I hate the news • Hacker News Board

Re: I hate the news

#41

Post by miles » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 12:57 AM UTC

Similar sentiments from a brother several thousand years ago:

"...I start up out of dreams and am disturbed, trembling at every message, with my own peace of mind depending upon letters not my own. Someone has arrived from Rome. 'If only there is no bad news!' But how can anything bad for you happen in a place, if you are not there? Someone arrives from Greece. 'If only there is no bad news!' In this way for you every place can cause misfortune. Isn't it enough for you to be miserable where you are? Must you needs be miserable even beyond the seas, and by letter?"

Re: I hate the news

#42

Post by bensw » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 1:33 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #37

I think it's funny that the article about the news being irrelevant ends with the cliched tagline: "You should follow me on Twitter." Because that would be relevant.

He added that line to all his blog posts when he redesigned his blog years after this was originally posted

Re: I hate the news

#43

Post by rationalbeats » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 1:51 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #37

I think it's funny that the article about the news being irrelevant ends with the cliched tagline: "You should follow me on Twitter." Because that would be relevant.

This post is from October 20, 2006

Twitter did not exist then, so I think it is obvious to the people who read this website how a tag like that would be there now.

Re: I hate the news

#44

Post by edwardunknown » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 2:16 AM UTC

The problem with this theory is that when a person who follows the news hears a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh or reads something from naturalnews.com they realize pretty quickly that it's bullshit.

The people who fall for that stuff always seem to be uninformed about current events or get it only from warped sources. You can extrapolate that to nazis or communism or wherever but the bottom line is an uninformed populace is easy pickings for ambitious bad guys.

Re: I hate the news

#45

Post by eyko » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 2:46 AM UTC

Centigonal wrote: post #4

JacksonGariety wrote: post #2

Wow, great find. Thank you for sharing. This is why I love Hacker News, one of the best things on the front page right now! Something that takes me outside my comfort zone and makes me think. These past two days have been some of Hacker News' best.

Are you being satirical?

^ this is actually an important question.

Re: I hate the news

#46

Post by schneitj » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 3:37 AM UTC

I found this paper by Rolf Dobelli to be very insightful. It was a TED talk a long time ago, back when that meant a little more.

http://dobelli.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Avoid_News_Par...

Re: I hate the news

#47

Post by chernevik » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 3:40 AM UTC

"There is voting, of course, but to become an informed voter all one needs to do is read a short guide about the candidates and issues before the election."

For one thing this places enormous trust in the guide-writers. For another it enormously oversimplifies the topics on which the guides would touch.

Re: I hate the news

#48

Post by billboebel » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 3:56 AM UTC

I gave up main stream news 4 years ago and I pretty much only read tech news. However, I find that important news still bubble up to me quickly through other channels such as word of mouth and through the tech news feeds. And I find that none of my time is wasted by worthless news, such as partison bickering, the latest traffic accident on I-35 or celebrity gossip. You should try it.

Re: I hate the news

#49

Post by zecho » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 3:59 AM UTC

tinym wrote: post #7

Thoreau: "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to tal…

Another Thoreau quote, also from Walden: "And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter -- we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea."

Re: I hate the news

#50

Post by waqf » Mon, Jan 14, 2013, 4:16 AM UTC

chernevik wrote: post #47

"There is voting, of course, but to become an informed voter all one needs to do is read a short guide about the candidates and issues before the election." For one thing this places enormous trust in the guide-writers. For another it enormously oversimplifies the topics on which the guides would touch.

And yet what alternative is there? If you follow the news you're placing the same trust in journalists.

To become a truly informed voter, not relying on others' summary explanations, would be more than a full-time career.