Don’t Call Me a Douchebag | Hacker News Reader

Don’t Call Me a Douchebag

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61 pointsaorshan18 comments

Completely unplugging from economic and political news feeds has probably been the best thing I've done for my level of confidence and level of day-to-day stress. According to news organizations, as Altucher points out, the world has been ending for the past 100 years, there's danger lurking behind every corner, and every day that you survive without being struck by some catastrophe, personal or general, is no more than sheer luck, because sooner or later you're going to get the bird flu and die or your country will go bankrupt, or this or that bubble will pop and you will be forced to live a poverty-laden life, and so on and so on.

Everything will be alright, there will be ups and downs, but we'll get through them all the same.

Agree. I cut off daily visits to news / political sites six months ago. I'm less stressed and I get more work done. The other day I saw more headlines about the pending doom from the collapsing Greek economy. That doom has been pending any day now for an awful long time.

Yeah, you may not notice how ridiculous cable news is if you have it on everyday -- it becomes "normal".

But try not watching it for a few months and then turn it back on - you'll notice that it sounds very much like a bunch of 7th graders bickering in the cafeteria.

Is Mr. Altucher always this breezily dismissive of opposing views?

Yes, we've strung together a some positive numbers. But I don't see anything in his work-up on leverage levels, housing prices, or the possibility that growth to 2007 was hyperinflated. Nor anything that the current numeric improvements are generated by unsustainable fiscal and monetary policies. Greece is significant not for its own significance but the question of just how edge its particular case is or isn't.

Now maybe he's right about the overall direction. But there are excellent reasons to think we may be on the edge of turning a number of long-term trends and deeply embedded assumptions. If you're going to declare that the attention to Greece is simply a matter of hype to sell stories, and the Kardashians are more interesting -- well, yes, some people will find that annoying.

"...once you can ignore all of these distractions you will have the time to start a business and get rich..."

This is my take away. This goes for all forms of distraction, be it main stream media, World of Warcraft, or How I Met Your Mother. If you're having trouble getting things done, stop consuming and start creating.

I believe James is right on several points: especially when it comes to news, fear sells a lot.

Regarding Greece, a default would be more a political problem rather than an economical one: European Union is a loosely tied bunch of states with conflicting interests such shock could shake them apart even further.

> Regarding Greece, a default would be more a political problem rather than an economical one

It's both. He cleverly ignores the real issue: Whatever happens in Greece is going to set the precedent for Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Or to put it another way: The only way to save Greece is to give them a pony. Then everyone is going to want a pony.

Agreed for portugal and spain.

Regarding Italy, we have a too big debt to repay. Either we make it or break the european union alltogether.

I dont believe France and Germany are going to give us a pony, nor I believe they have the funds to do so :-(

i gave up on watching/reading the traditional news outlets years ago, which today seem more like the yellow journalism of days past. I prefer to read news from slightly more factual, and less sensational, outlets like Reuters and BBC. Note that I said "slightly" so a large grain of salt is still required, and the bullshit filter still needs to be turned on. And don't get me started on HuffPO.

Try Al Jazeera English: http://www.aljazeera.com/

AJE fills a void, which is a focus on developing countries (not only middle-east, but also Latin America and East Asia), together with an "old school" kind of journalism (factual, in-depth) which is hard to find today. The production-quality is outstanding, at BBC level -- In fact, many AJE professionals come from BBC.

Unfortunately AJE is not broadly available, but you can still watch it live on YouTube, as well as all archived documentaries and reports.

EDIT: "focus on developing countries" does not mean that they do not report on developed countries as well. For example "Fault Lines" is a fantastic show about the US with subjects that US-based media never go deep or even report at all.

AlJazeera's quality of documentary along with a neat selection of competent panelists make most mainstream news outlets look like a bunch of primitive celebs mumbling sensationalist nonsense painful to listen to.

I know you have problems with AJE in the US and it isn't widely available, but the website and youtube channel is sufficient (I don't even own a tv set).

> In fact, many AJE professionals come from BBC.

Yep. Actually AJ was brought up from a closed Arabic BBC channel.

Altucher is my hero. I'm always happy to see his posts on TC.

not so happy to see him on HN. Maybe I'm missing something, but I see a guy using his daughters to whine about some people who called him bad names, take a victory lap, call the media link-baity, sensational and overwrought, in a sensational overwrought link-baity way.

Not HN-worthy IMHO.

I think what you're missing is: Stop watching the news and do something.

I'm not sure what the boring deal with the daughters and the bleating about the economy is. But why would any of us care.

"I was right, random Internet trolls were wrong. I demand an apology. Now look how smart I am". I guess writing a story on how the economy is improving isn't sexy enough by itself.

The only place I get my economic news from nowadays is the Planet Money podcast. They vastly more interesting and insightful than the mainstream financial news, they approach everything in an investigative manner, and they don't try to force a story into existence.

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=944...

Fair enough. I love that podcast too. But if you told them that they were your sole source of economic news, what do you think they would say? I bet they would recommend you read some other sources as well.

What makes you assume that? Every other mainstream source I've come across is just repeating the same ill-informed B.S. as every other outlet. At least Planet Money poses questions, then investigates them quite thoroughly, admitting areas of uncertainty.

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