Drinking From a Fire Hose

By Deane Barker • • 3 min read •
AI Summary

This post explores the overwhelming nature of information overload in the digital age. The author discusses strategies for managing and filtering content effectively, emphasizing the importance of focus and intentional consumption to navigate the vast amount of data available online.

Are there RSS feeds you can’t keep up with? I have a few that I just can’t stay on top of due to posting volume. A friend of mine called it “drinking from a fire hose.” They are:

I find with these that whenever I open Bloglines, there are a couple dozen posts. I don’t have the time or inclination to read them all right then, so I leave them. Then, next time, there are more. Eventually Bloglines tops out at 200 unread posts, and I click on the blog title just to get rid of the unread and start over.

It’s a little heart-breaking, because all of them have such great content. But that’s something to consider when you’re running a blog. The automatic train of thought is, “I’ll just throw everything out there and people will read what they want.” Not true – too many posts can overwhelm people, and they consequently won’t read any. The volume of your content can render the quality of your content moot.

We’ve discussed posting volume before, and we’ve struggled with it around here. How many posts is too many? How many is just right? I used to shoot for 10 a day, but it wasn’t maintainable. I think we average three or four a day now.

What blogs do you enjoy, but you either don’t subscribe too or don’t read regularly because posting volume is too high?

Links from this – Content Firehoses, Absorption Rates, and The Endowment Effect October 17, 2016
Pushing more content than can be absorbed actually causes feelings of loss and pain.
Links from this – What an RSS Purge Taught Me About How I Consume Information January 7, 2012
I’m making a very concerted attempt lately to cut down on the RSS feeds I consume. Earlier this year, it had reached neurotic levels – Google Reader was like a heroin addiction. Because of this, longer-form media was getting squeezed out – I was reading less books, which bothered me. My life had...