Comments on: The zen of firehose drinking http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking It's all spinning wheels and self-doubt until the first pot of coffee. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:06:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0-alpha By: Mozilla Webdev » Blog Archive » Enter the LizardFeeder http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-383105 Mozilla Webdev » Blog Archive » Enter the LizardFeeder Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:09:39 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-383105 <p>[...] an infovore and avid practitioner of continuous partial attention, my first impulse is to reach for a firehose and stick my head into the stream. Relax, defocus, and [...]</p> [...] an infovore and avid practitioner of continuous partial attention, my first impulse is to reach for a firehose and stick my head into the stream. Relax, defocus, and [...]

]]> By: Enter the LizardFeeder - 0xDECAFBAD http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-382950 Enter the LizardFeeder - 0xDECAFBAD Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:02:03 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-382950 <p>[...] an infovore and avid practitioner of continuous partial attention, my first impulse is to reach for a firehose and stick my head into the stream. Relax, defocus, and [...]</p> [...] an infovore and avid practitioner of continuous partial attention, my first impulse is to reach for a firehose and stick my head into the stream. Relax, defocus, and [...]

]]> By: l.m.orchard http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-1970 l.m.orchard Sun, 25 Sep 2005 15:17:04 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-1970 <p>Danny: You're totally right, of course. I think once you've gotten yourself into a no-guilt, zen calm about "missing stuff" you can start to ask yourself how to get the computer to help prioritize and get "better stuff" in front of you.</p> <p>Not to totally toot my own horn, but I've included a few tools in Hacking RSS and Atom to play with these issues. In Chapter 15, I've got a start on a Bayesian filter integrated with a feed aggregator. </p> <p>Also, there's a tool which (I think) is like a personal Memeorandum, in that it slurps down feeds, harvests links, then sorts the links in order of popularity along with the feed entries which mentioned them. </p> <p>I haven't found the Bayes thing to be of colossal use yet, but the popular links analyzer is right up near the top of my feed reading priority.</p> <p>And, I've got just about all the mailing lists I tend to care about in feed form now, thanks to Yahoo and Google offering feeds--as well as this script for Mailman archives:</p> <p>http://taint.org/mmrss/</p> Danny: You’re totally right, of course. I think once you’ve gotten yourself into a no-guilt, zen calm about “missing stuff” you can start to ask yourself how to get the computer to help prioritize and get “better stuff” in front of you.

Not to totally toot my own horn, but I’ve included a few tools in Hacking RSS and Atom to play with these issues. In Chapter 15, I’ve got a start on a Bayesian filter integrated with a feed aggregator.

Also, there’s a tool which (I think) is like a personal Memeorandum, in that it slurps down feeds, harvests links, then sorts the links in order of popularity along with the feed entries which mentioned them.

I haven’t found the Bayes thing to be of colossal use yet, but the popular links analyzer is right up near the top of my feed reading priority.

And, I’ve got just about all the mailing lists I tend to care about in feed form now, thanks to Yahoo and Google offering feeds–as well as this script for Mailman archives:

http://taint.org/mmrss/

]]> By: Danny http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-1968 Danny Sun, 25 Sep 2005 14:11:59 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-1968 <p>I'm sure you're right in the general case, that a Zen calm is the only sane way to deal with the overload. But I still reckon we can get much, much further towards maximising the signal/noise for the individual. So the total number of things seen may not change, but their relevance/utility can be pushed up. Things like Bayesian filters on mail can help, an aggegrator built something like Memeorandum but designed for the individual could make a lot of difference. Then there's the integration issue - why have completely separate, incompatible tools for reading mailing lists and feeds? And creating stuff?</p> <p>Blah, that was slipping into a bit of a rant, side effect of a spilling-over inbox and seriously overweight aggregator...</p> I’m sure you’re right in the general case, that a Zen calm is the only sane way to deal with the overload. But I still reckon we can get much, much further towards maximising the signal/noise for the individual. So the total number of things seen may not change, but their relevance/utility can be pushed up. Things like Bayesian filters on mail can help, an aggegrator built something like Memeorandum but designed for the individual could make a lot of difference. Then there’s the integration issue – why have completely separate, incompatible tools for reading mailing lists and feeds? And creating stuff?

Blah, that was slipping into a bit of a rant, side effect of a spilling-over inbox and seriously overweight aggregator…

]]> By: Ryan Tomayko http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-1955 Ryan Tomayko Sat, 24 Sep 2005 09:50:01 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-1955 <p>I'm feeling this right now. My aggregrator has been fixed to my desktop for some years now but within the past month or so I've found myself leaving it closed for 3-4 days at a time. That's just insane :)</p> <p>I feel like I'm not participating at the same level but I sure am getting a lot of other stuff done :)</p> I’m feeling this right now. My aggregrator has been fixed to my desktop for some years now but within the past month or so I’ve found myself leaving it closed for 3-4 days at a time. That’s just insane :)

I feel like I’m not participating at the same level but I sure am getting a lot of other stuff done :)

]]> By: Roger Benningfield http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-1947 Roger Benningfield Fri, 23 Sep 2005 21:25:29 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-1947 <p>er, "making"</p> er, “making”

]]> By: Roger Benningfield http://decafbad.com/blog/2005/09/23/the-zen-of-firehose-drinking/comment-page-1#comment-1946 Roger Benningfield Fri, 23 Sep 2005 21:24:58 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=685#comment-1946 <p>I used to worry about Things Being Missed, but it was ultimately a limitation of my toolset. Once my preferred aggregator added effective search folders, I let all of that go... anything I absolutely <em>must</em> see will fall into a search folder, make everything else pleasantly optional.</p> I used to worry about Things Being Missed, but it was ultimately a limitation of my toolset. Once my preferred aggregator added effective search folders, I let all of that go… anything I absolutely must see will fall into a search folder, make everything else pleasantly optional.

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