When Too Much Information Is The Problem
When my construction project ended in March of 2020, my company sent me to another job that had a notorious reputation as being plagued with problem after problem, coupled with a very difficult owner. This job was running two years over the original completion date and nobody was happy about that. Right after getting word of where I was going, being curious about my new future, I looked up on our shared drive for recent photos and drawings of the place. As I browsed the photos of this project, another superintendent walked by my desk and asked why I was looking at photos of that job. I told him about my new orders and a smug smile blossomed across his face. He told me that he couldn’t believe they were sending me there. He added that I needed to be careful.
“Why would I need to be careful?” I asked, taking the bait.
“That’s where superintendents go to get fired. Four superintendents have been let go on that job over the last four years and two project managers. Just be careful and watch your back. Lots of blame to go around out there.”
“Well, thanks for letting me know ahead of time. So I know what I’m walking into.”
“Yeah, no problem. I’m just looking out, you know”
unsolicited information
Did I need to know how terrible my next job was? No, of course not. In no way was this information helpful. I didn’t go seeking it out. It was thrown at me like a dog treat and I instinctively snatched it out of the air and swallowed it in one bite. Somehow it benefited the person giving me this information more than me.
I’ve had plenty of these unsolicited information dumps handed over to me during the course of my life. Information handed over to me by people who have nothing at stake in my life.
Had this superintendent ever worked at this job I was headed to? No. Yet he felt an urge to tell me I was going into a hell hole. And to make matters worse, I thanked him for this load of crap.
I realize now that information is not always a good thing. Actually, too much information is a bad thing. It muddies up decisions. Creates communication breakdowns. With the advent of the internet and smartphones, a giant sucking rabbit hole is literally within reach every moment of the day.
I wonder how much of my life has been altered over the years by useless information? How much good and bad I’ve endured by having so much information at my fingertips. It’s certainly added stress and anxiety to my life. At any moment, I can find news articles and comments describing how dangerous something in my life is or is going to be…or how wonderful. But those bad impressions stay around a little longer than the wonderful ones.
With every decision I make, seeds of fear and anxiety are planted in the soil of my mind, laying dormant and hungering for the day unsolicited information comes raining down through my ears or eyes. Information that will start the germination process of doubt. With more information, these seeds turn into weeds that can overgrow in my mind and handicap my decision making abilities.
travel
Before I headed off to vagabond around Mexico in 2012, most people that knew of my upcoming trip were excited for me. At that time, despite having grandparents from Mexico, my only Mexico experience had been Baja California, not what I would call a broad representation of the country. And as I expected, a bunch of people I talked to about my trip, warned me up and down about how dangerous Mexico was and wouldn’t leave it alone after our initial conversation. But what I didn’t expect were that these fear-mongers would be the paisas I worked with. Which made it extra worrisome for a natural worrier like myself. Sure I can brush off the news media or fellow Americans who don’t own a passport for overhyping the danger of a place outside the US, but when people who are from the place you are going to tell you it’s dangerous, it feels a little different.
I remember thinking before my trip; “man, I better speed through Mexico and stay on the tourist trail and stay inside at night…”, but once I got there it was completely different than it was described to me. I ended up spending 3 months instead of the planned 3 weeks in that wonderful country. My wife and I had to force ourselves to leave Mexico for Guatemala because if we didn’t leave, we could have just stayed there for our entire trip.
Looking back, the people telling me Mexico was dangerous still drove their families out there every year. Still were building homes out there to retire. They just wanted to make it seem like they came from some tough place that I couldn’t handle. They felt tougher and somehow better about themselves by trying to convince me to change my plans. They’d gained something by giving me this unneeded information. They’d gained power.
With their unsolicited information, they did hold power over me for a short time. For the weeks leading up to my trip, my mind was filled with their words and warnings. I began to doubt what felt right to me from the start. Luckily the inertia of my trip was greater than the words of these few. I’d spent the better part of a year saving up to travel, everyone knew of my trip, and a few words weren’t going to stop me.
news
One last example is a trip I had planned for Russia and this unsolicited information came from a more official source: The news.
I went through all the trouble of getting visas, a plane flight, and booking tickets on the Trans-Siberian. But just as the date rolled around for my venture, they started having these race riots in Moscow a week before my flight. I was supposed to spend New Year’s Day 2011 in the Russian capital. I remember watching the news from my hostel in Prague and the news reporters saying how the police were shoving racist nationalist protesters down into the metro because they couldn’t control them. These protesters went on to beat up anyone on the train who didn’t have blue eyes. Of course, I don’t have blue eyes, and I also have brown skin, and being Mexican American, looked strikingly like the Northern Caucasians they were targeting.
