We spend the majority of our waking hours with information. It is interesting to note that we are not entirely new to information overload. Mr. Wurman offers the following quotations from Martin Luther (1569) and Edgar Allan Poe (1845) for us to consider: Overload is Not New
"The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure or limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name; others for the sake of mere gain."
Martin Luther
"The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age; since it presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information, by throwing in the reader's way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful lumber, peradventure interspersed."
