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No news is good news

thomasjbevan.substack.com

71–80 of 160 posts

Re: No news is good news

#71
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…

Similar to you, I keep my news limited to the local Sunday paper, HN, and word of mouth. Unlike you, I’ve found that Ukraine seems to be all anyone wants to talk about lately.

Re: No news is good news

#72
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.

In my experience it's used as an umbrella term for biased, inaccurate, misleading, half-true, or completely false news.

Re: No news is good news

#73
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.

That ship sailed 6 years ago if we’re being honest.

Re: No news is good news

#74

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.

I was given a fantastic cookbook (Joy of Cooking) around the start of the pandemic. I used to loathe cooking. Now I’m hoarding cookbooks and look forward to trying new recipes. Turns out my problem the whole time was relying on garbage-tier internet recipes. Maybe it’s extreme, but I now refuse to make any recipe from the internet. It’s not worth it.

Re: No news is good news

#75

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.

I was given a fantastic cookbook (Joy of Cooking) around the start of the pandemic. I used to loathe cooking. Now I’m hoarding cookbooks and look forward to trying new recipes. Turns out my problem the whole time was relying on garbage-tier internet recipes. Maybe it’s extreme, but I now refuse to make any recipe from the internet. It’s not worth it.

Sending you here to a rabbit hole:

https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/good-food/favorite-cookbo...

(unfortunately there isn't a good food filter) https://www.kcrw.com/categories/books

Store just with cookbooks only in SF

https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/

Re: No news is good news

#76
I'm sorry but this is just total nonsense. The author argues very that being informed is an unimportant article of faith. I can name a number of recent examples where being uninformed of the news would have had significant impacts on my life. For example,

1. New Zealand is still under various Covid restrictions and they are in constant flux. These impact real-world decisions I need to make like should I plan to attend a particular event, should I plan a trip for the winter or even go to the office next week. If I don't stay on top of the news I will be helpless. Even the event organisers and shop owners use phrases like "Red Light Phase 2" which must be gleaned from the news - Red Light today doesn't mean the same thing it did 2 weeks ago.

2. The Ukraine crisis. Even if you don't think it's important to be aware of such a monumental ongoing geopolitical event for its own sake, if I ignored the news I would have no idea why so many people on my island on the other side of the world are carrying blue and yellow flags, changing their avatars and vocalising their support for an Eastern European country they have never even mentioned before. You can argue it's not important to be informed about this kind of event but that assertion is no less an article of faith than the claim that it IS important. And quite frankly if it became obvious someone I was talking to wasn't aware of the Ukraine conflict it would sharply diminish my respect for them.

3. We had an ongoing weeks-long protest in my city recently which blocked several important streets and caused a lot of chaos. Is it in my interests to not be aware of road closures and massive police operations in my area? Even if I don't care about the protestors, their cause etc, it's still directly impactful for me to know where I can, can't and shouldn't drive my car.

Re: No news is good news

#77

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…

There's an "out of the loop" reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/outoftheloop It's not quite for this use case but could be of help. I regularly use it to find out what that thing is people are joking about on Twitter or such.

This is an awful subreddit. It's mostly used for catching up on stupid Youtube/Twitch drama or asking why some other subreddit has been banned/locked/quarantined. On real stories the answers are very often very misinformed.

Re: No news is good news

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That ship sailed 6 years ago if we’re being honest.

As far as the terminology goes, maybe. As far as people choosing to believe what is convenient, profitable, or flattering about the world around them, that's been the case as far back as anyone can recall. I think we like to imagine that technology both makes us immune to the problems of our ancestors and makes our problems immune to historically-informed solutions.

Re: No news is good news

#79
post #24
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually found that Improve the News [1] is good for something like that. It has sliders to let you select what kind of new you are looking for with one of the sliders which controls "shelf life" ranging from short to long and "recency" from evergreen to recent. Not exactly what you are looking for, but I've found it can serve a similar purpose. [1] https://www.improvethenews.org/

I think that left/right categorization thing actually makes it worse. I'd like a "just the facts" option.

[deleted]

Re: No news is good news

#80
post #76

I'm sorry but this is just total nonsense. The author argues very that being informed is an unimportant article of faith. I can name a number of recent examples where being uninformed of the news would have had significant impacts on my life. For example, 1. New Zealand is still under various Covid restrictions and they are in constant flux. These impact real-world decisions I need to make like should I plan to atten…

Why are you conflating being informed or following one particular event with being obsessed with the news? If Covid restrictions are so malleable in your city then you should find avenues that keep you updated, but once it's over you should also quit with the updates. Knowing what happens in Ukraine every single minute is useless. If you see all those hints around you about a conflict you are unaware of, why can't you just ask around or at most read a recap article or two? Why would this event entail being glued to your screen 24/7? Just like with other people in this discussion it feels as though exceptional events somehow justify the constant consumption of the news.
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