We’re swamped. Everyone’s neck deep in information about a near-infinite number of subjects. How do we cope? By deluding ourselves into thinking we can assimilate everything.

But trying to process all that data from so many media streams is going to turn our brains into soup. We’re already seeing the impact it’s having on social skills (to say nothing of how people drive). Meeting and conversations are rarely in-the-moment events. Everyone is too busy text-messaging and thumbing email responses.

Such is the double-edged source of information and interconnectivity. We know more. We get more done. But are precise focus and valid feedback being compromised because we’re trying to see everything with a wide-angle lens?

43 Folders cites Stanley Bing’s assessment of what the informational deluge is doing to business leaders.

The author’s prediction:

I think one of the emerging leadership skills of the next five years will be learning how to do brilliant filtering—either programatically or by delegating information-sorting to others. To ultimately become someone whose system accounts for incoming data in smart ways and who never has to make excuses about too much stuff.

In a meeting this morning, our illustrious leader noted that he wades through dozens of marketing, communications, multimedia, and video e-newsletters weekly. Like most execs, he’s dedicated to keeping up with, if not outpacing, industry-specific innovations and insights. As information sources grow exponentially, he, like any top dog who wants to stay tuned in, is going to have to limit review to a few favorites and ask like-minded staff and trusted consultants to pick up the slack.