Giving up reading news will make us happier

“Food, Ivan Arnoldovich, is a subtle thing. One must know how to eat, yet just think – most people don’t know how to eat at all. One must not only know what to eat, but when and how.’ (Philip Philipovich waved his fork meaningfully.) ‘And what to say while you’re eating. Yes, my dear sir. If you care about your digestion, my advice is – don’t talk about bolshevism or medicine at table. And, God forbid – never read Soviet newspapers before dinner.’ ‘M’mm . . . But there are no other newspapers.’ ‘In that case don’t read any at all. Do you know I once made thirty tests in my clinic. And what do you think? The patients who never read newspapers felt excellent. Those whom I specially made read Pravda all lost weight.”

― Mikhail Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog

One of the reasons I haven't blocked hackernews with /etc/hosts is because of it's noprocrast feature.

Most of these sites know they're potentially harmful, the better ones acknowledge it and help their readers avoid the harm.

Haven't watched the news in at least 5 years. Actually I haven't watched TV in the last 5 years even. So I don't have ads bombarding me, or fear and propaganda coming in every day.

Highly recommended. You have one life. Make sure it counts as a happy one.

What do you guys do if you need a short break from work? Between tasks or if I have finished something mentally demanding, I will often skim some news sites or hacker news.

Any recommendation what else to do as a quick break between programming tasks?