You become the stories you listen to. Be mindful of the diet of ideas you feed your mind.
This applies not only to your reading list, but also to your own thoughts.
A Healthy Diet For The Mind
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#12I was thinking about exactly this yesterday - so much of "media matter" is like junk food for the mind. I wondered if we could start an organic movement but for the content industry.
Isn't that what "Hacker News" is supposed to provide?
HN isn't so much a movement in the content industry, but a very specialized aggregator. It certainly is one of the ways I try to provide myself with good reading material so it does help.
One of the good things about twitter is if you follow content sharing people with similar interests it acts as a filter. A human filter you are exploiting, but still a pretty good filter. I'm sure somehow content aggregators can move away from a board based format and into a more heavily human filtered format. Trawling through a board is time-consuming and not nearly as well filtered as it could be.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#13I was thinking about exactly this yesterday - so much of "media matter" is like junk food for the mind. I wondered if we could start an organic movement but for the content industry.
You might check out this novel:
http://www.amazon.com/Davids-Sling-Marc-Stiegler/dp/06716536...
Among other things, Stiegler posits a "Zetetic Institute" that teaches people how to think better -- effectively, an "organic foods" industry for the mind.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#14One of the worst things you can do for your mind is watch the eleven o'clock news. Before you head off to bed. Rarely do you see anything positive - it's all about calamities, accidents, and murders. And, of course, X product does something bad.
Suppose you were a news outlet and suppose you were trying to maximize your company's profitability. Clearly,when folks change the channel away from your program, your profitability goes down. So, you might do a bit of research to find out what tends to make folks change or not change the channel. Your research could indicate that strong negative emotions, such as anger, sadness or fear tend to make the viewer fixate…
The answer is always profit.
That doesn't make it okay or good or long termist.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#15One of the worst things you can do for your mind is watch the eleven o'clock news. Before you head off to bed. Rarely do you see anything positive - it's all about calamities, accidents, and murders. And, of course, X product does something bad.
Suppose you were a news outlet and suppose you were trying to maximize your company's profitability. Clearly,when folks change the channel away from your program, your profitability goes down. So, you might do a bit of research to find out what tends to make folks change or not change the channel. Your research could indicate that strong negative emotions, such as anger, sadness or fear tend to make the viewer fixate…
Reminds me of the Kentucky Fried Movie. During a 'commercial break' in the movie, a news caster chimes in with the headlines:
"Moscow in flames, missiles headed to New York, film at eleven"
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that what "Hacker News" is supposed to provide?
HN isn't so much a movement in the content industry, but a very specialized aggregator. It certainly is one of the ways I try to provide myself with good reading material so it does help. One of the good things about twitter is if you follow content sharing people with similar interests it acts as a filter. A human filter you are exploiting, but still a pretty good filter. I'm sure somehow content aggregators can mov…
A programmer I know told me once about his method of using Twitter. He doesn't read any normal news sites, use RSS, etc. but just follows on Twitter people who write things that he finds interesting (mostly game development). When someone stops tweeting high-value things (links to interesting articles, etc.) he just stops following him and finds someone with more interesting tweets.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#17I agree strongly with the sentiment of the post. My conception of self and world has been shaped in no small part by great works of fiction.
That said, I winced a bit at the author's particular use of the nutrition metaphor. The U.S. government's "food pyramid" is one idea that could do with a bit less mass consumption.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN isn't so much a movement in the content industry, but a very specialized aggregator. It certainly is one of the ways I try to provide myself with good reading material so it does help. One of the good things about twitter is if you follow content sharing people with similar interests it acts as a filter. A human filter you are exploiting, but still a pretty good filter. I'm sure somehow content aggregators can mov…
A programmer I know told me once about his method of using Twitter. He doesn't read any normal news sites, use RSS, etc. but just follows on Twitter people who write things that he finds interesting (mostly game development). When someone stops tweeting high-value things (links to interesting articles, etc.) he just stops following him and finds someone with more interesting tweets.
I think it's disappointing your friend doesn't (presumably) have a Twitter List. Many of us on HN love game programming, even if we don't live it because game programming is an art.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#19A little off topic: In the "It Pays To Be Specific" post below the main story, I sure hope the student didn't get an F for the assignment, assuming his submission was otherwise correct.
Err, i think it's actually proof the guy paid someone else to do it. I hope he got a zero not an F.
Naive me, I thought it was because he knew more than one version of assembly.
One time, I did a database assignment in MySQL instead of SQL server because I was only running Linux at the time, and didn't have access to the school's lab the night before the assignment was due. Ya, I know.
Re: A Healthy Diet For The Mind
#20[deleted]