Today I got a call from a telemarketer who did her best to entice me to subscribe to a certain business journal. I told her I already had a subscription to a similar one, and she went out of her way to explain to me that hers contained that much more – more articles, more pages, more information!

I may be too polite, so she kept going on even after I pointed out that I barely read a tenth of the pages of the journal I already receive; she continued until I decided enough was enough and told her that I make a living by consulting to organizations how to reduce the damage caused their employees by information overload. That left the good woman speechless and she let me be.

And if you think about it, we do receive all these invitations to subscribe to all these magazines – do they really think we’re starved for information here? Marketing newspapers isn’t even like the proverbial selling of refrigerators to Eskimos, since a fridge can at least do no harm; selling people more information is more like selling a plague to the healthy…

Incidentally, before she said goodbye the telemarketer lady had a moment of introspection, and she told me that yes, indeed, free time is a precious commodity, and she can see how too much information can be a problem. Who knows, perhaps I gave her the push that will propel her into a successful career in Information Overload consulting herself? 🙂