Information Sickness - Page 3

While individuals have the primary responsibility for carving out time and space from the endless yowl of information, Levy says business and government should help, for the sake of higher-quality work and better citizenship. It would be helpful, he said, if the federal government required that everyone get at least some paid vacation, and if managers understood that time away from one's desk is essential to the bottom line.

"At the workplace, managers need to allow for value in things that don't look like work," Levy said. "Information is not enough. In a democratic society, if you don't have time, or make time, to live with that information, to reflect on it, you will not have a deeply grounded opinion. You become numb."

After he finished his doctorate at Stanford, Levy jumped at a chance to escape what he calls the "stultifying narrowness of computer work." He moved to London in 1981 to study calligraphy and bookbinding. He spent entire weekends in a garret in southwest London with a quill in his hand.

"Something about the rhythms of that life have stayed with me," Levy said. "I found that I experienced the world differently when I was quiet in that way."

His time with a quill combined with his years at the Palo Alto think tank to inspire "Scrolling Forward," his 2001 book about documents, reading and writing in the digital age. It also helped inspire his three-day conference, which is being bankrolled by the MacArthur Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

After the conference has come and gone, Levy concedes that he will remain semi-addicted to information overload.

At sunset every Saturday, he lights a Havdalah candle, which symbolizes the separation of the Sabbath from the rest of the week. Then he races upstairs in his house to check his e-mail.

Article Author: bookofjoe

Visit bookofjoe's author page — bookofjoe's Blog