Comment by abhiminator | Hacker News Reader

Comment by abhiminator | Hacker News Reader

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I recall reading and saving (in my Instapaper) a super relevant essay[0] written by a Swiss entrepreneur/author -- Rolf Dobelli -- that talks about how news systematically alters your 'risk-map' of the world, thus making you worry about things that'll almost never affect you while distracting you from things that actually might; as an example, the author talks about how terrorism is overrated and chronic stress is underrated, as portrayed in the media.

He suggests going on a news diet by mindfully curating the news content one plans on consuming, and thinking about its relevance to everyday life.

Personally, I can attest to experiencing increased clarity of thought, creativity and productivity once I blocked all of the junky news sites and the ilk out. This combined with practicing mindfulness has had a massive impact on my state of well-being and lowering of stress. My overall happiness has increased as a result.

[0] http://www.dobelli.com/en/essays/news-diet/

Here's my data analysis justifying Dobelli's thesis:

How Media Fuels our Fear of Western Terrorism https://www.nemil.com/s/part2-terrorism.html

The deaths that are most covered are a tiny fraction (<1%) of the way we die https://www.nemil.com/s/part3-horror-films.html

There's also a fair bit of psychology research on how news coverage of vivid deaths increases PTSD, you can see one link in my first piece above.

This coverage makes sense when you are focusing on newsworthiness and engagement — but is very flawed for good decision making.

Are there any good sources of daily curated news? I'd like to read a condensed version of important news without all the emotional manipulation. I would pay money for that.

In my experience as a former news junkie, it is very unlikely a "good enough" source exists. Spend enough time following and understanding the news (in detail - hours per week), and then when you look at curated news, you'll see all the flaws in them.

You'll see their bias in their curation. You'll read a piece from it and, because of your experience, will have many questions pop up in your head, which will tell you that the piece is missing crucial information. Etc.

I find The Economist's weekly brief super useful (the author talks about this as well). Aside from that I find Reuters' coverage pretty unbiased and objective, though I don't think 'curated' would be the right term to use in Reuters' case.

> The Economist's weekly brief

Where do I find this? Googling doesn't lead me to what I expect when I hear "weekly brief", so I suspect I'm looking at the wrong thing, which is http://economist.com/briefings.

Yes, the briefing is different from what I'm referring to. There are two separate sections, "Politics this week" [1] and "Business this week." [0]

Just be aware that it's updated only once per week, and you may thus miss out on any fast moving stories.

[0] https://www.economist.com/content/business-this-week [1] https://www.economist.com/content/politics-this-week

I listen to The Daily podcast from NYTimes. It's a deeper dive to the most important story in the past day and then a very quick summary of other notable events. (I'm also guilty of reading way too much news online in addition)

I quite like Quartz Daily Brief: https://qz.com/emails/daily-brief/

I do feel as though that steps past questions of what a person should be concerned about as a member of a broader society. As a white person I'm not the victim of racism, but I don't think that means I should ignore news about racist incidents - it informs me of an experience I don't get.

> He suggests going on a news diet by mindfully curating the news content one plans on consuming, and thinking about its relevance to everyday life

I've actually wanted to do this for multiple things too. Ie, I want to spend ~15m a day getting a curated list on various topics that interest me. From tech, programming, etc. I don't want to feel I'm "missing" anything.

My desire stems from not wanting to miss tech related events, and building habits of being on Reddit and HN. If I had a reliable aggregator I hope to reduce my FOMA style addiction. I imagine this would be useful for world news as well.

>If I had a reliable aggregator I hope to reduce my FOMA style addiction.

Frankly, you are merely feeding that addiction. Treat the fear, don't placate it. This becomes easier as the years go by. After you spend a lot of time tracking something (news, Reddit, whatever), do the following exercise:

1. Write down how much it benefited you. You (hopefully) will be able to list a few ways it really helped you. That is what is keeping you addicted. Now try to come up with a marginal value over time. Yes, you benefited a lot, but what did you gain out of it per hour?

2. Look at those around you who are not addicted. How are they disadvantaged by not receiving the gains you outlined in step 1? Are they living a less content or full life? Now re-evaluate all those benefits you listed. What did they do for you (and for your mental well being)?

3. What have you been missing out on because of your addiction? Once your life gets busy (job, parenthood, whatever), then everything has an opportunity cost. What valuable activities could you be partaking in if you didn't feed the addiction?

As a former news junkie, my (perhaps unpopular) perspective: Spending only 15 minutes a day on the news will leave you quite misinformed. There isn't a path of moderation here. It takes a lot of effort to understand and follow current events. You need to read multiple sources, as well as multiple perspectives (for a very simplistic example: 3-5 sources from a liberal perspective, and 3-5 sources from a conservative perspective - for each issue, and assuming there are only 2 sides).

This is very time consuming. Spending 15 minutes a day just populates your mental models with poor information. The alternative is to stop and spend time on other activities. That way you know clearly what you don't know, and at least still have an open mind.

I built a tiny link web app for myself and it just shows me the last time I visited a website and how many times a day I visit it and this is enough to make me stop visiting some places too many times a day/week. Of course this depends on using the web app for visiting your most frequently visited sites.

If you've got the skills for that, you could probably convert it to a web extension that tracks when you type into the URL bar or follow a link as well.

I've never done a web browser extension, but thank you for the idea.

I'd love to use that! Keep us abreast in case you decide to work on this.

Don't overlook hyperlocal news; what's happening in your community. Even 'boring' things like reviewing planning applications have brought me closer to the other people in my town.

It's very easy, particularly as dormitory commuters, to know more about what's happening elsewhere in the World than on our own doorsteps.

I feel a lot happier that I don't know much what's happening in London, 400km away, but I'm making a difference 400m away.

Keeping an eye on local news helps prevent getting screwed, too. The highway passing a property is slated for safety improvements. One particular idiosyncrasy of the design was going to severely inconvenience us, our tenants, their customers, and our neighbors. We lobbied the highway department to change the design slightly, and they did change it. This is the same state highway department that has happily put dozens of local businesses under. A rare actual case of "Hanlon's Razor". If we hadn't paid attention we'd have had no recourse.

thank you for sharing.

I have to do this. Have to go on a news diet.

It seems like every time I read political news, I must get out of my keto diet, and consume some sugar. Then my energy goes down, and I cannot concentrate as well, and then my productivity and focus disappear. And my weight, starts climbing back up...

Unfortunately, I guess, the posts on this forum are often quite political, and that makes it difficult to stay indifferent/to contain desire to argue back.

I am finding, topics on lobste.rs are more technical, and without the catchy headlines. So it makes it much more consumable, and in line with my routines.

I would also wish that the headlines stop being that 'screaming/misleading' as they are now.

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