Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

Jo Pearce


There are limits to our ability to learn and process information, but the amount of information we have access to is growing faster than ever.

In this talk I explain the origins of the term “information overload” and describe what physiological and psychological effects being overloaded causes. With reference to developing for the web, I describe specific, manageable sources of information overload for us as developers and show how development in general is a continuous learning process.

In order to hack our how we learn, it’s important to understand a little about how learning happens. To that end, I outline the points of attack by relating the current understanding from the field of cognitive psychology on how our thinking and learning processes work.

I’ll use simple examples throughout to show how we can manage our projects more effectively, write clearer, more maintainable code, and actively manage our own learning journeys, as well as assisting the journeys of those we work alongside. With this knowledge we should be able to make our development process more efficient and reduce the risk of information overload both for ourselves and others.