I was torn. I remember staying up at night in Prague contemplating canceling my plans. I couldn’t stop watching the news and searching for news articles related to violence in Moscow. I had my wife with me, we were on our honeymoon, and I felt even more pressure about making the right decision because it wasn’t just my safety to put at risk.
Since I was a kid, I’d always wanted to visit Russia. They have such an interesting history, plus the whole being at odds with my home country for nearly a century thing. I’ve read more than a few accounts of Operation Barbarossa, the 1917 revolutions, not to mention Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Just a fascinating history and place.
Now here I was on the cusp of making a lifelong dream of visiting Russia a reality, and all I could think about was canceling my plans…because of fear. My entire itinerary was based on working my way across Europe towards Russia, then taking the train for a seven day ride to Beijing, where I already had a Chinese visa in my passport and hotel booked.
We bit the bullet and went. On the plane I remember seeing a bunch of people speaking Russian who looked East Asian, this gave me some comfort. The first full day there, I won’t lie, I was too scared to venture far from my hotel. But on the second we did it. I can’t tell you how nervous I was, but guess what? Moscow is full of people of all colors, and maybe more diverse than many large European cities. As soon as I took the long escalator ride deep down to the museum-like metro, a place filled with revolutionary statues and marble columns and brass light fixtures, meant to serve as both a nuclear bomb shelter and transport hub, I knew I’d made the right decision. My fear was completely overblown.
A few moments later I was walking around the Red Square and touring St. Peters basilica.
HP Lovecraft said: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”
In my examples, I ignored the unsolicited warnings and information and bullishly steamed right on ahead.
That can sometimes be a stupid thing to do.
I’m not trying to give the message that I can see through the BS all the time and that all warnings must be disregarded. That’s definitely not the case. I’ve scared myself out of going to Vietnam once because I had a reservation booked at a hostel where a guest, days before I was due to arrive, was accidentally poisoned by pesticides. I missed a whole country because of overblown fear (I did make it back and brought my kids too. Vietnam is spectacular.). Another time I avoided a road to see Tikal in Guatemala because they were having very recent roadside robberies. I never made it to the ruins in Tikal.
Both decisions I regret making. I let fear drive my decisions. Fear that was fueled by too much research, too much internet, and too much hostel gossip. But to be honest, those decisions felt right at the time. I have to live with the decisions I made, even though looking back can be frustrating. I can see that “too much information” fueled my fear. And influenced my behavior.
investing
Fear drives our behavior. Whether its the cult of consumerism and the fear of missing out on a great product after watching a commercial. Or the fear of losing money when the stock market begins to drop and everyone else is selling.
I see many similarities between investing and traveling. In each endeavor the end game is growth. The levels of anxiety in our decision making can be intense, because of the unknown. And when we go seeking for more information to ease this pain of the unknown, everyone has a different opinion on how to properly do it. Everyone has the right way to invest or FIRE. I’d like to believe that most of what we read and listen to in the personal finance universe is well-intentioned. There’s just too much information to do anyone any good if one were to follow all the advice out there.
That’s not to say I don’t consume FIRE and PF material, or read with a closed mind; it’s actually quite the contrary. I just know to stick to my course even when I learn about new and exciting investing methods. I let the passion and urge to jump into something new marinate for a while, before I seriously consider altering course. I do the same with fear based information. If I read something disturbing I stop and give myself time before I delve into it anymore–if the information really pertains to me I might consider reading more after asking myself: if I was fine before I found xyz out, do I really need to read this? Same deal with trying to medically self diagnose myself online instead of going to the doctor. You can scare the shit out of yourself if you’re not careful.
This vortex of doom created by fear and information…this fearmation syndrome, can either cause someone to perpetually wait on the sidelines till everything is learned, outsource the decision making, or constantly change plans; each will end up with undue drag on returns or outright losses.
filters
I’ve learned to use filters to help me navigate this fearmation syndrome. I won’t deny that getting older has helped me cut through the bull shit in life like the bow of an ice breaking ship. The older I get, the sharper that bow becomes. Filtering for me, means just not getting swept away by my emotions on every piece of information my eyes and ears come across. It means realizing I don’t need to know and research every single detail of everything I’m doing with my life. Which is tough to do, because as humans we want to eliminate the unknowns as best as possible, and more information feels like the solution to this problem. It’s not, too much information is the problem.
