President Obama was speaking at a private event for the data company Splunk when he was asked how he dealt with the information overload during his presidency. He stressed the importance of having a solid team that would help him stay informed.
“The presidency is like drinking out of a fire hose – you can’t absorb that information yourself. “You can make sure you have a team that is distilling info as effectively as possible so you can get a basic framework for what the problem is,” said the former president.
The other thing that’s helpful is not watching TV or reading social media, Obama said. Although he didn’t mention Trump by name, US media pointed out that the statement was directed at Trump, who is a big fan cable news and an avid user of social media. Donald Trump has more than 64 million twitter followers and according to the Hill tweeted 284 times a month in the last six months. He is also a voracious consumer of cable news.
Obama also touched on issues of gender inequality and climate change in his speech. He also voiced concern that technology hinders human connection and divides the public.
“The degree to which everyone lives in a bubble of self-reinforcing hides and viewpoints, that’s not healthy for democracies and not healthy between countries,” he said.