Dont read the news
Summary
- News can be interesting, and easy to digest but may actually have negative long term effects.
Details
- The brain reacts to shocking news
- news media provides ever more shocking headlines and photos to try and get readership. Their business models depend on grabbing attention, not educating us
- Everything subtle or complex will be filtered out, though these may be more useful and relevant to us.
- As a result of news coverage we have a distorted mental map of the risks and threats in teh world around us.
- reading long form articles and books give us a better understanding of the world around us.
References
Quotes
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"Three years ago, I began an experiment. I stopped reading and listening to the news. I canceled all newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Television and radio were disposed of. I deleted the news apps from my iPhone. I didn’t touch a single free newspaper and deliberately looked the other way when someone on a plane tried to offer me any such reading material. The first weeks were hard. Very hard. I was constantly afraid of missing something. But after a while, I had a new outlook. The result after three years: clearer thoughts, more valuable insights, better decisions, and much more time. And the best thing? I haven’t missed anything important. My social network—not Facebook, the one that exists in the real world consisting of flesh-and-blood friends and acquaintances—works as a news filter and keeps me in the loop"
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"Name one of them, just one that helped you make a better decision—for your life, your career, or your business—compared with not having this piece of news. No one I have asked has been able to name more than two useful news stories—out of ten thousand. A miserable result. News organizations assert that their information gives you a competitive advantage. Too many fall for this. In reality, news consumption represents a competitive disadvantage. If news really helped people advance, journalists would be at the top of the income pyramid. They aren’t—quite the opposite"
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"news is a waste of time. An average human being squanders half a day each week on reading about current affairs. "
Related
- We perceive negative news to be more profound
- Reading is Thinking
- What you read will affect who you will be for the rest of your life
- Time management for mortals - Oliver Burkeman
- Bibles view of time management
- How to spend money and time