Information Toxicity

We have too much information and not enough knowledge. I’ve been reflecting very much on this lately, in my life and practice.

As Ido describes it: all the information has become available, and yet - we have nothing. All the tutorials exist for everything online, yet we keep looking for more protocols, more “actionable bits”, to layer into our lives.

The missing enzyme

The way I’ve come to look at this: there is a process that converts information into knowledge. But in our modern era, the mechanism is broken: There is an enzyme missing, between information and knowledge.

That enzyme is action, practice.

Sensing the depletion of knowledge, we follow the instinctual drive: we consume more information, not realizing what is missing. We don’t need more information - we need the enzyme that converts information into knowledge.

We don’t need more information

I don’t need another cue or insight about an exercise. I need more reps. I don’t need to find a better exercise - I can bring better efforts to the current one.

Often in class, people want to move to the next variation of an exercise, because they can perform the easier variation. But this is very misguided - we need time to wrestle with the work, before it results in an actual transformation.

Another tendency I see in class, is that students, before doing some exercise, ask why we are doing it, what does it work on. This isn’t a bad question - it’s the timing that is bad.

“We shall do, then we shall understand”.

Let yourself embody the thing first, let the concepts come later.

But to do this requires a certain patience, “living inside the question”. To sit and digest information requires developing tolerance for the ambiguity that comes from not knowing.

But what’s the harm?

What’s the problem with so many “actionable bits”? What can possibly be bad about having more information, especially the finely curated, expertly produced youtube videos and podcasts of the modern era?

The same thing that is bad about too much water, a most essential resource for our existence - we drown.

If I’m listening to a podcast to get an idea - I need to do something with those ideas. Another podcast means I don’t do anything with the previous idea, and it sits there, undigested.

So what is the recommendation?

If you want to apply this… for one week, no new inputs - no new podcasts, no tutorials, no scrolling for tips. Take one idea you already have, and work on it each day.