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    Stop Reading the News - Dobelli

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    hammiesink

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    Stop Reading the News - Dobelli

    Uploaded by

    hammiesink
    5 views4 pages

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    5 views4 pages

    Stop Reading the News - Dobelli

    Uploaded by

    hammiesink

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    News is irrelevant

    How many pieces of news have actually ended up being directly useful to your daily life?
    Typically, maybe one to two pieces out of thousands end up being directly relevant. That is an
    extremely poor success rate.

    News is outside your circle of competence


    You should focus on your area of expertise, for example in your professional life, and/or your
    main hobbies. Almost all news is outside of your circle of competence, and should be ignored.

    News gets risk assessment all wrong


    The things that should worry you are subtle, long-term, abstract, etc. But the news focuses on
    the flashy and dramatic and immediate. A bridge collapse causes a car crash, and news
    focuses on the mangled car and the dead man, but what you should focus on is why the bridge
    collapsed, whether this could affect other bridges that you use, etc.

    News is a waste of time


    News takes time to consume, and after you read it it takes time to refocus on more productive
    things, and continues to consume your bandwidth long after you read it. This includes all the
    little quick “peeks” at the news you do on your phone during the day. Estimates are that we
    spend at least 90 minutes per day on news. Add in the time taken to brood and worry about
    what you read on the news, and it adds up to a month per year of wasted time. And for what?
    What do you have to show for wasting a month per year of your life? Do you really make better
    decisions? Improve your circle of competence? Have better peace of mind?

    News obscures the big picture


    Breaking news entails brief dramatic pictures of what is really a complex underlying situation.
    You can watch every news item about the Syrian war and still not be an iota closer to
    understanding the complex causes underlying that conflict. News implies there are only events
    without context. Reading the news is literally the opposite of gaining an understanding of the
    world.

    News is toxic to your body


    As a species, we have evolved to react more strongly to negative information than to positive
    information. This is a survival instinct, which allows us to avoid deadly situations. But the news
    media takes advantage of this to keep us hooked. Most adults have elevated stress and cortisol
    levels thanks to watching the news more than ever before. There is no point in getting all
    worked up about things you cannot change.

    News confirms our mistakes


    News reinforces confirmation bias and ideologies, which leads to dumb decision-making.

    News reinforces hindsight bias


    Events in the world are due to a complex series of causes, contexts, etc. This is often clear in
    hindsight (example: the 2008 financial crisis), but during the event, it isn’t clear at all. News
    emphasizes the simplicity of events, attributing them to just one or two causes. Avoid the news
    and read long in-depth journalism to get a more realistic picture of the complexity of the world.

    News reinforces availability bias


    We tend to make decisions based on the information that is immediately in our minds. Watching
    the news puts all kinds of irrelevant information in our minds and we end up making decisions
    based on it. For example, seeing news about a plane crash, we might then decide not to take a
    trip, even though the crash was irrelevant to your trip.

    News keeps the opinion volcano bubbling


    Reading the news causes us to start spouting opinions on things that don’t have an easy
    answer, things that don’t really interest us, things that cannot be fully answered, or things that
    require in-depth analysis of a complex issue. It’s a mistake to think you need to form an opinion
    on everything, and the news encourages us to do so.

    News inhibits thought


    Quality thought requires long term attention, long term memory, and concentration. News kills all
    of these.

    News rewires our brains


    Reading the news physically rewires your brain to be only capable of watching short items and
    switching back and forth quickly between different items. It makes you incapable of reading
    long-form, in-depth articles and having the attention span to do so. If you stop reading the news
    and begin reading long articles, you can rewire your brain back again, but it takes time.

    News produces fake fame


    In the past, someone became famous because of some accomplishment, like a new medicine,
    or discovery. But with news, people are famous just for being famous: celebrities. They have no
    accomplishments, they are just famous for being who they are.

    News makes us smaller than we really are


    In our social and professional lives, there are unavoidable hierarchies. For example, the
    professionals that compete with you, or that you mentor, and so on. But with the news
    announcing “Business Person of the Year” or “Best Gardener of the Year” and so on, suddenly
    your hierarchy is the entire world, and you are much lower on the totem pole than in your normal
    social life.

    News makes us passive


    The events that news reports on are not generally things we can do anything about, so reading
    news makes us feel passive, hopeless, and pessimistic, which spills into other aspects of our
    lives.
    News is invented by journalists
    Journalists are pressured to write shallow, sensationalist news articles, sometimes multiple
    times per day. Long-form, in-depth articles are not worth the time because they don’t produce as
    many clicks, and therefore advertising revenue.

    News is manipulative
    When we lived in smaller groups, it was fairly easy to tell if someone proclaiming a message
    was a charlatan or not. With modern news, it is impossible to tell if what you are reading is
    objective and unbiased, or if it has an ulterior motive, such as propaganda, public relations, etc.

    News stifles creativity


    Creativity requires original thought, and time alone with thoughts. News is dramatic, simplistic,
    and noisy, and completely shuts down the ability to have original thoughts.

    News encourages crap: Sturgeon’s Law


    Theodore Sturgeon was a sci-fi writer, who responded to critics’ claim that “90% of sci-fi is crap”
    with “90% of everything is crap, no matter the genre.” The news wants your attention for
    advertising purposes, and knows that shoveling BS out is the best way to grab it.

    News gives us the illusion of empathy


    We might superficially feel “connected” with victims in some terrible event we hear about on the
    news, but this is fake empathy. In reality, we are only helping the news organization by giving
    our attention to them. If you want to make a difference, instead donate money to established aid
    organizations. And don’t volunteer your time: you cannot physically do as much volunteer work
    as your donations will do to allow aid organizations to do the actual physical work.

    News encourages terrorism


    Before the advent of breaking news, terrorists would not have been effective. They rely on their
    bombings, etc to be reported by the modern news media to create fear and accomplish their
    goals.

    News destroys our peace of mind


    There have been many different and incompatible philosophies on how to live a good life, but
    common to almost all of them is the idea of having inner peace, tranquility, serenity, etc. This
    means freedom from emotions like anger, fear, envy, etc. News triggers all of these bad
    emotions. To seek wisdom, instead stick to any content other than news, such as novels,
    non-fiction, film, art, music, etc. It’s stupid to focus on what you cannot control, and you have no
    control over 99.99% of the world’s events. You only have control over your life, career, your
    relationships, and local community.

    What about democracy? Part 1


    If you avoid the news, doesn’t that affect your ability to determine who to vote for? Well, before
    breaking news existed, the founders of America and others had no problem engaging in lively
    debate about democracy. You should do the same: when considering a candidate or referendum
    to vote for, google what information you can about them, and even if you end up on a news site
    you are the one determining what to look for, not the news site itself. Non-stop breaking news
    actually interferes with your ability to get in-depth knowledge about candidates and referendums
    because it sucks up your time and attention with BS.

    What about democracy? Part 2


    Democracy only works when it is accompanied by a free press that sheds light on complex
    situations, via two types of journalism: investigative, and explanatory. But that is exactly what
    breaking news discourages. Breaking news is fast-paced and does not capture the nuances and
    complexities of situations. Stick to investigative and explanatory journalism.

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