Graham English

Information takes energy to create. It takes energy to consume. And it takes energy to manage. Information is energy. I see great opportunity and challenge in this.

The challenge on a personal level is that you need a sustainable source of personal energy. No, I don’t mean a refrigerator stocked with Red Bull. But because information almost has a caloric value, what you put in your body matters. Your health and physical fitness directly relate to your ability to create, consume, and manage information.

On a social level, the challenge is also finding a sustainable source of energy for all of our information systems. Which also includes the personal energy of the people involved in these systems, our information creators, managers, and consumers.

I believe that it’s our duty to put relevant and important information into the minds of people who need it in as efficient a manner as possible.

The opportunities are rich. We need to create more efficient and abundant forms of energy on a personal and social level. We can research and market personal energy management systems. Subtle energy practices like qigong or tai chi are already finding their way into the mainstream. To some of you, these opportunities are obvious. But it is still surprising to me how many people never think about energy in any of its forms.

We need to think about usability. We can make our information easy to consume and teach people how to use our information better. We can share our own usability hacks. Steve Rubel just saved a couple of hours a year by tweaking his information management. There’s a growing market for LifeHacks.

Bottom line is this: I’ll have better information management and have more energy as soon as I get my iPhone.

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