
I can't process the information that is coming at me - todaysAI
I&#x27;m a well-educated man yet I find it very difficult to process the information that is coming at me. The number of issues that hit me every day just makes me want to hide in a foxhole until it&#x27;s all over like some soldier. Yet I know it will not be over. In fact, I know it will be progressively worse.<p>I&#x27;m educated and aware and I can&#x27;t cope. How can anyone cope?
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AnimalMuppet
I read somewhere that someone said (either about physics or CS): "There's 50
times as much going on as I can keep up with, and I only operate at 2%
efficiency. So there's this factor of 2500 working against me, and every day I
fall seven years further behind."

And that was _professionally_. That wasn't trying to keep up with the news,
and your friends' every social media post.

So cut yourself some slack. _Nobody_ can keep up with everything. You aren't
broken, you aren't incompetent, you're just human, and humans have limited
bandwidth. I think that's where the answer starts: Stop expecting that you can
keep up. Stop thinking that it's reasonable that you can keep up. It's _not_ a
reasonable expectation; there's too much for that.

The next step, as others have said, is limiting what you try to keep up with.
See, the news outfits make more money if they get you to consume more of their
stuff. So does Facebook. There are very smart people trying very hard to make
you want to consume their spew, for their benefit, regardless of whether it
harms you or not. You have to deliberately defend yourself. Consciously choose
how much you're going to take in, and of what. And then fight to maintain
that, because they're going to tempt you to make an exception... and
another... and a whole bunch more... and then your limits are gone. If and
when that happens, recognize that it happened, remember why you put limits on,
and go back to the limits.

~~~
shrimp_emoji
>So cut yourself some slack. Nobody can keep up with everything. You aren't
broken, you aren't incompetent, you're just human, and humans have limited
bandwidth. I think that's where the answer starts: Stop expecting that you can
keep up. Stop thinking that it's reasonable that you can keep up. It's not a
reasonable expectation; there's too much for that.

This.

But I only learned this kind of self-compassion after having my pride eroded
to a nub. :3

Also, embracing the futility and meaninglessness and briefness of life helps.
Reflect on your mortality, and how it might come sooner than you think. AND
NOT IN A SAD WAY; more like in a humorous way, salted with the gratitude to
have been (and still be) a part of everything. xD

------
no1youknowz
Here's how I cope:

Q: Where's my phone? A: I think it's on the shelf somewhere. Honestly I don't
know.

Q: How many tabs do I have open. A: Currently 5 and never more than 10.

Q: How many times do I watch the news on TV. A: Never, I use youtube and I get
the news from various sources on the topics that I want to hear.

Q: How many IM apps do I have open. A: Just one, Skype and is reserved for
friends only.

Q: How many forums do I go to. A: Just two, HN and Reddit and on Reddit, I
only browse the topics that I want to. I almost never go to the front page.

Q: How many social media sites have I joined. A: None. Not on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram or any other apps. Accounts created in the past were for
test applications.

Q: How much unread mail do I have. A: None, I have 1 inbox for friends and
family and another for spam / anything I opt-into.

It all starts with you. You have control over what you do and don't do. If you
reduce your surface area, the number of issues will diminish daily.

~~~
Cerium
I get the newspaper delivered. That way I can look at it once a day and get a
concise summary. The rest of the time I don't need to consider it.

------
VladimirGolovin
First off, do you still read the news? If so, consider cutting them
completely.

As for the rest, deal with issues in a sequential manner. Don't deal with
multiple things at once. Be stubborn: pick one thing, kill it dead, move to
another.

And consider adopting a GTD-like system. If you deal with information, you
will benefit from having a clear distinction between actionable information
(tasks) and non-actionable information (reference). See a task? Put in on a
task list. Not a task? File it into notes and forget about it.

~~~
shostack
I've struggled with this. News and social sites like Reddit are what tipped me
off early this was going to be bad.

Yet I empathize greatly with OP. It takes massive energy and time to deal with
the sifting.

I've started trying to develop mental filters and guidelines for things I went
let myself dig into, like opinion pieces and their comments. It helps a
little. I suspect I need to do more though but don't want to risk being out of
the loop on major global and local happenings.

~~~
72deluxe
I use skimfeed.com to attempt to get an overview of headlines in the world and
delegate everything else to lists and work through them. Once an item is on a
list, I no longer need the mental exertion to remember what I needed to do,
and avoid getting into the "what was that thing I was meant to do and
remember?" situation.

I also deliberately avoid WhatsApp and force people to email or SMS me. This
massively reduced the amount of noise I had to deal with. Sure, I hear off
fewer people but I actually get stuff done and if people can't be bothered to
write an email, it's probably not important in the slightest.

