount of time you're on your phone and/or distracted, coupled with exerting a bit of control over when and how people can contact you. Your phone is for your convenience, not theirs.

Take in less information. Prioritize based on what you truly need to know. Augment with things that make you curious rather than stressed.

This is the answer. It isn’t easy – it’s like quitting smoking in that way – but you have to take control of the input.

For me that means cutting out hyperbolic news sources like twitter, Reddit, definitely any cable news network or daily news broadcast of any kind. Apple News is also terrible in this regard; no matter how hard I try to curate, they’re always shoving celebrity gossip and MSNBC or Fox News headlines at me.

So it’s a daily struggle, but on my good days I check the New York Times and Hacker News once in the morning and in the evening. I have a couple of non-news blogs I subscribe to that I check via RSS feed, and then that’s it.

I donate what I can to political and charitable organizations. It’s important to stay informed, but unless you’re a reporter or working in crisis management for a political campaign, I don’t think there’s a purpose served by becoming outraged by every public statement by every dingaling politician or pundit.

I do 100% have a dog in this fight and care deeply about what’s happening in the world right now both in terms of the pandemic and in the shift toward far-right populism, but for me the strategy has to be: keep an eye on the general gist and direction of things and then act accordingly. Who needs help right now? Is there and action you can take?

This is obviously a “your mileage may vary” situation. Some folks are no doubt able to keep one eye on their Twitter feed and stay perfectly sane and productive, and more power to them, but I’m not one of them.

I have suffered with a fair bit of general anxiety my entire life. I'm 39 and while I'd say that I am significantly better at coping with it... it's still something that I struggle with and am still learning to deal with better.

I am not quite sure if you meant this post from a general "world at large", or from a "professional having a hard time with work" perspective. Or both? So the things I am about to say are from the "professional having a hard time with work" perspective as it's the one I personally struggle with. I'm sure some of this is applicable to the other category too.

1) Form routines, especially for stuff that generally spikes some anxiety for you. Figure out a process and just do it each and every day. I find that this helps with confidence.

2) Learn to say "fck it". Weird as it sounds, but learning to let go is an amazing tool. "You know, this situation could be better. But you know, fck it! It could be worse, so It can't be that bad"

3) Organize and plan things out. Prioritize things. Accept that you can't always tackle all issues. Use a todo app and list out everything you have going on for the day. As new things come up, add them as a todo. Keep the list prioritized and just focus on the highest priority item at the moment.

4) Learn to tell people you can't help them right now if it's not a higher priority than something you are currently doing. I struggle the most with this one. I always end up feeling really bad if I don't immediately drop everything and do whatever I can to help.

5) Close all those dang browser tabs. I'm sure you meant to come back to X thing 3 days ago... but honestly, it's just a distraction. Close all your random applications down. Open a fresh browser window and only have the stuff you need to focus on for the day. If something is really important, use a bookmark or otherwise take note of the page so you can come back to it later.

6) Medications are often useful tools and can help with improving your quality of life. It could be worth talking to your doctor. Medications generally don't solve problems, but if it can help improve your quality of life, it can be worth considering. It's also worth pointing out that it can potentially take a very long time to work out which medications are best for you. I take medication for high blood pressure for example. Having a lower blood pressure has also helped with my anxiety and just generally feeling better. This has also helped with my anxiety.

Close all browser tabs. Heck close all applications. If you must read news, choose the most informative news sources and minimize number of open tabs. Be selective, but keeping the same sources makes you able to skip many duplicate stories from different places. Go outside, be with closest family, pet your dog, do something new every day, preferably non-comp related.

This sounds very much like what I deal with. I see it as a side effect of ADHD, which I see as a difference - not a deficit - in my ability to process incoming information. Getting overwhelmed is difficult to deal with, but it is accompanied by the ability to hyperfocus.

My first-line coping strategy is to close my eyes. That seems to help significantly, as if visual processing consumes a limited mental resource that I can free up to apply to structuring my thoughts. I have no idea if there is any science to back that up - but I also don’t care. Coping is about developing useful mental models for dealing with the world around you, not necessarily about being technically correct.

I also careful control my facial expressions when I’m around others and do this. My goal is to have them think that I’m concentrating on something (which, really, I am) and not upset or distressed. This also provides them a cue that usually results in their pausing or slowing down further information for a moment, which helps.

I know mindfulness is the latest trendy thing, but it's worth simply observing your habits and trying to recognize when you do something that could cause added stress.

