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Richard Saul Wurman
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Information Anxiety 2 (Hayden/Que) 2nd Edition

by Richard Saul Wurman (Author), Loring Leifer (Author), David Sume (Author),
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
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A decade after publication of what has become a cult guidebook to understanding the information age, this expanded and updated edition gives clarity to confusion with new maps for navigating through a stream of data that leaves us starved for the tools and patterns that give data meaning. Discussion touches on aesthetic considerations versus making information understandable, the pervasiveness of advertising, bartering and conversation, and communication in the work environment, with humorous asides and b&w cartoons. Wurman is a publisher and a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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  1. ISBN-10
    0789724103
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0789724106
  3. Edition
    2nd
  4. Publisher
    Que Pub
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2000
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.5 x 1 x 9.25 inches
  8. Print length
    308 pages
  9. See all details
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4.2 out of 5 stars
29 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Brock Rumer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A foundation text
    Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Richard Saul Wurman coined the term information architecture and is a seminal thinker in information design and consumption. This volume is an essential addition to the library of anyone thinking about how people interact with information.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Xueyi He
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good for business use.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2008
    A good writer and always give me new ideas and inspirations. Compare to the first one, this second one is more focus on business aspects.
    One person found this helpful
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  • number7graceSt.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Read
    Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    YOu should read this book, even if you don't buy it. Find it in the LIbrary, or find it Online. It is very important if you want to understand how we digest the world.
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  • gerald sullivan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2017
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    Excellent.
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  • Bob Myers
    1.0 out of 5 stars A Quick-and-Dirty Mishmash of Platitudes
    Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2002
    Verified Purchase
    I am taking the unusual step of rating this book "1 star" to express my extremely high level of dissatisfaction at its quality and usefullness. There is no question that Richard Saul Wurman is a highly gifted individual, and his ACCESS books are fabulous. But this poorly-edited, disorganized book fails to capture or convey any of the insights that went into that or other successful Wurman projects.
    My guess is that this project was conceived as a quickie update to the original Information Anxiety to take advantage of Internet mania, and as such much of the work was delegated to others, but without sufficient review and editing. (There are too many editing mistakes to list here, but suffice it to say that probably few books have a misspelling in the Table Of Contents as this one does -- "Informatgion" instead of "Information".)
    RSW tells us that it's important to always start off with what the question is. Problem is, he doesn't follow his own advice in that book. He careens uncontrollably from gushy predictions about the future, to cataclysmic warnings of information deluge, to superficial suggestions on software and web design, to facile pop management advice, The only thread connecting all these disjointed pieces is that he strictly limits himself to talking about how important something or other is, without ever giving specific advice about how to approach it.
    I am personally interested in the field of localization and globalization. So naturally I was curious as to what insight RSW brought to this area. What I found was a single, lonely page on the topic, with a few lines of simplistic patter, and a strange, unexplained diagram of various fountain pens with country names associated with each.
    I am also interested in the combination of text and graphics to present information and in fact bought this book thinking it might have some insights in that regards. So I was quite happy to see in the Table of Contents a section Design in the Digital Age, summarized as "In this Digital Age we need to focus on the connections among all design elements: medium, words, pictures, and sound." Alas, true to form, all the section in question does is repeat that we need to focus on this, with no clue as how we might actually do that, nor a single example in sight. To get an idea of the poor editing quality of this book, consider the following paragraph from this section:
    "Where words meet pictures meet sound creates understanding. Are you a value-based organization? A service-based organization? A quality-based organization? Are you all three? We test communication by conveying a message and having the recipient understand it, be interested in it, and remember it. Any other measure is unimportant and invalid." Does anyone else wonder how the stuff about organizations fits in here? It's just random cut-and-paste content that accidentally found its way here, never to receive the benefit of the editor's pen. Signs of rampant cut-and-pasting abound throughout the book.
    Although not really the fault of the author(s), the book is also seriously dated, having come out while there was still some degree of dot-com mania going on (although the peak was passed). So you can read this book on sort of an archaeological level, to recall all the bizarre things people were saying back in those heady days. Internet refrigerators, anyone?
    I probably don't need to summarize; let me simply say you are best off spending your time and money on virtually any book on this topic besides this one.
    92 people found this helpful
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  • Lee Say Keng
    5.0 out of 5 stars IA1 & IA2: Both books have not lost their relevancy even up to today...stimulating to read!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2008
    1) Information Anxiety
    2) Information Anxiety 2

    By Richard Saul Wurman

    Ever since the futurist thought leader Alvin Toffler coined the term `information overload' in his ground-breaking book, `Future Shock', in the early seventies, not only I know what it is, but also know how it feels like: overwhelming!

    I have since then become more fascinated by the subject & have read widely on it. A few good books come to mind. `Information Anxiety' is just one of them.

    I have read `Information Anxiety' in the late eighties, just before the internet era. I went on to read the follow-up edition, `Information Anxiety 2', about a decade later.

    The latter edition captured the impact & ramifications of the internet, desktop computing & advances in digital technology. From my personal standpoint, both books have not lost their relevancy even up to today.

    Personally, I still think the first book is a comparatively much better book. Although I have also read the author's `Follow the Yellow Brick Road' as well as `Information Architects', I still like his `Information Anxiety' very much.

