# Collector's fallacy Thinkers such as [[Knowledge Workers]] are always looking for the next bright ideas. And those who enjoy exploring ideas and thinking deeply have a tendency to curate and collect information. Without control, that tendency can turn into [[Information hoarding]]. This can manifest in different ways: endless collections of bookmarks, videos, tweets, articles, etc. While it's rewarding for the brain to explore tons of things and to accumulate information, it isn't necessarily beneficial. First, it can be overwhelming (cfr [[Information Overload (MoC)|Information Overload]]). Second, it is often procrastination in disguise (cfr [[Psychology of procrastination]]). Lastly, [[Knowing about something is not the same as knowing something]]. Hoarding is not helping. It does not enable progress, it hinders it. You could spend a lifetime amassing the most important knowledge on earth, and it wouldn't make the world or your life any better. Sure it could keep you busy, and feel good, but it wouldn't do any real good. [[Progress only comes through action]]. Instead of hoarding information, we need to have [[Clarity (MoC)|Clarity]] about our goals and priorities. Then, we need to consume information with a clear intent (cfr [[Consume information with a clear intent. What you consume should help you reach your goals]]). Once you start collecting thoughts, ideas, knowledge, and inspiration, you might feel the urge to capture anything that resonates with you. Don’t forget that note-taking and Personal Knowledge Management, in general, are mere tools. They exist to serve a purpose. If you capture information just for the sake of capturing it, there’s no point. It can still be interesting as a recreational activity, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t fall victim to the collector’s fallacy. Make sure what your goal is when you capture something. Ideally, you only want to capture what will be useful to you at some point. Hoarding content needlessly is useless, and can even be detrimental to your success. ## References - https://zettelkasten.de/posts/collectors-fallacy - https://observer.com/2017/05/the-collectors-fallacy-why-we-gather-things-we-dont-need ## Related - [[Information hoarding]] - [[Christian Tietze]] — named the concept in 2014