1. IMHO, Filters today are woefully inadequate for handling information in its present (and ever changing form). If a Filter is hard to trust, then it either needs work or needs to be replaced by a different concept. With news in particular – reading the NY Times or Wall Street Journal used to be a very simple and somewhat effective filter (for the respective, appropriate demographic). Now – it is a constant chore to figure out how to get the news. RSS readers like Google Reader have the inherent problem of requiring discipline on users’ parts to keep from overloading themselves.

2. If something requires “good ol’ fashioned self-discipline” in order to be able to use it, then in my opinion it’s a flawed tool. I don’t need discipline to keep from getting distracted when I’m reading a newspaper (or hammering a nail, or jotting a note . . .). Yet I need discipline when reading an article on the web, on so many levels. That’s why efforts like redub’s (and readability, readable, instapaper, etc.) are so much needed and appreciated. That’s why it’s easier to read on a dinky iPhone screen than it is to read on a large, full-powered desktop or notebook.

I know the removing-color-from-tabs idea seems strange (it did to me, actually). I never would have expected it to have the impact that it did. But it was dramatic. I’m focusing way better without the color than I did with the color. There’s something about color that catches your eye and makes you turn your attention to it – and sometimes click on it. It’s the difference between checking Gmail 3x or 4x per day as opposed to 20x or 25x per day.

3. On F11, I recently learned that there are two plug-ins for Safari that include F11 functionality: Saft and Glims.

http://haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/index.html
http://www.machangout.com/

I have not tested either.

1. Yes, you caught my Shirky reference (I love that quote). The only problem is, filters are hard to trust. I mean, I trust Gmail’s spam filter (more than Mail.app’s) though I do go into my spam folder once in awhile to see if its been off (rare).

The other thing about your first two examples, card catalogs and news publishers, is that they are ontological, which, as Shirky himself points out, are overrated.

And back to my first point, I will trust a filter I’ve made myself, ie, my social network or better yet, a select group of people or organizations I trust to filter certain things for me. Trust networks.

2. Removing color and icons from tabs? I rely heavily on those to re-find things. I feel like really the only way to deal with browser productivity is good ol’ fashioned self discipline, of which I have little.

3. I didn’t know about F11 (I’m on a Mac). But thanks for the comment! I checked your blog out. Some interesting stuff! Thanks for posting!

1) Your mention of the word “filter” reminds me of the Clay Sharky interview where he correctly points out that there has been more information than any single human being could possibly know since the creation of the library of Alexandria. But over the ages, filtering mechanisms have developed which allow people to get relevant information, without getting overloaded by details. Examples of useful information filters are:

* card catalogs
* news publishers
* social networks

Shirky argues that the best way to view the difficulties arising from recent rapid technological change is not “information overload,” but rather “filter failure.” What we need is not less information, but better filters.

2) Over the past 6 months, I’ve experimented with many ways to improve my focus and productivity while using a browser. I was surprised to see that tinkering with tabs had a tremendous positive impact. I have two different experiments running on two different computers (both help):

* remove color and icons from tabs (using about:config)
* use the firefox extension Tree Style Tab

With Tree Style Tab, you can set up the tabs vertically, then group them hierarchically. I currently have 3 groups set up: Communication, Investing, and FilterJoe (the name of my blog). The only tabs visible are the ones I’m focusing on, and the top node of the other two groups.

3) The best focusing trick I’m aware of is F11, which invokes full screen mode on Firefox, IE8, Opera, and soon Chrome (version 2.0). Gets rid of all the browser chrome, including tabs.

Sorry so long, this post of your hits at the central point of my blog, FilterJoe, so I felt moved to share.