7 ms·

Quit news. Quit politics. Don't have a "media diet." Make stuff and try to be around people who make stuff instead. To lay a single cobblestone path is to have

• LinuxBender 7y ago
  This is the best comment I have seen on HN in a long time. I agree with everything you said, but that isn't the reason this is the best comment. I appreciate that someone else knows what things last and what is just short lived dopamine highs. (news drama, politic drama, etc)
  • jjaredsimpson 7y ago
    How could it be the best comment when it doesn't even address OPs question? OP asked for "X" This reply says, "dont X, X is bad" It is the same as every off topic top comment.
    • bag531 7y ago
      Reminds me of Stack Overflow.
    • LinuxBender 7y ago
      You are right that it does not answer OP's question. I stand by my words, it is still the best comment I have seen. Sometimes it is right to "dont X, X is bad", as it is an opinion which people may freely communicate. I will happily accept my text turning grey for expressing my opinions.
    • simonsarris 7y ago
      Your mileage may vary but the most helpful commentary I have gotten in my life is usually couched in that format: when I am asking for X, but had not considered Y enough, or at all, and someone replies suggesting Y instead, and then I realize new possibilities.
• ai_ia 7y ago
  > Most causes are not thought-out enough to advocate, certainly not to scream about. I agree 100 %. Your comment reminds me of these two comics : [1] & [2] which I love and revisit from time to time. 1: https://zenpencils.com/comic/50-neil-gaiman-make-good-art/ https://zenpencils.com/comic/50-neil-gaiman-make-good-art/ 2: https://zenpencils.com/comic/119-john-green-make-gifts-for-people/ https://zenpencils.com/comic/119-john-green-make-gifts-for-p...
• johnwheeler 7y ago
  Sage advice
• 3pt14159 7y ago
  Or you know, follow politics and meet with your elected representative and push for issues that you care about to make the world better for everyone. Plenty of despots sent plenty of soldiers over cobblestones carefully set into the ground. Though I do agree that following news reports over every gaff and tweet are pointless, even if they are entertaining. Understanding the pros and cons of something like the Trans Pacific Partnership is valuable though. Some people in our society need to be informed and there is a dearth of computer literate people in our political parties, at least here in Canada.
  • simonsarris 7y ago
    I agree in a scale-dependent way, where "politics" is really offhand for "non-local politics", which is my fault for assuming that's what most people who say politics or Geo Politics (the words in op's post) mean. I think local politics are underrated, and national (often including state) politics are vastly, vastly overrated time sinks. (full disclosure: I'm active in local politics, I was appointed to the bicycle-pedestrian committee for failure to keep my mouth shut) Note that on the big scale, for 99% of people, their political options mostly consist of voting, and even the most careful reading of daily news isn't going to change their voting patterns. They've already decided what they think is best for the world. You can still vote without participation in the looney bin machine, if that's your preference. If you want to change people's minds, even politically, the best way to do it is probably not repeating political (news) stuff, but actually living a certain way. > push for issues that you care about to make the world better for everyone. Yes. Or make it worse, if you get it wrong :) (cue Seeing Like a State, etc)
    • ktm5j 7y ago
      > where "politics" is really offhand for "non-local politics" Who ever said that? Assuming that you are an adult, the you're completely capable of participating in both local and non-local government. For whatever that's worth to you
  • jcims 7y ago
    >Or you know, follow politics and meet with your elected representative and push for issues that you care about to make the world better for everyone. It's impossible to make the world better for everyone, just those you care about (and that's only if you're fortunate enough to not trigger counterproductive secondary effects). That said, I think GP is suggesting that you take your antenna out of the waveguide of impotent turmoil and bickering and focus your attention and energy on intentional, concrete objectives. Actually meeting with a representative to drive an objective forward is exactly in line with what is being suggested.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• ploika 7y ago
  I absolutely cannot believe that the top answer is "ignore the news and spend more time on Twitter". This is "Live, Laugh, Love" levels of pseudo-enlightenment. It is important to know what's happening in the world. It is important to know about decisions being made that affect the country you live in, and it is astonishingly ignorant to assume that politics and media are as bad where I live as you seem to think they are where you live.
  • simonsarris 7y ago
    > It is important to know about decisions being made that affect the country you live in. It's mostly not. The vast majority of daily political yammering and scandals has no effect. People mostly use politics as a way to dodge real problems in their life that they could be solving. You see this most clearly with the way people bat about words like "capitalism" into nonsense definitions. Their criticisms are almost always manifestations of personal issues. More generally, people mature when they stop believing politics will solve their problems. It is very sad to see people who spend years hoping their candidate will get into office to reorder the world for them (spoiler, they won't), when they could change how they live today to actually reflect their own values. As for breaking news, etc. If its actually important, it will get to you anyway, I promise. You don't have to spend time on Twitter, but if you're looking for internet places to go like the OP is, you can find things there that you will never find elsewhere. I'm answering his question sincerely. You can make new friends and start new collab projects through places like Twitter and Hacker News. I've done it! You're not gonna get that reading CNN or BBC or whatever. You're probably not going to get any actionable, meaningful information from news sources like those, especially day to day. Twitter is 100% amazing, hugely underrated, and a return to the mode of being that we had pre-1500's, where most knowledge was obtained through dialogue instead of one-way broadcasts, and I will die on that hill.
