Information Anxiety

by WURMAN, RICHARD SAUL

• ISBN13: 9780553348569
• ISBN10: 0553348566
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1990-09-01
• Publisher: Bantam

Summary

In this breakthrough book, Richard Saul Wurman explains why the information explosion has backfired, leaving us stranded between mere facts and real understanding. In Information Anxiety, he presents a more sensible way to handle the barrage of information we face every day. Using three easy-to-apply principles and hundreds of innovative shortcuts, Wurman shows us how to get the information we really need and how to use it effectively. Fun to read, visually exciting, and continually stimulating, here is your anxiety-proof guide through today's information jungle. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Non--Information Explosion	p. 31
Telltale Signs	p. 35
You Can't be too Rich or too Well Informed	p. 36
A Word in Search of a Definition	p. 37
Anxiety--Proofing Information	p. 41
The Five Rings	p. 42
Access is the Antidote to Anxiety	p. 45
Order Doesn't Equal Understanding	p. 48
What's Missing From This Picture?	p. 49
The Understanding Business	p. 51
Ode to Ignorance	p. 53
Aesthetic Seductions	p. 55
Just the Facts, Please	p. 56
Personal Table of Contents	p. 59
The Five Ultimate Hatracks	p. 59
Vantage Points	p. 65
Classifying Lassie: the Dog Story	p. 67
The Space Between Things	p. 72
The Smart Yellow Pages or Your Personal Guide to Living	p. 74
Decision Trees	p. 79
Making America Understandable to Americans	p. 80
In the Beginning is the end	p. 80
The Conversation	p. 83
The Art of Listening	p. 86
Talk is Deep	p. 87
The Lost Art of Conversation	p. 89
Teaching the President to Talk	p. 89
The Architecture of Instructions	p. 95
Giving Good Instructions	p. 98
Language: Babel, Seduction, Content	p. 101
Which Came First, Language or Thought?	p. 104
Mind Your Mouth	p. 108
Filler Phrases	p. 109
Language is a Laughing Matter	p. 111
Renaming the Wheel	p. 112
Verbal Geometry	p. 113
Sign Language	p. 114
William Zinsser on Writing	p. 116
The Write Stuff	p. 118
Landmines in the Understanding Field	p. 121
Polka Dots on an Edsel	p. 123
Function is to Performance as a Model t Ford is to a Ferrari	p. 123
Traps, Diseases, and Malaises	p. 124
Communication Equals Remembering What it's Like not to Know	p. 130
Drawing the Line	p. 131
Ed Schlossberg Conversation	p. 132
What You Take for Granted You Cannot Improve	p. 135
Learning is Remembering What You are Interested in	p. 137
You Can't Get Lost on the Road to Interest	p. 140
Interest Connections	p. 140
Discriminating Between Interests and Obligations	p. 141
Access Guides	p. 143
Getting Permission to Learn	p. 145
The Importance of Being Interested	p. 148
Education is to Learning as Tour Groups are to Adventure	p. 149
Gin-Rummy Memory	p. 151
Sacred Bull Fighting	p. 152
Seeing, Hearing, Expressing	p. 154
Fear of Learning	p. 154
Defensive Expenditures	p. 156
Learning About Learning	p. 156
Conversation with Alan Kay	p. 157
Learning Fantasies	p. 159
Parallel Learning	p. 161
Terror and Confidence	p. 164
Information Ownership	p. 166
You Only Learn Something Relative to Something you Understand	p. 167
Motivating Models	p. 169
Theme and Variations	p. 170
Learning Means Making Connections	p. 171
How Big is an Acre?	p. 172
The Numbers Game	p. 173
Say I do or Die	p. 175
Screenplay Rights on Annual Reports	p. 176
Slicing the Pie: the Nature of Recreation	p. 179
Comparing Components	p. 184
Conversation With John Sculley	p. 184
The Joy of Discovery	p. 187
Hailing Failing and Still Sailing	p. 189
An Ode to Error	p. 191
The Proper Management of Failure Breeds Success	p. 192
What You Don't Know is as Important as What You do	p. 194
Conversation With Paul Kaufman	p. 196
You Won't Believe What Went Wrong	p. 198
The Breaking Point	p. 199
Museum of Failure is Overnight Success	p. 200
Information Bulimia: A Reading Disorder	p. 201
The Low-Fat Information Diet	p. 203
Confessions of an Information Junkie	p. 204
Absolutely Essential vs. Guilt	p. 205
Paper Weight-Watchers	p. 209
Resume Verite	p. 211
Resume of Loring Leifer	p. 214
Resume of Sally O'Malley	p. 216
Distinguish Yourself	p. 218
News Information: Violent Wallpaper	p. 221
Risk Perception	p. 223
Your Personal Media-Measuring Stick	p. 227
Everything Takes Place Someplace	p. 228
Conversation With Tom Brokaw	p. 230
Orientation to Events	p. 235
The Glory of Stories	p. 236
Radius of Interest	p. 239
Stream of Consequence	p. 241
Cultural Information: Personal Vision	p. 243
The Inequity of Perception	p. 246
Selective Perception = Exaggeration	p. 247
As the World Turns	p. 250
Embellish With Flourish	p. 251
Peter Bradford on Painting	p. 253
Perceptive Perceptions	p. 256
The Map as Communications Currency	p. 256
Reference Information: the Map or Mankind's Ability to Perceive	p. 259
The Power of Maps	p. 260
Maps as Metaphors	p. 262
Universal Maps	p. 263
Mapmakers	p. 265
Maps of Numbers and Ideas	p. 269
Diagrams and Chapts	p. 271
Nowhere Maps	p. 280
Conversation with John Wurman	p. 284
User-Participation Maps	p. 287
Taxing Forms	p. 287
Form and Delivery	p. 290
Technomania: Information as Commodity	p. 293
The Profit Potential	p. 296
Information as Product	p. 297
Taxing Information	p. 299
Conversation with Dick Brass	p. 301
Informational Cacophony	p. 307
More is More Expensive	p. 309
Information Vulnerability Quotient	p. 310
The Rebound Effect	p. 312
Prescription for Anxiety	p. 315
Fewer, Fewer, Fewer	p. 317
Painless Decisions	p. 317
So Much Information, so Little Time	p. 318
Robust Attitudes	p. 319
Robust Actions	p. 319
Communication Skills	p. 322
Reference Materials	p. 325
Media Habits	p. 327
Information Involvement Inventory	p. 328
A Starting Point	p. 331
Epilogue: Predictions for Understanding	p. 333
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