As the footer to the article says, this is a shortened version of a much longer essay he wrote in 2010 (src PDF: http://dobelli.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Avoid_News_Par... ) that shares a similar layout to the article. There's some subtle irony here -- the original essay asserted that heavy news consumption prevented most people from reading more than 4 pages straight, while the essay was 11 pages. I guess he realized he needed to shorten it to get the message out.
News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
81–90 of 245 posts
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#82I've come to a similar conclusion. Because news emphasizes the dramatic over the contextual, they're always providing me poor information in an even poorer context. That's just the way the business works. I've done something weird, though: I switched to plaintext commentary. So each day I scan my personal news site, http://newspaper23.com . It only does commentary. I find that by scanning the titles I can see what ne…
http://newspaper23.com looks like a great site. I've been looking for something that just shows headlines and doesn't require launching into an image-heavy site just to read the article. However, the JavaScript appears to be broken in Chrome. Switching categories doesn't work, for example.
You can try my news side project: http://newstandoff.com
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
I may be opening myself up to some flak here but I think it is generally accepted that the BBC is one of, if not the, least biased news source (Excepting climate change.) Some of my friends swear by Al-Jazeera for non Middle-East news
Al Jazeera and BBC are both solidly on the left. I'm not disputing the quality of their reporting or the value of exposing oneself to their reporting, but you're fooling yourself if you think they're neutral.
"reality has a left-wing bias"
The ABC (Australian version) gets comments that it's heavily left-wing, yet they have their own internal metrics that watch for evenness of opinion, and these have to match up with an external auditor.
Of course no-one can be neutral about a subjective topic, but it's interesting that those news organisations with strong reputations for quality general-news reporting are always seen as 'left-wing rags'.
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#84you do realize you are posting news right? on Hacker NEWS
RTFA. Or don't, and simply understand this: "the news", as referred to in the OP, is actually a subset of news in general, in the same way that fast food is a subset of food in general.
The point is what while most people can easily distinguish between fast-food and proper food, many people aren't nearly so discerning when it comes to their information diets.
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#85I completely agree with the premise... but does anybody else find it ironic that an article explaining why you shouldn't read the news is published on a news website owned by a major newspaper?
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#86... "Ignorance is bliss"
Happiness maybe isn't always the optimal end state.
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#87Does this include hacker news and reddit? Cause I already gave up most other news.
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#88What about culling the news to those stories that you exactly need or want, such as heath, medicine, art, a favorite sport, the weather, and/or business. Perhaps that can lead to a more productive and creative life?
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#89The world is a dangerous place. There is no way around it: it's always been this way. Whether it is a North Korea crisis, something burning in the Middle East, or our national debt, the news can bring you to the reality of danger, of war, of looming financial crisis.
Sure, by not reading it, you can retrieve yourself to a happy place in San Carlos or Palo Alto, but the danger still irks there, and it is not going away...
Reality check!
Re: News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier
#90I've come to a similar conclusion. Because news emphasizes the dramatic over the contextual, they're always providing me poor information in an even poorer context. That's just the way the business works. I've done something weird, though: I switched to plaintext commentary. So each day I scan my personal news site, http://newspaper23.com . It only does commentary. I find that by scanning the titles I can see what ne…
http://newspaper23.com looks like a great site. I've been looking for something that just shows headlines and doesn't require launching into an image-heavy site just to read the article. However, the JavaScript appears to be broken in Chrome. Switching categories doesn't work, for example.
Try http://skimfeed.com. 60 news sources, 10 titles each, one page, all text.