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Comment by ssgodderidge | Hacker News Reader

> First fossil fuel-free flight

I wish there was a way to find positive stories like this without having to wade through the increasingly negative swamp that is news today.

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I stopped checking the news every day. Usually once every few weeks. You might think that this would lead to me being less informed about the world but I actually don't feel that way, even as my intake is still decreasing. Anything big will be highly visible and you'll see on many platforms (arguably this is news, but you all know what I mean) and people will be talking about it. I'll then look it up and read about it to get some information but don't let my life revolve around things I can't change or influence. Generally I feel a lot less stressed and happier. Around elections I read up a bit more to catch up but that's about it. There's just so much going on all the time that there's always going to be things to report but the difference is if that information can help me in any way or if that information is actionable. By getting the news late you'll also get it once there's a bit more clarity around the thing, often helping you actually understanding it.

Certainly there are downsides too, but for me this has been beneficial. I just don't need my news to be scary TikTok (which I also refuse to use) and having my attention running on high at all times. It's too much for me to handle. YMMV

I don't, I don't want to be caged in a bubble of happy in ignorance while the world burns.

I want to know just how corrupt, vial and inhumane people can be so I can do everything in my power to not be that way and do what I can to improve this world how ever minute that may be.

I agree on not staying in a “bubble of happy ignorance.” I didn’t mean to say “this is the only way I want my news.”

Instead, I would like an occasional, easy-to-consume method to get stories like this

Everyone already knows that a lot of the world sucks. The important question is how to make it better, but reading bad news stories won't help answer that.

Or you could just tend your own garden.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide

The reality is no matter read we the news or not, there will be misery in the world. But also there will be things worth celebrating. And a healthy society celebrates good news. On the contrast, a globalized out of touch society obsesses over what they can't change, while people that need help are under their nose..

Yes, but on the other hand seeing an article about how "European rivers (were) restored" also let us know that the charities we donate to actually do make a significant impact.

You already know how corrupt people are. Why to read the news?

You are already doing what you can to improve the world. How reading news will help? Would you do more than you can?

Does continual exposure to bad things people do really help in your admirable desire to improve the world? I'd think that reading a couple of history books would suffice and then just getting on with making the world better.

What an odd perspective. Personally, I find hearing about awful people, injustices and atrocities, etc. to be highly de-motivating. I want to save a world less when I plunge deep into a well of knowledge about the people that don't deserve to be saved.

And vice-versa, when I learn about uplifting things — selfless people doing things to help others, people striving to invent new technologies and medicines that keep our world going one more day, preventing us from tipping over into some apocalypse or another — I find myself more motivated to help others as well, because I can imagine that I am helping those good people. And also, I don't have to imagine — those people are on my side! If I have a goal for positive change related to one of these issues, news about progress with those issues tells me that I wouldn't be alone in solving these problems; that there will be people there to work with, people to ally with and collaborate with, people that massively increase the chance of changing the world!

Besides the motivational angle, though: "the world is burning" news is basically information-free. For almost all adults who haven't been living in a cave, such news causes no Bayesian update. Growing up, you learn about a few of the worst atrocities ever committed — the dictators, the serial killers, etc. Once you know these, you can derive the pattern of thinking behind them, an understanding of the base impulses of humanity at its darkest. You don't need constant new examples of the pattern to remind you that it continues to happen. You can assume that it continues to happen. (If you know this and you still feel obsessively compelled to expose yourself to such information — well, there's a name for that.)

Whereas, "good news" is frequently useful news. A new medicine? You or a family member might live longer taking it! Solar panels are cheaper now? Hey, maybe you can afford them yourself now! There's currently a big grassroots push to treat tuberculosis in developing nations? Sounds like something still small enough that a retweet could actually help it happen! And also sounds like you should slightly update in favor of those nations becoming more developed and being a place you should take a vacation to one day!

Our goal should be to have a realistic picture of the world, not one that is negatively or positively biased. Due to the incentives of news and social media, coverage is overwhelmingly negative. If your goal is objectivity, it's rational to correct for that bias and avoid negative news. Most of it isn't personally actionable anyway, unless you're a journalist or state-level decision maker.

I'm not advocating for burying one's head in the sand. I think it's better to focus one's information diet on things that happened months or years ago, where there will be higher quality books and articles on the subject. You'll come away more informed and less outraged than the people debating about the latest headline trending on Twitter.

Prime example how Germans and Americans think differently.

> bubble of happy in ignorance... do what I can to improve this world

That's actually the point of positive over negative news. It focuses on people doing constructive things, and the positive results happening, which makes it easier to have a constructive mindset yourself, to befriend those people, to participate in solutions, etc. The endless stream of negativity in the news, which is _artificially_ amplified, serves mostly to hide that stuff, because its lower effort to read and produces a kind of doom scrolling effect in people (i.e. to mindlessly search for and share the worst things in the world). That doesn't generally lead anyone to do anything positive.

Note that this flight was using carbon-based fuel that emits CO2 and other biproducts, it was just synthetic fuel instead of being pumped out the ground. I think it's mostly a marketing puff piece for the aerospace industry.

Synthetic fuels can be carbon neutral. The major question is if they can be produced economically.

Another major question is does it scale. SAF from cooking oil seems to meaningless for AF replacement.

You can try this newsletter: https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews/. It didn't have that particular story, but there are a lot of climate-related headlines.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

I can recommend installing the App.

Seems interesting! I wonder how they source their articles.

I chuckled to myself about the article on frogs with fangs [1]. I like the focus on discovery of a new species, but not exactly thrilled about fanged frogs’ existence.

1: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-species-of-fanged-frog-h...

> not exactly thrilled about fanged frogs

Well, we had wisened up to them appearing as bats so…

https://www.positive.news/

Looks like they have a related post about positive news stories from 2023:

https://www.positive.news/society/what-went-right-in-2023-th...

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