When that superintendent told me that I needed to be careful on my next job, his bull shit had to make its way through my BS filter–yes, I still received and took away some of his nonsense, but it was with the cliche “grain of salt”. I can’t avoid being slightly influenced by someone’s words, even if I tell myself to disregard them. What’s been seen, cannot be unseen, or so the saying goes. But I know that limiting my exposure to it is the best recipe.
After all, filters don’t scrub everything…and I don’t want mine to. To try and block out all of the myriad forms of bull shit information that tries desperately to grapple us with squid-like tentacles, would really mean living a life away from humans. Sometimes we need bull shit information in our life so that we can easily recognize it the next time it comes our way. Like having a healthy immune system requires getting sick once and a while, or a healthy body requires training…our mind requires bull shit information to fight off and sift through to able to make good sound decisions.
And let’s be honest, it feels good to disregard those feeding us a line of crap and coming out successful on the other side. So bring on the bull shit.
Has too much information ever screwed up your plans? Made you doubt yourself? How do you filter through the BS and the tons of information available to us online and handed to over to us by our colleagues?
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What’s up HD? I can’t think of a time off the top of my head that too much information screwed me up. There probably is but I’ll have to think about it some more.
I think one of the main problems now is more the misinformation or algorithms (maybe that’s the same thing as too much info). For instance, what Google or FB shows me versus you will differ based on our search histories and data points. I don’t think that is necessarily a good thing.
And for whatever reason, my filter has skewed toward simplicity. I’ll use investing as an example. I used to love to trade stocks and commodities. I’d have sector portfolios hedged against other portfolios. Complex investing with tons of holdings. And by paying attention, I did better than the market, but by how much better? Not by leaps and bounds. I definitely enjoyed trading stocks, but the older I got I realized I was sinking more time than I wanted into investments, and if I just simplified my portfolio I could take the average returns but use all that time for something else. But that’s just me. We’re all in different stages in life and decide what is the best use of our time. Plus, I have an addictive personality. So the more individual holdings I have the more I obsess over them.
But definitely trying to filter my time, news consumption, or whatever into being more focused and simple, has given me more happiness overall. Like you point out, there’s just so much out there to consume if you let yourself.
Yes, you hit the nail squarely. It’s the tons of misinformation that causes the most problems. I started going down the misinformation route when I was writing this post, but decided against it. I would have been all over the place once that pandora’s box has been opened. But yes, it’s creepy how much influence these tech companies have over what we see. We don’t really control as much information intake as we’d like to think. I’ve been texting my friend about the recent A’s-Giants games, and I’m not even an A’s fan, now all I’m seeing are A’s articles on my news feeds for the past few weeks.
I’d agree that simple investing is the best. There’s just so much out there about “other ways” to invest that you’d think everyone was beating the market with their methods. I wonder how prevalent it is for people to change their investment styles based on the phases of their lives? Lucky is the person who started out and stuck with index funds from start to finish. Personally, I know I get caught up in the moment when I hear successful real estate investors on a podcast or read a good book about a style of investing. I start researching and researching and…it just causes me more stress, so I’ve stuck with passive styles. Filtering is key. Knowing yourself is the key to filtering successfully. I learned that quickly, but it took me a while to put it to practice consistently and efficiently.
Thanks for the insightful comment!
I would prefer a restaurant menu with 10 items than one with 15 pages of options. Narrow it down for me! Information overload can absolutely hinder decision making. Part of the reason it’s so hard to start investing is that there are so many different options. It’s incredibly intimidating.
Absolutely. The food is usually better at a restaurant like that too. For me, the less options I have, the happier I am. Financial advisers feast on the complexity of too much information.
Too much information (and fear mongering) is the antithesis of good decision making. Your travel examples were spot on; I don’t know how many times I’ve had someone scare us from traveling somewhere or doing something that seems somewhat risky.
I’m actually on the other side of the ledger right now. I’m trying to convince a former colleague to transfer into the division I work for now. My division has a reputation for being stressful, demanding, and a high-intensity environment, which I think is BS, so I’m trying to assuage this colleague’s fears and get him to make a transfer decision that I think will be good for him. I’m doing my part to counter the “too much information” phenomenon!
It’s the scare tactics that bother me the most. There’s definitely a buried psychological motive for certain individuals when they try to push their own fear onto others. Every situation is different, so broad strokes of the paint brush don’t work well for me when it comes to advice for travel. I’m glad you take the fear mongering with a grain of salt too!
