The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption 1st Edition

by Clay A. Johnson (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1449304683

ISBN-10: 1449304680

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The modern human animal spends upwards of 11 hours out of every 24 in a state of constant consumption. Not eating, but gorging on information ceaselessly spewed from the screens and speakers we hold dear. Just as we have grown morbidly obese on sugar, fat, and flour—so, too, have we become gluttons for texts, instant messages, emails, RSS feeds, downloads, videos, status updates, and tweets.

We're all battling a storm of distractions, buffeted with notifications and tempted by tasty tidbits of information. And just as too much junk food can lead to obesity, too much junk information can lead to cluelessness. The Information Diet shows you how to thrive in this information glut—what to look for, what to avoid, and how to be selective. In the process, author Clay Johnson explains the role information has played throughout history, and why following his prescribed diet is essential for everyone who strives to be smart, productive, and sane.

In The Information Diet, you will:

Discover why eminent scholars are worried about our state of attention and general intelligence
Examine how today’s media—Big Info—give us exactly what we want: content that confirms our beliefs
Learn to take steps to develop data literacy, attention fitness, and a healthy sense of humor
Become engaged in the economics of information by learning how to reward good information providers
Just like a normal, healthy food diet, The Information Diet is not about consuming less—it’s about finding a healthy balance that works for you

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Editorial Reviews

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"Media personalities and high profile Google and Microsoft employees are extolling the virtues of Johnson's data plan" -Wired Magazine

"'The Information Diet' Should Be Your New Year's Resolution" -Forbes

"The Information Diet is definitely the kind of book that we need to read going into 2012 with all of the junk information online and on our TVs trying to creep into our lives and not making us think critically." -LifeHack.org

"I don't know when I've read a more sensible book." - NPR's Scott Simon

"An intelligent manifesto for optimizing the 11 hours we spend consuming information on any given day (a number that, for some of us, might be frighteningly higher) in a way that serves our intellectual, creative, and psychological well-being." -- Maria Popova, Brainpickings

About the Author

Clay Johnson is best known as the founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed Barack Obama's online campaign for the presidency in 2008. After leaving Blue State, Johnson was the director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, where he built an army of 2000 developers and designers to build open source tools to give people greater access to government data. He was awarded the Google/O'Reilly Open Source Organizer of the year in 2009, was one of Federal Computer Week's Fed 100 in 2010.

The range of Johnson's experience with software development, politics, entrepreneurism, and working with non-profits gives him a unique perspective on media and culture. His life is dedicated to giving people greater access to the truth about what's going on in their communities, their cities, and their governments.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (January 31, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1449304680
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1449304683
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.47 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.63 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #234 in Information Theory
- #990 in Media Studies (Books)
- #1,196 in Social Aspects of Technology

Customer Reviews:
102 ratings

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Clay A. Johnson

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Clay Johnson is best known as the co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed Barack Obama's online campaign for the presidency in 2008. After leaving Blue State, Johnson was the director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, where he built an army of 2000 developers and designers to build open source tools to give people greater access to government data. He was awarded the Google/O'Reilly Open Source Organizer of the year in 2009, was one of Federal Computing Week's Fed 100 in 2010. He claims to have learned most of what he needs to know working as a waiter on the late shift at Waffle House for two years.

Customer reviews

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3 star		17%
2 star		9%
1 star		12%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Cameron

Interesting metaphor and helpfully disturbing content

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2014

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I really liked the premise of this book. The first section opens up my eyes to things I already see, but often don't think about much. This is a really provocative book for the Internet / mobile web age and will unhinge a lot of people who start to notice the zombies among us sucking in data from everything without thinking about what it is they are consuming.

Johnson's model of using information as being akin to a true diet is prescient. The comparisons between obesity in physical form and the problems we have socially making decisions is outlandish at first blush, but more insightful with every page you read. At times, the comparison gets so detailed that it gets a little overwhelming and sometimes sidetracks the narrative a bit. This is a small issue.

In the end, the book comes with some rather obvious recommendations that almost need to be said, but are likely difficult to follow. Like food, information is social and that is where many of the problems and solutions lie. This is a harder, more complicated area to cover in recommendations without getting into silly motherhood statements and wide, sweeping, unrealistic policy ideas. But nonetheless, this book will get you thinking about what you feed your eyes, ears and brain next time you go online, read a billboard, see a TV show or listen to the radio.