    • ktm5j 7y ago
      Saying that twitter is anything like the sociopolitical dynamics of pre-1500 is just as ludicrous as your other statements. You're acting like hiding in a hole and ignoring the issues around you is the right thing to do.. and trying to sell it like you've discovered this new and better way to live.
• bag531 7y ago
  You watch/read too much Jordan Peterson. You can care about issues and try to make the world a better place, while also taking care of yourself. Telling people not to care about politics is itself a political endorsement of the status quo.
• gburdell3 7y ago
  This is an extremely privileged point of view. Politics actually affects real people, whether you like it or not.
• el_cujo 7y ago
  >Twitter is the most intellectual, and underrated, social network, because people follow too many political accounts and celebrities instead of other people I mostly agreed up until this. These days it feels like on Twitter, everyone is political at least some of the time. Even a lot of otherwise interesting people who talk about technology 95% of the time, politics just HAS to slip in the other 5%. I don't even really blame them, certain groups treat you like a political enemy if you aren't constantly kowtowing their politics, it's like paying protection money to the mob. Most of these types have personal blogs where you can get their high effort technical posts without the low effort political trash, I'd say go to that instead of Twitter. Fuck Twitter.
• rvz 7y ago
  As much as I couldn't agree more with some of the points you make on quitting the toxic current affairs and the constant negative forecasting of the world made by the news media, I just disagree with the idea of simply reclusing from the real world and focusing only on tech-centric content, where this will bring a one-sided understanding of certain stories which forgets those who disagree with us and risks failing to understand why they do, which creates echo-chambers. The tech that we create is starting to reveal the nefarious side of its uses and that is unfortunately real. The standards and rules put in place to keep them safe involve those involved in politics and legislation. If we as just tech creators ignore the implications, then we will be later held to account for this, despite the license saying other wise. It isn't as simple as that to ignore the importance of such things in this industry with possible regulation on the way. > Twitter is the most intellectual, and underrated, social network, because people follow too many political accounts and celebrities instead of other people... That's debatable. Perhaps for other things, but not for general communication. But that debate is for another HN thread. The fact is, any tech that has a direct impact on the world would be hard for politicians, bad actors, activists and news corps to ignore and will most certainly question or exploit it to their agenda and those in power will ultimately hold us accountable.
• thrwaway69 7y ago
  I think that's an extreme position. Instead of that, why not delay all news articles by few days or a week. Anything mostly noise will be gone and any important issue will still be broadcasted few days or weeks later.
• simonsarris 7y ago
  I really should have said "Quit political media" instead of "Quit politics", to stave off the usual comments.
• outime 7y ago
  This is generally good advice but I disagree about Twitter being an intellectual place. I was there for so many years and had to quit because even if I wasn’t following political people, some politics would always end up in the timeline one way or another. You can’t avoid it (still will get the “you don’t follow the right people” bash, doesn’t matter, it is what it is). Then you also have to deal with the char limit, larger than the past but still limited, and you may end up with 50 chained tweets to make a proper point, and certain people will take one out of context and you’ll end up receiving death threats. And Twitter itself isn’t really a neutral company when it comes to politics. All in all, not the right place for being intellectual IMHO. Also disagree with the full disconnection of the news. I think a weekly summary is fine, you can skim and see if there’s anything relevant. Most of the time, there is nothing worth spending your time. Bias and clickbait in journalism is really low-level and boring nowadays, and you don’t need to follow it all. But you still may want to know something about the society you live in besides the people you end talking to.
• MrZongle2 7y ago
  You had me up until Twitter. Twitter is the nonstop first date where everybody is working hard to look like somebody who is "in the know" and has their life together. Yes, there are "real people" there but they are few compared to the a sea of bots, narcissists and PR-talk.
• 1ris 7y ago
  This is nothing but will full ignorance and proud idiocy. Its complete surrender to absolute power without any hint of necessity. Politics matter, if you like it, or not. They lay the groundwork and build the frameworkfor anything in technology, art and your family. Any attempt in these fields are completely depended on politics. They will all turn to ashes (literally) at the snap of a finger, if politics wants to. All attempts there are futile if you are apolitical.
• tmaly 7y ago
  I would agree except instead of Twitter, I would say look for a weekly newsletter that provides a broad summary of the type of news you are interested in.
• cmstoken 7y ago
  Great advice, just not for everyone though. I personally agree.