Information Content

Why don't most people like movies where they can predict what will happen next? How can talking to some people seem so boring? How are these related?

Information Content is what makes things exciting. Meeting someone for the first time, if the two of you share a common language and use it, is exciting! Why? Because there is a high rate of information content and transfer when you meet this new person. After a while, you kind of know the person, so the information content of dialog is lower, and therefore much less interesting.

Applying the same principle to movies and works of fiction, we see that it is when the movie presents a new idea that it is interesting. If we know what will happen in the movie based on the previews, the information content of 2 hours of the actual movie will be really low. But movies with a lot of interesting dialog or a lot of explosions have a much higher content.

Why did I hate "Lady in the Water" so much? Very little information content for the time spent. But I love Grosse Pointe Blank, why? Lots of things happening in the background. You know what I mean - think back to a movie you've seen a few times. Notice in those movies how you find something new about them each time you see them?

Apply this to relationships over time and it brings us back to my Lies post. People you have a connection with, there should be a constant high level of information content. If it gets boring, then this is probably the cause of the problem. This is why some people have kids, take a vacation, spent time apart, etc. Things to artificially generate this content to make their relationship more interesting.

This, I believe, is why they claim sociopaths and psychopaths are supposed to have this weird aura or attractiveness about them. Things they say and do are unexpected to most people they meet, so they become fascinating to these other people. Charisma, that was the word I was looking for, these people radiate a kind of charisma.

But remember, if something is too far outside of the range of the person to be communicated with, it all breaks down. Movies can be too weird, TV shows too smart, books to technical (or dry), people too crazy, for a general audience - there has to be enough common language or this appeal via information content breaks down.

And this is the line I try to walk when creating blog entries.

The Edward