The Cabrera Lab Podcast
Join Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera from Cornell University as they inspire you to approach life's challenges with a fresh perspective. Witness their use of GOAT-level thinking to enhance your problem-solving skills. Discover new possibilities, approaches, and solutions you never knew existed. Elevate your thinking and get better every day with their entertaining guidance.
The Cabrera Lab Podcast
#104: It’s Not Too Much Information—It’s Too Little Organization
In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University tackle a problem nearly everyone feels but few can name: constant overwhelm in a world flooded with information. From social media and news to work demands and family pressures, it feels like there’s simply too much coming at us all the time.
But the real problem isn’t information overload—it’s organization overload. The Cabreras explain why more information doesn’t make us smarter, more informed, or more grounded, and why burnout is often a signal that we’re failing to organize information into meaning. Drawing on decades of research, they show why mental models are built from information and structure, why modern systems teach memorization instead of organization, and how this leaves people vulnerable to manipulation, confirmation bias, and emotional reactivity.
They also explore how industries intentionally disguise noise as signal, why phones turn from tools into masters, and how living a life of “tiny experiments” and “tiny peer reviews” can restore clarity in an age of misinformation. From parenting and education to leadership and daily life, this episode offers a powerful reframing: the future belongs to people who can organize information—not just consume it.