Dan Pink is happy to report that people are slowly realizing that wealth and more possessions are not making them happy.
This desire for fulfillment is a great thing, certainly, but what he does not address is that the constant forces of more information and more technology also threaten people's ability to judge what would make them happy - let alone whether they are fulfilled or not.
Things like email and RSS feeds and podcasts and broadband are really wonderful additions to our connectedness.
As an IA, however, I'm starting to wonder how people can actually process all of this information effectively, to find a place where the information flows through them rather than at them - they can retain what they need and let go of the rest.
This is one reason I personally like del.icio.us, Furl, and Google Reader so much - they allow me to view information in my stream and come back later to delve into detail or see the bigger picture.
Those of us that work on technology have an opportunity to help our customers build this type of simplicity into everything that they use. At some point, I hope that organizations will start to see that both employees and customers deserve this care and feeding - it will benefit everyone involved.
I wonder if we even realize this yet.
Thanks to Mark Hurst for posting the Wharton article link.
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