Too Much Information?

By Tom Bradley

Ryan Males at CIBC World Markets in Vancouver passed on this thought-provoking quote from Herbert Simon, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.

This sounds like something a Nobel laureate would say today in the context of the internet, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the host of other media formats. Any guesses on when Mr. Simon said it?

1971.