A Formula Between Information Density and Happiness

Lately I’ve been thinking about an interesting phenomenon: what does playback speed when watching videos actually reflect?

When we need to learn a hobby, we slow things down. Dance requires frame-by-frame study of movements; when practicing guitar along with a teacher, we wish they’d play even slower. But when we’re watching something we “have to learn” or purely low-quality content that massages the prefrontal cortex, we crank the speed all the way up.

Honestly, I feel like the entire internet has become too information-dense. Speeding up videos creates the illusion of “absorbing knowledge faster than others.” In reality, what actually enters your brain are those videos you watch at 0.5x speed, going over again and again, practicing repeatedly. Watching itself doesn’t bring any benefit.

This craving to ingest as much information as possible is called FOMO (fear of missing out). Video makers and copywriters exploit this—using AI, they can generate a flood of information-explosive videos in a single day that stoke FOMO. Creators speed-create, audiences speed-consume, forming a bizarre spiritual bubble.

Another downside of speed is arrogance. Sometimes in face-to-face conversation, I catch myself thinking, “Why so much filler—I just want to fast-forward.” Maybe in a two-hour conversation, only one sentence truly moves me, only one sentence actually affects me. I want all two hours to be packed with substance, but that’s called training, not communication.

What is “accumulation”? Accumulation is when you’ve learned a lot, forgotten a lot, practiced a lot—and what ultimately remains. It’s muscle memory, indelible. Think carefully: in recent conversations with others, is there still a single sentence that might slightly shift your habits, that might affect your life?

In Silicon Valley, offline socializing is even more mainstream than online marketing. Almost every day there’s a meetup, coffee chat, AI forum, or tech summit. Everyone is some big tech executive, startup CEO, fund VC, or top-school PhD.

Just like speed-watched videos, high-information-density socializing itself doesn’t bring any benefit. Except for the few with clear goals who need to network for resources, most people are engaging in forced self-exposure and socializing driven by FOMO. So I often hear friends complain about these events, yet soon see them participating again on social media.

I occasionally feel others want to hit fast-forward on me too. No one cares about your journey, the wrong turns and side paths you’ve taken—everyone just pretends to be interested so they can quickly get how you became successful.

Everyone is too smart, and time is too precious. Are “slow work yields fine results” and “haste makes waste” just lessons from an old era—do they still apply in today’s fast pace? Is speed the only way to stay ahead? Have our work, social life, hobbies, and relationships actually gotten better from efficiency gains—or are we just in an era of information involution and bubbles?

Indeed, many people once benefited from “information asymmetry,” which is why the smarter the crowd, the worse information involution becomes. Those without enough cognitive bandwidth easily burn out in such high-density information fields—the load exceeds their internalization speed.

I can’t judge whether fast or slow suits this era better. I can only say: different fields have different information density, and our responses should change accordingly.

First, be clear about what you truly value. If you want the worldly definition of a winner’s life, expand your cognitive bandwidth, go to higher-density fields, absorb lots of information and internalize it into experience, then practice and accumulate. If you pursue peace and comfort, wherever you are, as long as cognitive bandwidth > information density, you can live peacefully.

My theory: the greater the gap (cognitive bandwidth − information density), the easier it is to adapt and feel happy. You can not only digest current information but have spare bandwidth to filter signal from noise, pay attention to your feelings, actively block input when overloaded, and speed-absorb useful information when you have spare capacity—load balancing, smoothing peaks and valleys.

Of course, humans aren’t distributed systems—we have one mind, not multiple backend processors. When we can’t handle high-density information, rest without guilt. Don’t feel behind, and don’t force yourself to absorb new information. After resting, improve your cognitive bandwidth (single-machine processing), or move to a lower-density field—that widens the gap and increases happiness.

Wishing everyone well in this era.