Anti-Infographic Rant
Up until recently, I was a devoted infographics consumer. At first sight of an illustration with colorful blocks and percentages inscribed in them, I’d jump in and savor every detail. I enjoy graphic art very much, so in a way it was like looking at art and learning something practical. I was sure that the infographics deepened and improved my understanding of life.
Lately though, a lot of it is just garbage, no other way of putting it. Useless noise. It’s possible that it’s always been that way, I’m just more sensitive to it now, having crammed as much as I can into my head. (I also realized that some IG’s left me more stressed and tired than I was before viewing them.)
There are many websites that cater to IG-heads but the most popular one is Visual.ly. Here’s a few of their latest submissions:
- The Economy of Coca-Cola (FYI, [[KO]]. Will you be better off if you know how many gallons of coke is consumed worldwide?)
- Benefits of Drinking Water (How about staying alive and leave it at that?? Do people need to be convinced to drink water?)
- The Expendables 2 (I got nothing for this one. Just dumb.)
- The ROI of Higher Education (Useless AND depressing. Jackpot!)
To be fair, most IG’s probably have a niche audience, but when they’re mixed all together, you’ll get sucked into inspecting all of them, no matter how inane.
The only infographic I don’t get tired of looking at is this one 🙂
Btw, the futures are positive so far… Have a good week.
Kat,
IG’s are for the essentially lazy. When I feel lazy, I use one on the blog.
jog on
duc
Hi Duc,
I agree.
Do you
feelthink you have to keep updating your blog at a certain pace? There’s a danger in updating it too frequently, so next time just let yourself be lazy 🙂Kat,
The blog provides some discipline in ensuring that I don’t take bonehead trades because I’m bored, and also to clarify my thinking process out loud. So daily posts are the way to go for me generally speaking.
However, there is always the odd day when there just isn’t much happening, and/or I feel a bit flat. That’s when I write easy gossipy posts on flippe-floppe.
jog on
duc
You don’t have to explain, Duc 🙂 I only mentioned it because the latest opinion is that blogs updated more than once a day are losing audience (I think it’s backed up by some internet study). There are rare exceptions to that, but apparently the idea is that people are getting overwhelmed by the amount of information.
Are you on twitter or facebook yet?
Kat,
Neither.
Information overload is hardly a new problem, but I agree, with the expansion of various technologies, the problem is now unmanageable save to disengage.
I have found, the more I slow my time frames, the better I trade. So certainly there is merit in your observations with regard to information and acting on it.
The problem is filtering true information from noise. It is the noise/information ratio that is deteriorating, which results in errors being made. Stepping back, allows a more reasoned response to differentiating the two.
jog on
duc