2 people found this helpful

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D. Salotti

Not a "How-To" More of a "You Should"

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2012

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While I found the analogy between agri-business and info-business clever, accurate and relevant, I also found it to be exhaustive.

I was hoping the content would be more in the way of practical techniques and tools to analyze and improve my information consumption, however the book is light in this area.

I did come away with some practical learnings that I was able to apply, and I don't regret the read (its easy and fast), but I think my expectations were higher than what was actually delivered. Perhaps I got over-hyped reading about it in WIRED (that was what lead me to download it to my Kindle Fire).

I suggest just speaking to someone who read it -- you'll get a cliff-notes version that will give you the salient points without the cost or time spend.

7 people found this helpful

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Deodoro Filho

A long essay, but a nice one

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2013

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I rather like the food analogy the author uses throughout the book, I do agree with his comments on our bad habits on information consumption, and the premises seem to be valid for us (non-american), even though the book is aimed directly at the american public: we don't eat the same type of food, watch the same TV programs or read the same papers, still, you can pretty much detect, in my kin, the same behaviors the author describes for americans, food and information-wise. On the flip side, the last section completely loses traction, I hate "recipes" (self-help mumble jumble) and I'd skip it completely if I ever read it again.

It's worth mentioning it is indeed a very long essay (as some complain), still, a very well written essay: the text flows effortlessly, the ideas have the necessary citations and the conclusions are very linear and clear.

3 people found this helpful

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J. T. Pilonero

Food for thought

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2013

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The first half of the book offers a lot of interesting statistics and facts that stimulate and challenge thinking - and help understand the cultural pressures that modern humans in advanced countries face and need to deal with. The second half of the book offers a lot of rather shallow advice on how to deal with the challenges, at least from the author's personal perspective. But the suggestions are narrowly applicable, given the differences in people. Still, this is a good read and the last half can be skimmed for what one feels might apply to them.

3 people found this helpful

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Arturo

Good ideas, although a bit too much of politics for me

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012

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I bought the book since I was curious about the main idea: that bad habits of information consumption may be dangerous and even unhealthy.

After having read it, I have to say that I liked the book, and I found both Clay's argumentation and the data he used to back up his main thesis, quite interesting. However it was a bit unbearable for me to read about US politics. Perhaps this is because I don't enjoy politics much, and mostly by the fact I don't live in the US.
Nevertheless, the ideas behind all of this politic argumentation, are somewhat general, and can apply to my native country, where there exist also a kind of dichotomy of two parties (the most powerful ones), and in the same way it's possible to identify the tree flavors of ignorance that leads to information obesity: agnotology, epistemic closure, and filter failure, in the voters.

Summarizing, I enjoyed the book, and besides the politic dying of it, I would recommend its reading since it's full of interesting ideas, and it's a rather good work... I'll surely re-read it again (although just the second part of the book), since I'd like to review his view of data literacy, and other interesting thoughts.

3 people found this helpful

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Rüdiger

Nette Ideen, aber nichts weltbewegendes

Reviewed in Germany on September 20, 2014

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Generell beinhaltet dieses Buch ein paar nette Ideen, wie man mit dem Medien-Overkill umgehen kann. Allerdings gibt es hier nichts bahnbrechendes. Jeder der sich schon mal mit Selbstorganisation oder Zeitmanagement beschäftigt hat, kennt ähnliche Ideen. Die Beispiele sind in der Tat stark an den amerikanischen Markt ausgerichtet. Jedoch könnte man amerikanische Fernseh-Sender durch private deutsche Sender ersetzen, und dann ergeben die Beispiele wieder Sinn.
Wichtigste Erkenntnisse aus dem Buch für mich: 1. Weniger Informationen konsumieren, und dafür lieber selber Informationen fabrizieren. 2. Wenn schon Informationen konsumieren, dann bitte möglichst aus erster Hand und nicht aus dritter Hand.

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hirte_7

A Book from an American for Americans

Reviewed in Germany on July 24, 2012

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Although the idea and content is interesting the author focuses only what is happening in the US. If you are not living in the US, you will loose your interest pretty fast. That is a pitty as the topic might be handled radically different throughout the worlds information companies and governments.

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The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption 1st Edition

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Clay A. Johnson

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