141–150 of 222 posts
Sometimes I feel like I am endlessly scrolling for a "solution" or bit of news that I "like". Then I have to take a step back and do something else, because nothing good really comes of that.
To understand the world, spend that daily time reading books instead.
Seems an appropriate time to post my favourite piece on news addiction by Charles Simic in the NYRB. "I’m having trouble deciding whether I understand the world better now that I’m in my seventies than I did when I was younger, or whether I’m becoming more and more clueless every day. The truth is somewhere in between, I suspect, but that doesn’t make me rest any easier at night. Like others growing old, I had expect…
Later, these two paragraphs capture Simic's mood more completely and that mood cuts into the "bliss" of being unencumbered by news:
> I mustn’t forget, either, that I was surrounded by political exiles in my youth, many of whom, after having lived either under Stalin or Hitler, or in some cases both, never lost their vigilance. Even after twenty or thirty years in the United States, they gave the impression of keeping a suitcase packed under their beds, ready to flee at a moment’s notice should hippies or some variety of American fascists come power.
> Lucky for them, they are all long dead, so they can’t read some opinion piece or hear a congressman or a senator today clamor for the very same police state measures they barely escaped from. Watching the government of the country they grew to love curtailing liberties, spying on its citizens, militarizing its police forces, imprisoning both foreigners and Americans indefinitely without having to prove their guilt, and coming to admire the mindset of authoritarian regimes it used to despise, would have been both terrifying and depressing. They could not help but note that some of their fellow Americans who cheer for the death penalty and for torture, and call the people demonstrating against Wall Street lice-infested misfits and degenerates, are no better than the ones they knew back home and are as eager to persecute, imprison, and even commit murder should they be called upon (I think people who clap for death, love war without end, and adore guns are perfectly capable of it). My mother, who never recalled anything but trouble, and was sure the worst was yet to come, would be saying, I told you so, all day long.
127.0.0.1 reddit.com www.reddit.com
127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com
127.0.0.1 twitter.com
127.0.0.1 other social / news domains...
The little bit of friction required to undo this is enough to remind me to get back to being productive.
Also, Pomodoros for pacing.
Seems like a good time to revisit this blog post by the late-Aaron Schwartz about removing news from your information diet: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews
This rings true. I've been ridiculed for not knowing about the latest news a few times before, and its why I started reading it more.
It's a pure dice-rolling addiction. Let me share a personal story: For the last 3.5 years, every night before bed, I would browse https://www.gitlogs.com , a site that had it's own algorithm for ranking top-trending Github repos for the day (it is much better than Github Trends, don't ask how). It was my nightly ritual, and my favorite part of the day. Sometimes I would find 3-5 REALLY fucking awesome projects, or on…
Live website: www.danielwasserlaufquicklinks.com
github if you want to manage your own: https://github.com/twosdai/contentGrabber
I don't come to hackernews that often so just open an issue on git if you have a question.