This week I was invited to give a presentation at Social Strategy Talk in Amsterdam. The theme was “bizarre stories” and I was amazed by the inspiring (and personal) stories that were shared by my fellow speakers.

I chose to tell 5 little anecdotes and then end with a worry. The five stories obviously had to to with my favorite topic “Living with or without the Internet”. Here are my slides:

If you are a returning reader of my blog then you probably knew these 4 stories allready. But the fifth one is the one that keeps me busy at night. The fact that the amount of information we produce and consume goes up and up… is inspiring for any online professional. But that at the same time the numbers of our National Productivity haven’t changed during the last 10 years should worry that very same professional.

After my talk people asked if was familiar with the work of Linda Stone, and of course I know Linda’s excellent thinking about continuous partial attention. But I like the Tim Ferriss version (Weapons of mass distraction) even better. Another person said that I had given my own version of “Does IT matter?” which is also a nice way to look at it.

I can only hope that we’re experiencing aspects of a learning curve. When people in the 19th century were laying the rails for the trains of the future, it also took years to benefit from these investments. Therefore I wish that in 5 years from now the productivity (in any kind) does go up and that we re-invent to singletask at the same time!

Thanks to Menno and Rutger for the invitation!