EXCESS OF INFORMATION

The amount of daily information that the brain has to bear is very high and will continue to increase.

With the advent of social media and email everything has become quicker and more immediate but…

I believe there is a limit to the capacity for acquisition, storage and processing.

The brain MUST SURVIVE and chooses.

They are not necessarily voluntary and controlled actions.

The brain chooses on its own what to keep, what to eliminate, what to put aside, and then bring it out at the right time.

I myself notice this when browsing the internet, social media, television, books, standards and magazines.

A quantity of information, which I would like to constantly acquire and make available when needed, but which inevitably gets selected.

A simple email can be important and quick to consult, but there are attachments.

A quantity of information that must be read, understood, processed.

I often hear people say: "I sent you the email" 

means IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM ANYMORE.

Mistaken.

There remains a problem of yours, which you tried to share, but it didn't go well if you are still talking about it.

“I published the news on the blog”

Too long or difficult to track.

We communicate in many ways but we know that writing or speaking does not have this enormous weight on the result of understanding.

By analogy I think about how much a worker must acquire in his professional life and I always try to relate it to behavior and the related human error.

I believe that, just as we forget some things, even recently acquired ones, at a particular moment the brain goes into blackout.

The brain closes, does not return what the memory has already processed and allows non-logical, non-rational actions.

We do things that make absolutely no sense and are so absurd that we ask ourselves:

“But why did he do it?”

Often even the person who gets injured asks this.

He couldn't not know, he couldn't not see, instinct (or non-conscious memory) had warned, but he did it.

A boy had to open a metal strap.

He had everything supplied: gloves, glasses, face shield, culture, training, instructions, procedures…

He had always used PPE.

He says it, his bosses say it, his colleagues say it.

Except that day.

That one time.

He's better now.

He hasn't lost his eye but, I hope, that this fright will be a lesson to him not only for that episode or situation.

Maybe it could also be useful for colleagues but I don't think so because the brain memorizes, attenuates, filters and then sets aside.

Maybe it doesn't erase but, certainly, it no longer makes it so available over time.

It is difficult to find an absolute remedy for this, but this does not mean that supports of automatism and self-discipline must be created which will certainly help to contain irrational behaviour.

The important thing is to understand where the pitfalls are and try to get around them.

Ermanno Bon