This might not be an option for you but in any case it is reducing the amount
of time you're on your phone and/or distracted, coupled with exerting a bit of
control over when and how people can contact you. Your phone is for your
convenience, not theirs.

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gshdg
Take in less information. Prioritize based on what you truly need to know.
Augment with things that make you curious rather than stressed.

~~~
hairofadog
This is the answer. It isn’t easy – it’s like quitting smoking in that way –
but you have to take control of the input.

For me that means cutting out hyperbolic news sources like twitter, Reddit,
definitely any cable news network or daily news broadcast of any kind. Apple
News is also terrible in this regard; no matter how hard I try to curate,
they’re always shoving celebrity gossip and MSNBC or Fox News headlines at me.

So it’s a daily struggle, but on my good days I check the New York Times and
Hacker News once in the morning and in the evening. I have a couple of non-
news blogs I subscribe to that I check via RSS feed, and then that’s it.

I donate what I can to political and charitable organizations. It’s important
to stay informed, but unless you’re a reporter or working in crisis management
for a political campaign, I don’t think there’s a purpose served by becoming
outraged by every public statement by every dingaling politician or pundit.

I do 100% have a dog in this fight and care deeply about what’s happening in
the world right now both in terms of the pandemic and in the shift toward far-
right populism, but for me the strategy has to be: keep an eye on the general
gist and direction of things and then act accordingly. Who needs help right
now? Is there and action you can take?

This is obviously a “your mileage may vary” situation. Some folks are no doubt
able to keep one eye on their Twitter feed and stay perfectly sane and
productive, and more power to them, but I’m not one of them.

------
lholden
I have suffered with a fair bit of general anxiety my entire life. I'm 39 and
while I'd say that I am significantly better at coping with it... it's still
something that I struggle with and am still learning to deal with better.

I am not quite sure if you meant this post from a general "world at large", or
from a "professional having a hard time with work" perspective. Or both? So
the things I am about to say are from the "professional having a hard time
with work" perspective as it's the one I personally struggle with. I'm sure
some of this is applicable to the other category too.

1) Form routines, especially for stuff that generally spikes some anxiety for
you. Figure out a process and just do it each and every day. I find that this
helps with confidence.

2) Learn to say "f _ck it ". Weird as it sounds, but learning to let go is an
amazing tool. "You know, this situation could be better. But you know, f_ck
it! It could be worse, so It can't be that bad"

3) Organize and plan things out. Prioritize things. Accept that you can't
always tackle all issues. Use a todo app and list out everything you have
going on for the day. As new things come up, add them as a todo. Keep the list
prioritized and just focus on the highest priority item at the moment.

4) Learn to tell people you can't help them right now if it's not a higher
priority than something you are currently doing. I struggle the most with this
one. I always end up feeling really bad if I don't immediately drop everything
and do whatever I can to help.

5) Close all those dang browser tabs. I'm sure you meant to come back to X
thing 3 days ago... but honestly, it's just a distraction. Close all your
random applications down. Open a fresh browser window and only have the stuff
you need to focus on for the day. If something is really important, use a
bookmark or otherwise take note of the page so you can come back to it later.

6) Medications are often useful tools and can help with improving your quality
of life. It could be worth talking to your doctor. Medications generally don't
solve problems, but if it can help improve your quality of life, it can be
worth considering. It's also worth pointing out that it can potentially take a
very long time to work out which medications are best for you. I take
medication for high blood pressure for example. Having a lower blood pressure
has also helped with my anxiety and just generally feeling better. This has
also helped with my anxiety.

------
loopz
Close all browser tabs. Heck close all applications. If you must read news,
choose the most informative news sources and minimize number of open tabs. Be
selective, but keeping the same sources makes you able to skip many duplicate
stories from different places. Go outside, be with closest family, pet your
dog, do something new every day, preferably non-comp related.

------
LyndsySimon
This sounds very much like what I deal with. I see it as a side effect of
ADHD, which I see as a difference - not a deficit - in my ability to process
incoming information. Getting overwhelmed is difficult to deal with, but it is
accompanied by the ability to hyperfocus.

My first-line coping strategy is to close my eyes. That seems to help
significantly, as if visual processing consumes a limited mental resource that
I can free up to apply to structuring my thoughts. I have no idea if there is
any science to back that up - but I also don’t care. Coping is about
developing useful mental models for dealing with the world around you, not
necessarily about being technically correct.

I also careful control my facial expressions when I’m around others and do
this. My goal is to have them think that I’m concentrating on something
(which, really, I am) and not upset or distressed. This also provides them a
cue that usually results in their pausing or slowing down further information
for a moment, which helps.

------
panda888888
I know mindfulness is the latest trendy thing, but it's worth simply observing
your habits and trying to recognize when you do something that could cause
added stress.

If you're like me, you pick up your phone 1000x per day, so it's a constant
interruption. I have lots of notifications on, so as soon as I get a new
email, I see the notification and then read it. All of these little things
seem insignificant on their own, but they add up.

If you're interested in doing some observation of your habits to get a more
nuanced sense of what you like and don't like about your current digital life,
I recommend the first couple of chapters of this book:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25246881-mindful-
tech](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25246881-mindful-tech)

------
jbotz
Learn to meditate, vipassana or "mindfulness meditation". This has a dual
benefit... one is the physical benefit of leaving body and mind in a calmer
state. The other is training the mind to become more accepting of whatever
occurs... meditation is all about observing without judging.

------
brudgers
Have you considered talking with a mental health professional as an
alternative to soldiering on alone?

------
shahbaby
That's why you have to pick your battles.

Look for the 20% of effort that will get you 80% of the results.

------
gitgud
It's hard but eventually you can be content, knowing that it's impossible to
process the fire hose of information flying around everyday.

What helps is not trying to read the news everyday. Go for a week without
reading news, you'll feel much more in tune with your local surroundings and
be able to focus on what you care about more.

Arron Swartz has a good article on this.

[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews)

------
Barrin92
>How can anyone cope?

by cutting unecessary information out. Instead of reading the news everyday
subscribe to some high quality weekly newspaper like the economist, deinstall
all the social media apps or reduce your usage to an amount of time that is
more reasonable, and replace that activity with stuff that's healthy like
working out, getting some sun, whatever.

There's no real mystery here, just remove the things that stress you out and
replace them with habbits that are conducive to your well-being.

------
the_resistence
There are days when it feels overwhelming. I hear you completely.

------
seotut2
Part of your brain is responsible for filtering out irrelevant information
from your stimuli. There are large classes of mental illnesses that have
elevated sensory sensitivity as a symptom, which is what you are describing.
It's also related to affect regulation.

People will say that you are watching too many news etc. I think there's a
deeper issue. Education has absolutely 0 to do with it, this phenomena is not
related to the conscious level of the mind.

------
ecoled_ame
learn to skateboard and use your devices solely for content creation. fuck the
world

