As chaos erupts, alerts screech on our cell phones and torrents of conflicting-yet-urgent messages gush from media outlets. What is the magnitude of the crisis? What is its cause? And what should people do to protect themselves? The speed and direction of these details is known as the velocity of information. It overwhelms and distresses people who have not built a network of trustworthy sources to traverse disorder. Velocity of Information offers understanding to manage chaos and our complex reactions to crisis situations influenced by bias and propaganda. Recognizing indicators to judge the severity of an incident, understanding human predispositions, and joining a member check network to gauge real-time observations from people in your network provide direction to respond to the reality of a situation with impartiality, thus improving outcomes. This book also provides a novel framework for understanding chaos based on duration, location, and complexity. Understanding how human cognitive limitations affect individual and group human behavior during different stages of chaos allows readers to use the tools in this book to avoid hysteria and optimize responses to emergency events. Utilizing personal interviews and explorations of historical and contemporary events, Velocity of Information provides a functional and realistic roadmap with specific, actionable guidance on how to navigate chaos.
David P. Perrodin, PhD, is an author, researcher, professor, and host of "The Safety Doc" podcast. He has presented on PBS and written and directed a film about school safety with Pulitzer Prize winner David Obst. Dr. Perrodin is the author of the book School of Errors: Rethinking School Safety in America.
Preface Acknowledgments: Member Checks Introduction Chapter One: Temporal Perception Chapter Two: Face Validity Chapter Three: Member Check Network Chapter Four: Finite Voltage Chapter Five: Crowd-In Behavior Chapter Six: The Continuum of Chaos Chapter Seven: Failure to Regress to the Mean Epilogue: The Great Re-Greet Index About the Author
David P. Perrodin's Velocity of Information will empower its readers. Drawing on current events, history, interviews and scholarship, Velocity of Information is an education in the way people react and adapt to change in this fast-spinning world. Ours is an era of misinformation, slanted stories, and propaganda. Information has never been easier to access; in the smartphone era, we carry the whole world in our back pockets. But how much of what we find is true? Or useful? Never has it been more important to sift facts and stories for truth and meaning. Velocity of Information will teach you how people have done it, in history, in the modern day, and even in prison. It will teach you how to do it. The path forward is lit by Perrodin's assemblage of homesteaders and special forces fighters, of crab boaters, jewel thieves and Nail Men. There are teachable moments on every page. -- James David Dickson, The Detroit News In a day and age where fact and fiction are becoming increasingly harder to separate, David P. Perrodin's Velocity of Information is a modern-day textbook on critical thinking. Drawing on numerous historical events such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and soldier morale in World War II, he explains how interpreting information, and controlling our biases, is just as important as knowing how to gather it. Whether a digital immigrant or native, Perrodin's book is an invaluable guide on navigating a data-saturated world. -- TJ Martinell, Lens award-winning reporter and writer at the Tenth Amendment Center Overnight you were either deemed inessential or drafted into a war against an invisible enemy. The only thing scarier than the hasty arbitrariness of these decisions was how easily we complied. David P. Perrodin breaks down the pandemic reaction game film in a way that will both inform and infuriate. -- Kevin Dalton, 2022 mayoral candidate, City of Los Angeles, California You will be ensnared by the way David P. Perrodin offers perspective and insight into our chaotic world. Information is our greatest asset, the more we can learn about the world and how we function in it, the better we can be prepared to handle it. Velocity of Information is a must-read. -- Morgan Rogue, founder, Rogue Preparedness
