We already live in an over-communicated world that will only become more so in the next tech era. We’ve developed technology that gets us so much information that we’ve got cell phones ringing every second. We’ve got computers and laptops. We’ve got personal organizers. And we’re just being bombarded with communication and every advancing technology seems to create more and more communications at us. We are thought of over-whelmed by the information flow.

Research suggests that all the multi-tasking may actually make our brains work better and faster, producing a world-wide increase in IQ up to 20 points and more in recent decades. Is there any real benefit in all these mental gymnastics we now have to go through? We are not becoming a race of global idiots, but many do think certain skills are enhanced and certain are not. You know the ability to make fast decisions, to answer a dozen emails in 5 minutes or to fill out maybe big aptitude text. That’s enhanced.

But when someone is out there with his kids laying in his little league, or something like that, he’s got his cell phone in his pocket, he is always wondering: “Jeez, did I get a voicemail?” This might have negative effects on our own brains patterns. Creativity is something that happens slowly. It happens when your brain is just noodling around, just playing. When it puts together ideas which you haven’t thought of, or maybe you have time to read a book. You are a business person but you have time to read a book about history or about a philosopher and something that happened long ago, or something or some ideas, some default of long ago.

Actually, it might occur to you that you can think of your own business in that way. And so if this mixture of unrelated ideas that feeds your productivity, feeds your creativity, and if your mind is disciplined to answer every email, then you don’t have time for that playful noodling, you don’t have time for those unexpected conjunctions. So I think maybe we are getting smarter in some senses, but over communication is a threat to our creativity and to our reflection.

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