No news is good news • Hacker News Board

Re: No news is good news

#61

Post by tchocky » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

droopyEyelids wrote: post #11

inanutshellus wrote: post #3

I'll come out of my shell a few times a week and won't understand what's going on. News sites just tell me the last 18 hours' worth of updates... So... I either disengage entirely and can't carry on a conversation or I stay engaged and worry about events I cannot affect. I'd like a "I haven't checked the news in [7] days and some guy at work mentioned [Ukraine talking to the UN], what's that all about?" website. I gu…

I believe you'd have a far more satisfying and productive time coming out of your shell if you redirected Joe's conversation to asking about him, or his kids, or his hobbies- keeping it local like the article concludes. Unless it's your job, neither of you really understand whatever is happening with Ukraine and your conversation will be mostly limited to repeating what you've been told to each other, which doesn't e…

The Ukraine example might be true for a non-european country, but as a European in these times I want to be informed. I want to help refugees and the victims of war (either by donating or giving shelter for some days). If I wouldn't know things from the news, I wouldn't know about these things.

Knowing in what direction world events might change is good to be at least mentally prepared when things turn worse.

It doesn't have to be checking the news 24/7 but checking it once a day for the important parts I think it's important. I would rather say people need to learn how to distance themselves from the news a bit to keep a healthy mental state with all the things happening right now.

Re: No news is good news

#62

Post by jazzyk » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #47

airstrike wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also heavily editorialized with a sharp left / European bias

The Economist is many things, but "sharp left" it is only to a certain subset of people. The rest of the world would mostly call it "left-leaning", or maybe "radical centrist".

Perhaps more like globalist/corporatist, which reflects their recent ownership?

In 2015, Pearson - a publishing company - sold its controlling stake to a bunch of corporate owners, like the Agnellis (43%) and the Rotschilds (21%), among others.

The change in their editorial direction was immediately visible (I had been a subscriber/reader for 35+ years until 2016)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Group

Re: No news is good news

#63

Post by gnicholas » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

spansoa wrote: post #60

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” Which is a hard problem. Personally though, I do a quick skim of the news each morning just so that I know we haven't nuked each other to death or that a new pandemic-like world event hasn't happened. I enjoy Reuters, Associated Press, and a local news feed for my area. Sumi.news[0] is great too if you want to es…

Ironically, though not surprisingly, that Mark Twain quote appears to be apocryphal: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/12/03/misinformed/

Re: No news is good news

#64

Post by paulpauper » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

If you were a Jew in early 1930s Germany, following the news would have been very important, but this is an extreme outlier. most news can be ignored.

Re: No news is good news

#65

Post by coffeefirst » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:30 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #36

I have been a very strong adherent of this philosophy for over 30 years. There’s an adage, “there’s nothing as worthless as yesterday’s news”. Which led me to wonder, “was it even worth knowing yesterday?” I realized the solution was a low pass filter. I first switched to a seven-page newspaper (CSM) delivered through the mail. I realised the editors had to figure out whether it would still be interesting by the time…

What's interesting about this is you picked:

1. Extremely high quality publications. 2. In a controlled manner.

That's not "no news" at all, it's a healthy relationship to quality news.

Re: No news is good news

#66

Post by sedatk » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:32 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #36

I have been a very strong adherent of this philosophy for over 30 years. There’s an adage, “there’s nothing as worthless as yesterday’s news”. Which led me to wonder, “was it even worth knowing yesterday?” I realized the solution was a low pass filter. I first switched to a seven-page newspaper (CSM) delivered through the mail. I realised the editors had to figure out whether it would still be interesting by the time…

How does HN fit in this picture?

Re: No news is good news

#67

Post by kilroy123 » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

ddoran wrote: post #45

> Fake news is a term to describe news that is merely untrue In my experience it is more commonly used to describe news which the speaker does not like.

I feel like it's increasingly both and the lines are becoming more and more blurred.

Re: No news is good news

#68

Post by groby_b » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:51 PM UTC

jazzyk wrote: post #62

groby_b wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Economist is many things, but "sharp left" it is only to a certain subset of people. The rest of the world would mostly call it "left-leaning", or maybe "radical centrist".

Perhaps more like globalist/corporatist, which reflects their recent ownership? In 2015, Pearson - a publishing company - sold its controlling stake to a bunch of corporate owners, like the Agnellis (43%) and the Rotschilds (21%), among others. The change in their editorial direction was immediately visible (I had been a subscriber/reader for 35+ years until 2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Group

I wouldn't argue with that one, either. But it's also not "hard left" :)

The word - if we're willing to shed many of the more populist overtones around it - is probably "neoliberalism". Consistently siding with money & corporations, with a democratic bent. (But not too much!)

Since 2016, it's more and more living on its reputation and not coming quite to terms with the changes in the world. It is still firmly rooted in facts - can't really provide economic guidance when you deny realities - but it seems somewhat unable to engage with the rise of populism and nationalism in an economically intertwined world.

Not unlike centrism :)

Re: No news is good news

#69

Post by palidanx » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 5:57 PM UTC

On kind of a random tangent, during the early pandemic I began reading a ton of cookbooks. I found it interesting how the quality of recipes and techniques was so vastly better than anything I found online.

I think a similar item is happening with news. Online news is rather superficial where really long form things like books can give you the reflection to think.

Re: No news is good news

#70

Post by akselmo » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 6:05 PM UTC

I mostly read tech news and im very picky with them too. Anything important i will hear from friends. Dont see the point clicking all the useless clickbait articles anyway.