Information Overload: A System for Better Managing Everyday Data

Chapter 10. CLEVER COMMUNICATION

It took us millions of years to develop a good visual memory. That memory is still very important to us. After all, we remember images faster and better than we remember text. We have only had language at our disposal for around 10,000 years and are slowly coming to grips with it.

This chapter discusses ways of transferring information using stories and images, among other things. And, just like the rest of Part II, it is about making improvements to your information behavior and increasing your information processing capacity.

COMMUNICATE INFORMATION

We communicate by means of language. The brain hardly knows any other way for making something clear to other people, aside from our nonverbal body language. Although from an evolutionary point of view the ability to speak in words has not existed very long, the human brain adjusted to the new skill very quickly. A four-day-old baby already recognizes its mother's sound and voice, and toddlers learn their mother tongue super-fast.

Language is an important means of transferring information. People love to talk to each other. When conducting a conversation, we prefer to see the other person if possible. With every interaction and every word we read or hear, our linguistic capabilities develop further. Language also has a major influence on the development of brainpower. Children develop a "feel" for linguistics at the same pace as the development of their autobiographical memory. After all, many personal ...