Information Anxiety: What to Do when Information Doesn't Tell You what You Need to Know

372 Pages·1989·15.388 MB·English

by  Richard Saul Wurman

What to do when information doesn’t
tell you what you need to know
RUURD SMIL WURMAN
Introduction by John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends 2000
international university
“Next to the Macintosh, I think Information
Anxiety is the most important tool developed for
understanding information in years!’
—John Sculley, chairman, Apple Computer, Inc.
“One of the great information crafters gives
sound counsel on how to craft your own damn
information!’
—Steward Brand, creator.
The Whole Earth Catalog
”* “Wurman’s Information Anxiety is the most
helpful [book] I’ve seen on turning data
into information and information into
understanding’.’
—Robert H. Waterman, Jr.,
author. The Renewal Factor;
coauthor. In Search of Excellence
“Until reading Information Anxiety, I was an
information junkie, anxious and overfed,
stuffing myself with paper and ink_Now I
understand the difference between information
and meaning because now I can tell the
difference betweeji reading and relevance. Best
of all, it seems I have two extra hours a day to do
what’s important!’
—Warren Bennis, coauthor. Leaders;
distinguished professor of
business administration.
University of Southern California
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Other books authored or co-authored by Richard Saul Wurman
Cities: Comparisons of Form and Scale
Urban Atlas: 20 American Cities
Making the City Observable
Yellow Pages of Learning Resources
Yellow Page Career Library (12 vols.)
What-If, Could-Be
Guidebook to Guidebooks
What Will Be Has Always Been : The Words of Louis I. Kahn
Various Dwellings Described in a Comparative Manner
Our Man Made Environment Book 7
Man Made Philadelphia
The Nature of Recreation
The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn
The ACCESS Guide Series (20 vols.)
Information
Anxiety
What to Do
When Information
Doesn’t Tell You
What You Need to Know
Richard Saul Wurman
*
' A
BANTAfn
TRADE
PAPERBACK
BANTAM BOOKS
NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND
This edition contains the complete text
of the original hardcover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.
INFORMATION ANXIETY
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
Doubl^day
PRINTING HISTORY
Doubleday edition published February 1989
Bantam edition / September 1990
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1989 by Richard Saul Wurman.
Cover design copyright © 1990 by Bantarn Books.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
For information address:
Doubleday,
666 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10103.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wurman, Richard Saul, 1935-
Information anxiety : what to do when information doesn’t tell you what you
need to know / Richard Saul Wurman. —Bantam ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 339).
ISBN 0-553-34856-6
1. Communication. 2. Mass media. I. Title.
[P90.W8 1988b] 89-18662
302.23'4—dc20 CIP
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Ban¬
tam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consist¬
ing of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is
Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other
countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10103.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
0987654321
To Gloria Nagy, my wife and my motivation
y

Books are a major source of
information anxiety, and Fd like
to ensure that you wont feel
anxious about reading this one.
So, Fve departed from the con¬
ventional book format in ways
4
that I think will reduce your
book-induced anxieties.
If you are nervous that someone will mention this book
and you haven't read the whole volume, just take a look
at the twenty-one page table of contents. It has been
designed to approximate a class outline, and in it you will
find all you need, not only for a good summary but also to
help you plot your personal reading path.
This book has been heavily annotated with marginalia,
made up of anecdotes, quotes, and references to other
publications that illustrate, expand on, and sometimes
depart from the text. Often when I read, the text reminds
me of ideas I've read about elsewhere. I rack my brains
trying to remember where. I've saved you the trouble by
including in the margins the kind of material you might
be trying to remember when you are reading the text—
and you don't have to leave your chair. Material that was
paraphrased or summarized from the original for space
considerations is marked with a (^). Long quotes and
conversations with other people are boxed in to separate
them from the text.
Unlike many other books, Information Anxiety doesn't
have to be read sequentially. You can open to any chapter
and read forward or backward. The text and the margina¬
lia can be read together or independently. You can read
the last chapter first. You can read only the even-num¬
bered chapters.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
John Naisbitt
A weekday edition of The New York
Times contains more information
than the average person was likely
to come across in a lifetime
in seventeenth-century England.
THE NON—INFORMATION EXPLOSION 31
More data is not the same as better information.
TELLTALE SIGNS 35
YOU CAN'T BE TOO RICH
OR TOO WELL INFORMED 36
A WORD IN SEARCH OF A DEFINITION 37
The single most important word of our decade
is also the most ambiguous and
most-often abused.
Information is that which reduces uncertainty—
which is the root cause of anxiety.
The human factor translates information as
matter into information as meaning.
ANXIETY—PROOFING INFORMATION 41
THE FIVE RINGS 42
We move through levels of information—from
the most personal and essential to the most
global and abstract.
Each tier of information—from personal messages
to cultural totems—is potentially fraught with
its own anxiety.
Information frustration and hence information
anxiety results when you know what you want,
but not how to get at it.
6