Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
How to Cope with Information Overload
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when people were information-starved. They hungered for news about wars, politics and jobs, and for information about their families in towns, cities and states hundreds or thousands of miles away. This was before the advent of electricity and the telephone. Who would have dreamed that the communication process could get better?
Prior to the telephone, newspapers were the communication vehicles of choice. The morning newspaper opened the door to local and national news. When large dailies published afternoon papers, news was available twice day. More than a decade ago, a Sunday edition of The New York Times reportedly carried more information than the average 19th century citizen accessed in his entire life.
Fast-forward three-quarters of a century: From the luxury of reading news twice a day, we rapidly moved toward a strange and unfamiliar state--an information glut, a bombardment of hard and soft news from hundreds of sources. Technology had changed the world. Not only did it bring people closer to each other, it opened new communication frontiers. We were fast approaching a period where there would be so much coming at us, it often would be impossible to separate fact from fiction, distortion from lies. Futurists said an information explosion was just around the corner. But they never embraced the notion …
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