That’s funny. It’s either the grass is greener on the other side or the grass is boiling hot lava. I’m not immune to falling into each camp over the course of my life. Yeah, simplify the situation and reality. That’s the best way to assuage fear. When the choices are limited, the better the chance to influence…
As I read your comments about everyone warning you against Mexico, including those without a passport, I remember all the people who warned me about the dangers of Mexico too. But the people who warned me against traveling to the Middle East were even worse! Like you, they were all the people who either 1) had no passport, or 2) spent vacations abroad in all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean and never stepped foot off the property. The best was one woman who never ventured beyond the Jersey shore warning me of all the imminent danger and said she’d never go to such a place. Well, no, obviously!
Like you, the fears were all unfounded and I had an amazing time in both places! Loved both and would return in a heartbeat. We’re the lucky ones for overcoming our fears and doing it anyway! And, yes, it feels great coming out on top on the other side!
I’ll never get why people try to push their own fears onto others. I cant imagine what people must have thought about your travels to the Middle East!! I’ve spent some time out there too and loved it. An eye opening locale if there is one.
I think once someone has experienced people telling them they’re insane for a decision, then goes through with their gut choice anyway, it toughens you up to have confidence in your choices. I know that did it for me. Also made me skeptical of fear tactics. Which has bled over to investing success so far. Travel is a wonderful thing.
i think you mentioned this but i always try to decipher the quality of the information. in manufacturing the past 20 years six sigma has become huge for process improvements with statistical gurus making decisions on the changes. i always wonder if they are measuring the correct inputs and even getting the correct data to feed the machine. like “have you ever set foot in the process to see how this stuff works and makes product?”
the other low quality information i avoid or give less credence is the online review by the public. for instance, when i lived in the tourist town of new orleans i would occasionally read a series of reviews of hotels or restaurants i absolutely loved. hell, i worked in some of them and knew they were good or mediocre. the reviews from some of the no-nothing public were all over the map. and don’t even get me started on amazon product reviews!
this was a fine article and i’m glad you took some of the leaps in your travels. you’ve been to a lot of places. i shoulda done it with my buddies when i was younger ’cause now i really don’t want to.
Oh man, I know exactly what you mean!! The people providing the information sometimes don’t have a clue how it will work in real life. So goes my complaints against architects and structural engineers! Very much like your factory processes. The intention is well-meaning, but it’s hard to get people out of their bubbles to see how things work away from a controlled environment.
Yeah, the review influence online is super hard to avoid. I fall victim to it all the time. The first thing I do when I’m reading reviews is I go straight to the worst, if I can filter them. Especially for hotel reviews. That’s where you’ll read and see pics of the bed bugs and other bodily fluids haha. The out of towners do the same for SF restaurants in Fishermans Wharf. I’m always like what are they talking about?? I think there’s a balance that can be had with the review thing–at least I’ve convinced myself it’s possible. At one point guide books ruled the travel world, now it’s yelp and trip advisor. Not sure which is worse.
Hey man, it’s never too late to travel around. Travel can accommodate most any lifestyle.
Great article, Noel. Is there TMI? Hells yes. It gave me a flashback to Bret Easton Ellis’ famed serial killer (maybe?) Patrick Bateman from American Psycho when he gets brain-locked in a video store and screams, “There’s too many fucking choices.” The news is just like that now. A non-stop firehouse of shite directly into the mouth. Unless you choose to turn your head. Unless you choose to use filters. Unless you choose to turn it off.
And suddenly, the dank alleys of Mexico and frost-laden fears of Moscow – become sublime.
PS – This article was a nice afterword on my recent “Trust” post. As your travelogue was a awesome inspiration for another of mine. The serendipity of writers riffing on each other makes the whole trudge of writing worthwhile.
PPS – Mega bonus-points awarded for the HPL reference. Love his stories (though not his antiquated outlook). He’d be envious with your “fearmation” term.
Classic scene. An abundance of choice really is a hell, isn’t it? Give me two choices and I’m a happy man. Give me ten and I’ll be second-guessing myself for years.
Funny you say that. I was thinking about your post on Trust while I was writing this. Very true how we inspire ourselves and ideas morph and meld as the words run off fingertips onto the screen and up again into our minds. Oh yeah HP is one of my favs. Such a groundbreaker in the sci-fi realm. He knew fear and how to convey it.
Thanks for the great comment Mr Fate!