~~~
neilsimp1
This comment might come of as apathetic or dismissive or something, but I
actually think there's a beautiful golden nugget of truth in what you just
said.

------
closed
I think everyone feels like they're being hit with too much information at
some point. But wanting to hide, and knowing it won't be over sounds really
frustrating.

Have you thought about running it past a therapist? They can help you size up
the situation (eg are you anxious, and finding yourself avoiding work?), and
think about options, or just help track how things are going.

~~~
nja
I don't know about OP, but I know in my city (Boston), there was a 5 month
waiting period for access to a therapist -- and that was _before_ COVID hit.
Lots of us would love to speak with a mental health professional, especially
in these trying times, but it's unfortunately not always possible.

Like OP, I'm looking for strategies to help self-cope, as that's the only way
forward for many of us for now.

~~~
rdtwo
Tele health is an option and there are more openings because of canceled in
person visits. Now is a good time to establish care

------
zicsus
I once had this problem and the worst part was that I was getting worried
thinking about those things. The best you can do is to cut the information
that you take in and specially things that are out of your control. Focus on
things that matters to you or affect your day to day life.

------
rs86
Just don't punish yourself over it. There is more information than anyone
could handle. It's really a matter of realizing failure is a part of life. You
can not avoid failure, but you can sure handle it.

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goldenkey
Don't listen to the commenters in here. Most people can't cope and are on
anti-anxiety meds. Deep breathing / block breathing can help with short term
panic attacks. Ultimately therapy and drugs work best, tough to get now but
you might be able to do telemedicine if you find a good provider. You can even
get Valium, Ativan, Xanax, or well, most anti-anxiety drugs mailed to you via
mail order pharmacy since they are all only Schedule IV. Good luck.

~~~
jasonv
Right to drugs? He didn't say he had panic attack, but that he can't process.

I won't argue against medically prescribed drugs for people who need them, but
"commenters" here who are talking about therapeutic modalities (CBT and NLP
are great) and mindfulness (slow down, see things as they are, tackle the
things you can) aren't off-base, and these are more than short-term solutions.
They can be the keystone to true transformation.

Overwhelm is reasonable, but also addressable. By many different ways.

------
imvetri
List down things you do

Abstain from it if it involves people other than your family

Once you reach boredom, meditate.

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LastManStanding
News "every other day" seems to be a good approach these days.

