Too much information, driving me insane.

The The Police song announced it in 1981, it’s still more than true today. The amount of information that we are exposed to is increasing exponentially, and it’s driving us insane. If you have a job that requires you to be in front of a computer, you are probably familiar with the feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of information that you are exposed to. It’s not only the amount of information that you are exposed to, but also the amount of information that you need to process.

Working in the software industry, I’m constantly bombarded with information. I’m not only talking about the information that I need to process to do my job, but also the information that I need to process to keep up with the industry. Being a software engineer or a software architect is a very demanding job. You need to be constantly learning new things - oftentimes, you need to recall things you don’t quite remember anymore. And you need to be constantly aware of what’s going on in the industry. If you don’t, you will be left behind.

Memorizing all the information that you need to process is impossible. You need to have a system to keep track of all the information that you need to process. I have been very interested about a system called PKM for a while now, and it has being helping a lot already, despite the fact that I’m still trying to figure out how to use it properly. I’m also still trying to figure out what’s the best tool(s) to use for it. I already have tried a real lot of them and I feel I am very far from being able to say that I have found the process amd tools that would work well for me.

Currently I’m using Roam Research. still not sure if it’s the best tool for me, but I’m giving it a try. I am finding it really awesome so far. It’s intuitive and a very powerful tool, but it’s also expensive. I also developed a kind of microblog that I name as blogmarks, it’s a website I log all links I have read or skimmed and contains information I have interest about and could server as a future reference or tool. I’m starting this blog to share some of the information I have been processing and to help me to organize my thoughts. I’m not sure if I will be able to keep it up, but I will try. I have never being a good writer, but I will try to improve my writing skills as well.

This blog will containg challenges I face everyday in my job, my career. Stepping stones I find everyday in my path. When you have a task to do, you need to break it down into smaller tasks. Sometimes one or these smaller tasks is a challenge by itself. I will try to share some of these challenges and how I have been dealing with them. Challenges I have faced in the past and challenges I will face in the future. Chunks of code I have written and I think it’s worth sharing. Commands that helped save my day. All kind of technical information that I would think it’s worth to be documented. Pretty often you need to face them again and again. It’s better to have them documented somewhere.

It will also contain some of the information I have been processing and some of the tools I have been using. I hope it will be useful for someone else as well. I will try to keep it as short as possible, but I will not make any promises (specially for myself).