Information overload is a mater of discipline. If you let yourself be enveloped in random facts you'll eventually become a little scattered. This isn't really

Information overload is a mater of discipline. If you let yourself be enveloped in random facts you'll eventually become a little scattered. This isn't really a new concept. In the first Sherlock Holmes story (A Study in Scarlet published in 1887) Watson mentions to Holmes that the Earth revolves around the Sun and is shocked to find Holmes doesn't know that. Holmes' response is that not only did he not know it but that he'll try his best to forget it now that he's been told because it does not serve any practical purpose for him. Clearly that's a little too extreme but the lesson is there. The argument of how humanity's increasing knowledge is become detrimental has been on people's minds for a long time. Easy access to that knowledge just exacerbates the problem. Yet society hasn't collapsed and I don't think our brains are going to rot anytime soon. The trick is just realizing your brain has finite resources and it probably isn't best to get to bogged down in minutia.