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What is the filter ladder?
I came up with this concept while talking to a Harvard professor I met at the airport the other day. He asked how I dealt with information overload and, as I explained it to him, I realized that his filters were higher than mine.
In other words, I was willing to read more crap than him. I’m willing to go through more bad books, more bad blog posts, and vote them up/down on things like Reddit, Digg, etc.
Basically his Slashdot comment threshold is set to 4 or 5. Mine is set to 2 or 3.
The result of this is a filter ladder, where you informally decide what level of crap you’re willing to deal with in order to receive information first, based on your personality, tolerance, patience, etc.
What does this mean for both of us? By definition, it means more orthodox ideas reach him and less crap. He only pays attention to reputed sources.
For me, it means I waste a lot of time, but I may see interesting ideas first. So I’ll find out before him about a big news event, maybe, but he won’t waste time sorting through stuff that’s not worth looking at.
Both of us benefit in different ways from what we decide on. He wastes less time, while I see edgier stuff. Know what I mean?
Another metaphor for this is “7 Layers of Heaven/9 Layers of Hell” theory of information filtration. If you think about it that way, it could go like this:
At the bottom are the demons (ie robots/daemons ;) ) in the bottom level of Hell that go through the spam, then people that go through the new sections of recommendation engines, where there’s still a ton of crap to sort through.
Then there’s people that read blogs, then newspapers, etc. An we can follow this all the way up to the top academics that only read the papers the PhD students write (the highest level of “heaven”). This wasn’t where Thomas was, but I think you see my point.
Do you know what level are you at? Where are most of your friends? Do you see a big difference in results from being where you are?
Filed by Julien at 4:33 pm under random
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Playing Devil’s Advocate (you brought up the layers of hell motif) one could argue that the lower filter levels have a use as well.
Without low-level research, no PhD student would have enough material to write a paper with. Without Digg trolls, some blogs wouldn’t be able to gauge certain kinds of relevance.
We can reduce it another way; food chain. Grass soaks up sun (raw energy), is eaten by cows. Cows are processed (read ass; slaughtered and dissected) for consumption by people. People usually end up boxed off from the chain (echo chamber = coffin).
It’s all trans-active.
Right, and all levels benefit from the lower threshold to publishing.
All levels have a purpose, right? There’s just more of them now than there used to be.
I sincerely feel that 4chan is some alternate universe where Heaven & Hell collide — kind of like the end of days.
@CT — you’re kind of right. I should have added them to the list.
I’ve found that as time goes by, my filter ladder has gotten smaller, which is interesting. It used to be that I would “waste time” filtering through the “crap”. And you’re right, that’s where a lot of interesting ideas come from. But as I’ve gotten busier, I find that I have to set smaller thresholds in order to actually have time to get work done. Maybe there’s a balance here that I’m missing?
Great post, Julien.
Colin is right. There is probably an interesting correlation to study between your filter ladder and the level of attention that people have at their discretion (ie. how busy they are).
@David — you mean “busy.” Reading through crap is busywork, not real work (for most people).
We choose a height on the ladder, but we’re choosing (consciously or not) _which ladder_ to use, as well. There are tons of ladders.
Most university profs pick a step on an “academic ladder” of some sort, but that particular one is not necessarily leaning against the best wall, if you know what I mean.
The fun thing is that there is no universal hierarchy of ladders, so you’re on your own when it comes to picking the one(s) you’re going to use.
I’ve found that as time goes by, my filter ladder has gotten smaller, which is interesting. It used to be that I would “waste time” filtering through the “crap”. And you’re right, that’s where a lot of interesting ideas come from. But as I’ve gotten busier, I find that I have to set smaller thresholds in order to actually have time to get work done. Maybe there’s a balance here that I’m missing?