We all drink from a fire hose of information, an unfiltered stream that blasts facts and photos and figments of truth, bloating and overloading us. Phones buzz with updates. Breaking news. Snarky tweets that demand a peek. Kardashian sibling fashion faux pas. Amazon deals, Instagram hamming, TikTok twerks and daily BeReals—these torrential rains strain brains.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, President Biden remarked, “There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?” Great question. And the fire hose refuses to be turned off. But there is a way to slow the flow, at least to a manageable trickle. Ask Sherlock Holmes.
Trusty assistant Dr. Watson expressed astonishment that Holmes was “ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System.” Holmes replied, “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.” He explained further, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out.”
We all remember the stupidest things. Holmes’s advice is to forget. But what to keep? “Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order.” Here are some tips:
- Filter. Search engines and social media bypass newspaper and TV editors. This helps free us from bias and censorship, but we’re all editors now, perusing the water blast to find what’s important. The trick is to filter almost everything—start with Meghan and Harry. If it isn’t in your wheelhouse or meaningful for your friendships, career or personal development, let that fire hose soak someone else.
- Favor the right topics. A college friend moved to Oregon to study the effects of Mount St. Helens’s volcanic eruption on nearby forestry. I presumed the simple answer was “not good.”
