1. Jo Pearce
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Non-binary (they/them), developer and science womble.
Hacking Your Head
Managing Information Overload

2. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
What is Information Overload?

3. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
“Surviving the collision with tomorrow…”

4. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
“…there are discoverable limits to the amount of
change that the human organism can absorb”
“…without first determining these limits we may
submit masses of [people] to demands they
simply cannot tolerate.”
Alvin Toffler
(Future Shock, 1970)

5. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Information Overload
Anxiety
Hostility
Senseless Violence
Physical Illness
Depression
Apathy

6. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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A soldier falls asleep “while a storm of machine gun bullets
splattered around him” not due to physical tiredness, but a
“sense of overpowering apathy”.
Soldiers became hypersensitive and would “hit the dirt” at the
slightest stimuli, increasingly showing anxiety and anger at the
slightest inconvenience.
The effects of overload in WWII

7. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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8. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
The overwhelming office?

9. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
20 million words of new technical
information are recorded each day.
Jackson, W. (2001). Information overload and managerial roles: A naturalistic study of engineers.
At 1000 words/minute, 8 hours/day this is six weeks of reading.

10. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
After reading the information for that one day
you would have fallen behind by 5.5 years!
Jackson, W. (2001). Information overload and managerial roles: A naturalistic study of engineers.

11. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Information Fatigue Syndrome
Poor Concentration Hurry Sickness
Pervasive Hostility
Stress
Depression
Lowered Immune Response
“Burn out”

12. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

13. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

14. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
There is always a lot to learn
Information overload is a learning problem!

15. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
How do we learn?

16. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Working Memory Long Term Memory

17. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Working Memory
Processes Information
Active Thinking & Learning

18. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Long Term Memory
Enormous Capacity
Cannot engage in thinking or learning processes

19. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Results of learning
Knowledge Retrieval

20. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Schemas
Multiple Elements Single Schema

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22. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Novice Learner Schemas

23. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Experienced Learner Schemas

24. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Understanding Our Limitations

25. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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The Magical Number 7 ± 2
(George A. Miller, 1956)

26. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
The Magical Number 7 ± 2
(George A. Miller, 1956)
Working Memory
Information In

27. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
The Magical Number 7 ± 2
(George A. Miller, 1956)
Overloaded Working Memory
Information In

28. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
The Magical (but finite) Number X?

29. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Schema=
Novice Experienced

30. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
How do we work with our
limitations?

31. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Cognitive Load Theory

32. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Defines cognitive load as the total amount of mental
effort being used in the working memory
Describes a universal set of principles for managing
cognitive load that lead to efficient learning.
What is Cognitive Load Theory?

33. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Total cognitive load is comprised of three types:
Intrinsic Load
Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load
Germane (Relevant) Load

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Imposed by the inherent complexity of the task being performed.
e.g.
Learning to juggle 10 balls is inherently more
complex than learning to juggle 3.
Intrinsic Load

35. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Imposed by the inherent complexity of the task being performed.
Manage by breaking large tasks into smaller ones!
Intrinsic Load

36. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Epic
User Story
TaskTaskTask
User Story
TaskTaskTask
User Story
TaskTaskTask

37. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Imposed by distractions or tasks which are irrelevant to the goal.
Coping with a loud environment
Unfamiliarity with a development tool
Unreadable code
e.g.
Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load

38. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Try working somewhere quieter…
…or wearing headphones?

39. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Reduce the number of tools or libraries to a minimum…

40. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

41. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

42. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Imposed by distractions or tasks which are irrelevant to the goal.
Manage by reducing the number of irrelevant distractions and tasks!
Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load

43. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Load imposed by tasks which are relevant to an overall goal.
Repetition and context variation give us the skills to
apply knowledge in a wider variety of situations.
Germane (Relevant) Load
Helps us to connect bits of information and form more
complex schemas

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@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Repetition = Practice

45. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Context Variation
Tree?

46. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
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Load imposed by tasks which are relevant to an overall goal.
e.g. If the goal is to promote better understanding of a codebase
Vary the areas of the codebase a developer works in
Pair junior developers with those more experienced to
gain varied perspectives and skills
Germane (Relevant) Load

47. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
We constantly need to learn…

48. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
But there are limits on our ability to learn…

49. Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Manage
Intrinsic
Load
Increase
Relevant
Load
+
Reduce
Irrelevant
Load
+
= Efficient Learning & Increased Productivity
Cognitive Load Theory

50. Jo Pearce
@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk
Non-binary (they/them), developer and science womble.
Thanks!
Any questions?