“Don’t Need to Know” (from 7/18/05) – I was thinking about the Hurricane Emily coverage that I have been getting on the internet, in print, and on TV and you know what? Too much information. It’s much more that I need to know, more than I can process, and more than I can do anything about. A lot of our life is like that and technology makes the problem worse. Email might be the worst of all. In the paper-era, if you wanted to add someone to your distribution list, you actually had to make copies, mail letters, etc. Now, with a single keystroke you can add tens or hundreds or thousands of people to your distribution. And the best part is that it’s free. But it really isn’t free. Think of the time wasted sorting through and reading email that you only have the slightest interest in (if you have any interest in it at all). In the past, there was a real problem with having too little information available. Now the problem is having too much!! You have probably heard people say, when discussing something top secret, that the information is on a “need to know” basis. That means they only share the information with the people that really “need to know” about it. Let’s turn this around and have a “Don’t Need to Know” basis. When you receive that weekly chart detailing “Candy Machine Usage Sorted by Vendor and Calorie Content,” tell the author that you would like to be put on the “Don’t Need to Know” list. Maybe institute a program at your company. If you receive an email that you didn’t need, reply with the heading DNTK which tells the person to remove you from the distribution list. While this creates yet another email, it’s an important one. It helps people cut down on the email traffic and all of the hidden costs related to it.