If you're like me, you pick up your phone 1000x per day, so it's a constant interruption. I have lots of notifications on, so as soon as I get a new email, I see the notification and then read it. All of these little things seem insignificant on their own, but they add up.

If you're interested in doing some observation of your habits to get a more nuanced sense of what you like and don't like about your current digital life, I recommend the first couple of chapters of this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25246881-mindful-tech

Learn to meditate, vipassana or "mindfulness meditation". This has a dual benefit... one is the physical benefit of leaving body and mind in a calmer state. The other is training the mind to become more accepting of whatever occurs... meditation is all about observing without judging.

Have you considered talking with a mental health professional as an alternative to soldiering on alone?

That's why you have to pick your battles.

Look for the 20% of effort that will get you 80% of the results.

It's hard but eventually you can be content, knowing that it's impossible to process the fire hose of information flying around everyday.

What helps is not trying to read the news everyday. Go for a week without reading news, you'll feel much more in tune with your local surroundings and be able to focus on what you care about more.

Arron Swartz has a good article on this.

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews

>How can anyone cope?

by cutting unecessary information out. Instead of reading the news everyday subscribe to some high quality weekly newspaper like the economist, deinstall all the social media apps or reduce your usage to an amount of time that is more reasonable, and replace that activity with stuff that's healthy like working out, getting some sun, whatever.

There's no real mystery here, just remove the things that stress you out and replace them with habbits that are conducive to your well-being.

There are days when it feels overwhelming. I hear you completely.

Part of your brain is responsible for filtering out irrelevant information from your stimuli. There are large classes of mental illnesses that have elevated sensory sensitivity as a symptom, which is what you are describing. It's also related to affect regulation.

People will say that you are watching too many news etc. I think there's a deeper issue. Education has absolutely 0 to do with it, this phenomena is not related to the conscious level of the mind.

learn to skateboard and use your devices solely for content creation. fuck the world

This comment might come of as apathetic or dismissive or something, but I actually think there's a beautiful golden nugget of truth in what you just said.

I agree with you on the content creation part. I've found that working on your own stuff, be it creative or business-related will naturally cause you to focus your internet time on a specific topic of research.

That alone can go a long way towards fighting the instinct to open up the laptop or phone and surf idly; a terrible habit that we've likely all developed.

Now, if only I could put my phone down while I'm eating meals...

I think everyone feels like they're being hit with too much information at some point. But wanting to hide, and knowing it won't be over sounds really frustrating.

Have you thought about running it past a therapist? They can help you size up the situation (eg are you anxious, and finding yourself avoiding work?), and think about options, or just help track how things are going.

I don't know about OP, but I know in my city (Boston), there was a 5 month waiting period for access to a therapist -- and that was _before_ COVID hit. Lots of us would love to speak with a mental health professional, especially in these trying times, but it's unfortunately not always possible.

Like OP, I'm looking for strategies to help self-cope, as that's the only way forward for many of us for now.

Tele health is an option and there are more openings because of canceled in person visits. Now is a good time to establish care

I once had this problem and the worst part was that I was getting worried thinking about those things. The best you can do is to cut the information that you take in and specially things that are out of your control. Focus on things that matters to you or affect your day to day life.

Just don't punish yourself over it. There is more information than anyone could handle. It's really a matter of realizing failure is a part of life. You can not avoid failure, but you can sure handle it.

Don't listen to the commenters in here. Most people can't cope and are on anti-anxiety meds. Deep breathing / block breathing can help with short term panic attacks. Ultimately therapy and drugs work best, tough to get now but you might be able to do telemedicine if you find a good provider. You can even get Valium, Ativan, Xanax, or well, most anti-anxiety drugs mailed to you via mail order pharmacy since they are all only Schedule IV. Good luck.

Right to drugs? He didn't say he had panic attack, but that he can't process.

I won't argue against medically prescribed drugs for people who need them, but "commenters" here who are talking about therapeutic modalities (CBT and NLP are great) and mindfulness (slow down, see things as they are, tackle the things you can) aren't off-base, and these are more than short-term solutions. They can be the keystone to true transformation.

Overwhelm is reasonable, but also addressable. By many different ways.

Ha, that's funny.

Starting your day with a shot of endorphins is a better way to go. Check out the book 'Convict Conditioning' by Paul Wade.

List down things you do

Abstain from it if it involves people other than your family

Once you reach boredom, meditate.

News "every other day" seems to be a good approach these days.

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