    For me, I reckon `Information Anxiety', although intended as an exposition on information anxiety, covered a relatively broad spectrum particularly in terms of critical lessons: learning, understanding, creativity, problem solving, questioning, information processing, information design, and stress & anxiety management.

    As a matter of fact, an adequate understanding of each of these aspects will readily help one to deal with the complexities of life in the information age. Putting them together, they generally reflect the principal message of the book.

    The author defined `information anxiety' as a condition "produced by the ever widening gap between what we understand & what we think we should understand. It is the black hole between data & knowledge, & it happens when information doesn't tell us what we want or need to know."

    His definition did not emphasise `information overload' as a cause of `information anxiety' but portions of his book did so. He cited several situations likely to induce `information anxiety', including "not understanding information; feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information to be understood; not knowing if certain information exists; & not knowing where to find information."

    For me, there had been many vital lessons from the book. I would like to say that two vital lessons, at the time when I had read it, had cast a very strong imprint in my mind, which subsequently became my guiding philosophy in helping kids & teens to succeed in school.

    One came from Chapter 8:

    "You only learn things relative to something you understand."
    (This is sometimes known as Richard Saul Wurman's Law)

    The other:

    "Learning can be seen as the acquisition of information, but before it can take place, there must be interest; interest permeates all endeavours & precedes learning. In order to acquire & remember new knowledge, it must stimulate your curiosity in some way."

    I had also enjoyed reading about the author's approach to problem solving:

    "Before any solution to any undertaking can be developed, a movement must begin to discover its beginning. Understanding the vein of the problem is the course to solving it. The best way to accomplish any endeavour is to determine its essential purpose, its most basic mission: What is the endeavour supposed to accomplish? What is the reason for embarking on it? This is where the solution lies."

    There are two parts to solving any problem:

    - What you want to accomplish;

    - How you want to do it;

    Even the most creative people attach issues by leaping over what they want to do & going on to how they will do it. They are many HOW's but only one WHAT.

    You must always ask the question `WHAT IS...?' before you ask the question `HOW TO...?"

    The author's personal comments about asking questions were revealing:

    "When you sell your expertise...you have limited repertoire. On the other hand, when you sell your ignorance, when you sell your desire to learn something, to create & explore & navigate paths to knowledge - when you sell your curiosity - you sell from a bucket that is infinitely deep, that represents an unlimited repertoire. My expertise has always been my ignorance - my admission & my acceptance of not knowing. My work comes from questions, not from answers!"

    This reminded me of the spiritual insights of Zen Master, Suzuki - Beginner's Mind vs Expert's Mind:

    "If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind, there are few."

    I fully concur with this learning attitude.

    Lastly, the author outlined the following tell-tale signs of information anxiety:

    - chronically talking about not keeping up with what's going around you;
    - feeling guilty about that even higher stack of periodicals waiting to be read;
    - nodding your head knowingly when someone mentions a book, an artist, a news story that you have actually never heard of before;
    - refusing to buy a new appliance or piece of equipment just because you are afraid you won't be able to operate it;
    - giving time & attention to news that has no cultural, economic or scientific impact on your life

    The author also warned that `information anxiety' would limit people to being only seekers of knowledge because no time was left for them to be reflectors of knowledge. This is very true.

    At the time I had read this book, I had actually distilled & jotted down more than fifty useful & workable insights, some of which have already been revealed in this review. Many of the insights had already been assimilated into my life & my work.

    In my end analysis, `Information Anxiety' had been a very stimulating book. The book is very easy to read as you can breeze straight through or peruse in random bites.

    Even the many marginal notes in the book are real gems on their own!
    4 people found this helpful
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  • WJ Morse
    4.0 out of 5 stars Still Relevant
    Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2005
    Although written in 1990, this book is still relevant because it deals with the basic principles on how to handle the information overload. We need this now more than ever with 24/7 TV news, 24/7 internet alerts, email, text messaging TiVo, etc. etc. the basic principles are easy to apply with lots of shortcuts and it doesn't really matter the form the information bombardment takes.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Jonathan A. Magid
    1.0 out of 5 stars There's Nothing New Under This Sun...
    Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2001
    Verified Purchase
    I read Wurman's first Info. Anxiety years ago and hungrily gobbled up the great reviews of this sequel. The book, however, is a crashing disappointment. While Wurman evinces the appreciation for the obvious that makes all high-priced consultants worth their fees, he hasn't stretched himself with this work.
    Wurman offers nothing new either to expand upon or address his theories of Information Anxiety. Strangely, I have found this book to be all but unreadable except in very short bursts. The marginalia are rarely illuminating, occasionally thought-provoking, and frequently distracting. Even the book's size, weight, and the design of it's massive-flapped cover make it difficult to handle -- issues which one would think Wurman would have addressed.
    This guy's past his prime.
    16 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Mr. R. Horberry
    4.0 out of 5 stars Almost classic
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2003
    Verified Purchase
    There are stacks of thought provoking, life affirming creative insights here. The author does tend to bang his own drum to an annoying extent, but the good bits are so good you're prepared to forgive him. Who should read this book? Anyone interested in the whole information architecture/information design issue - in other words, anyone concerned with the construction of highly understandable messages, particually in the web/design world. It's partly practical, partly inspirational. Let down by dodgy proofreading, too much focus on how great the web is, some repetition and far too much me, me me, but basically well worth the money (and more) if IA/ID is your bag.
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