Jo Pearce

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Non-binary (they/them), developer and science womble.

Hacking Your Head

Managing Information Overload

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

What is Information Overload?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

“Surviving the collision with tomorrow…”

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

“…there are discoverable limits to the amount of change that the human organism can absorb”“…without first determining these limits we may submit masses of [people] to demands they simply cannot tolerate.”

Alvin Toffler (Future Shock, 1970)

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Information Overload

Anxiety

Hostility

Senseless Violence

Physical Illness

Depression

Apathy

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

A soldier falls asleep “while a storm of machine gun bullets splattered around him” not due to physical tiredness, but a “sense of overpowering apathy”.

Soldiers became hypersensitive and would “hit the dirt” at the slightest stimuli, increasingly showing anxiety and anger at the slightest inconvenience.

The effects of overload in WWII

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

The overwhelming office?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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20 million words of new technical information are recorded each day.

Jackson, W. (2001). Information overload and managerial roles: A naturalistic study of engineers.

At 1000 words/minute, 8 hours/day this is six weeks of reading.

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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After reading the information for that one day you would have fallen behind by 5.5 years!

Jackson, W. (2001). Information overload and managerial roles: A naturalistic study of engineers.

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Information Fatigue Syndrome

Poor Concentration Hurry Sickness

Pervasive Hostility

Stress Depression

Lowered Immune Response

“Burn out”

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

There is always a lot to learn

Information overload is a learning problem!

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

How do we learn?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Working Memory Long Term Memory

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Working Memory

Processes Information

Active Thinking & Learning

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Long Term Memory

Enormous Capacity

Cannot engage in thinking or learning processes

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Results of learning

Knowledge Retrieval

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Schemas

Multiple Elements Single Schema

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Novice Learner Schemas

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Experienced Learner Schemas

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Understanding Our Limitations

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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The Magical Number 7 ± 2 (George A. Miller, 1956)

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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The Magical Number 7 ± 2 (George A. Miller, 1956)

Working Memory

Information In

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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The Magical Number 7 ± 2 (George A. Miller, 1956)

Overloaded Working Memory

Information In

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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The Magical (but finite) Number X?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Schema=

Novice Experienced

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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How do we work with our limitations?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Cognitive Load Theory

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Defines cognitive load as the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory

Describes a universal set of principles for managing cognitive load that lead to efficient learning.

What is Cognitive Load Theory?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Total cognitive load is comprised of three types:

Intrinsic Load

Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load

Germane (Relevant) Load

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Imposed by the inherent complexity of the task being performed.

e.g.

Learning to juggle 10 balls is inherently more complex than learning to juggle 3.

Intrinsic Load

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Imposed by the inherent complexity of the task being performed.

Manage by breaking large tasks into smaller ones!

Intrinsic Load

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Epic

User Story

TaskTaskTask

User Story

TaskTaskTask

User Story

TaskTaskTask

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Imposed by distractions or tasks which are irrelevant to the goal.

Coping with a loud environment

Unfamiliarity with a development tool

Unreadable code

e.g.

Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Try working somewhere quieter…

…or wearing headphones?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Reduce the number of tools or libraries to a minimum…

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Imposed by distractions or tasks which are irrelevant to the goal.

Manage by reducing the number of irrelevant distractions and tasks!

Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Load imposed by tasks which are relevant to an overall goal.

Repetition and context variation give us the skills to apply knowledge in a wider variety of situations.

Germane (Relevant) Load

Helps us to connect bits of information and form more complex schemas

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Repetition = Practice

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Context Variation

Tree?

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

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Load imposed by tasks which are relevant to an overall goal.

e.g. If the goal is to promote better understanding of a codebase

Vary the areas of the codebase a developer works in

Pair junior developers with those more experienced to gain varied perspectives and skills

Germane (Relevant) Load

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

We constantly need to learn…

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

But there are limits on our ability to learn…

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

ManageIntrinsic

Load

IncreaseRelevant

Load

+

ReduceIrrelevant

Load

+

= Efficient Learning & Increased Productivity

Cognitive Load Theory

Jo Pearce

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Non-binary (they/them), developer and science womble.

Thanks!Any questions?