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I have found myself worrying about global politics, climate change, microplastics and whole lot of other things. Things that I have no control over. Don’t get m

I have found myself worrying about global politics, climate change, microplastics and whole lot of other things. Things that I have no control over. Don’t get me wrong it’s good to be informed about these things but constant influx of such information is not helping anyone. It’s critical to regulate what we consume on web because our brains have a tendency to think about what we consume. Our thoughts get influenced by what information we are consuming. Seriously ditch the feed that someone else is curating for you! RSS is all you need https://rohanrd.xyz/posts/why-rss/ https://rohanrd.xyz/posts/why-rss/ P.S. I haven't been able to ditch hacker news like I wanted to.

telman17 2y ago
Thank you, I think I’ll be looking into this.
HPsquared 2y ago
You are what you ingest. Both food and information!
firecall 2y ago
Based on your comment, I remembered I used Feedly when Google Reader went away. Logging into Feedly was like going back in time! I must have imported all my Google Reader feeds into Feedly. It's a Time Capsule of a bygone age! :-D
stevenAthompson 2y ago
> it’s good to be informed about these things That's an interesting assumption. Is it really? I suspect that informed citizens are better for society, but it might be worse for the the individuals.
- galleywest200 2y ago
  In regards to things like microplastics, knowing which products to avoid may be useful to the individual.
  - teaearlgraycold 2y ago
    Exactly. Use less plastic for food containers. Don’t use plastic cooking utensils, filter your water, etc. This is one you do have some influence over. Oh, and donate blood as often as they let you.
    - simianparrot 2y ago
      How exactly is donating blood “as often as they let me” good for me?
      - hgomersall 2y ago
        It's a good way to drop your blood pfas levels.
        teaearlgraycold 2y ago
        And probably other toxic junk from the environment.
        stevenAthompson 2y ago
        <jk> Maybe they were onto something with bloodletting. </jk>
        hgomersall 2y ago
        Blood letting is occasionally the right treatment, for example for hemochromatosis.
        teaearlgraycold 2y ago
        Go to a blood donation center. You'll notice the blood bags say "VOLUNTEER" on them. Not because some people are getting their blood stolen. The alternative is "THERAPEUTIC". We still bloodlet today.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 2y ago
  Of course it is. Knowing the events shaping your world have repercussions on your personal decisions. What should I eat? What should I learn? What career should I embark upon? What should I invest in? To think that you can shield yourself from the world is one of the biggest yet most foolish ideas of individualistic cultures
  - stevenAthompson 2y ago
    For most people the answers to your questions are all obvious without anything more than weekly local news. Maybe without even that. > What should I eat? Food, from the grocery store. Adjust based on your family doctors advice and your own preferences. > What should I learn? Whatever your boss suggests will advance your career. > What career should I embark upon? Whatever is available locally and, optionally, suited to your abilities and interests. > What should I invest in? Whichever index fund option in your 401k is least volatile.
    - Spivak 2y ago
      Or most volatile depending on your age. Yoloing an all stock portfolio is a pretty safe bet when you have time to play the long game.
    - rTX5CMRXIfFG 2y ago
      Most people don’t consult their family doctors when food isn’t available or when they are confronted with a variation in recipe. It isn’t the case that most people blindly follow their boss’ advice. Most people don’t decide their careers based on short-term local availability. And almost no investor who’s financially literate enough to consider an index fund would consider volatility as a metric of attractiveness of the fund. I was going to say that your arguments only hold so long as you oversimplify what are inherently complex decisions that require multiple and current information sources, but the very foundation of your line of questioning is just plain wrong.
      - jpc0 2y ago
        I'm going to disagee with you there. You are seeing the world through a different lens driven by constant churn in the tech industry. In many industries if you are just a drone that does their job reasonably well, will work overtime every now and then when it's available and have shown willingness and ability to improve, management will make sure you stay at that company. Your only actual fear would be that the company fails but then very likely you are on the shortlist for that same management at their new company. Assume incompetence not malice, people aren't out to get you and trying to get the worst for you, they want to best for themselves and if you make it so that making you comfortable also makes them comfortable then you aren't at risk. Regarding food... Buy what's on the shelf, nobody needs their special kale only diet or whatever is the trend. What the parent was saying is follow general food guidelines, avoid excessive meat, keep portion sizes reasonable, half you plate should be vegetables etc... Same with the index fund thing, if you start investing with a reputable investor when your are in your 20s even if it doesn't beat the market you will retire comfortably. You don't need to minmax life. You can hit autopilot and just go where life takes you while just make small course corrections every now and then and you will be fine. You wont have a great life or a bad one. You will fall close to the middle of the bell curve and that's actually good enough. Focus on the things that are important, spend time with your loved ones etc. Trust me I understand your point of view as well, that's me I can't be vanilla with these things, my mental health doesn't allow it. I need to shoot for the moon and do it as efficiently as possible. I just know that's not necessary.
1shooner 2y ago
I've come to a similar conclusion. I'm reconsidering the relative importance of different kinds of info I consume(timely and otherwise). I've concluded I've become way too passive in that decision, and that's clearly unhealthy. It's not that I want to be completely ignorant of e.g. US politics, but maybe I try a 30 minutes summary of concrete facts per week, rather than what I used to get when I would drop onto national news sites as a distraction or focus break. If I could just figure out a browser extension that intercepts search result links to reddit and gives me a quick LLM summary of the post and discussion instead, I will have cut out most of these sources of distraction.
- throwup238 2y ago
  In that vein I mostly consume the Wikipedia current events portal [1] for my global and national news. It’s relatively neutral and the pinned topics at the top give a good overview of the important stuff with the option to dive into more specific articles or primary sources. It still suffers from selection bias (i.e. Notre Dame reopening is at the top while the Syrian regime falling is a footnote at the moment) but it feels like the right signal to noise ratio. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
  - huijzer 2y ago
    In response to Wikipedia being “relatively neutral”: “Multiple studies have found a left-wing bias at Wikipedia in both article content and editor sanctioning.” [1] [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideological_bias_on_Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideological_bias_on_Wikipedi...
    - 20after4 2y ago
      Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
      - Y_Y 2y ago
        I think it's only fair to credit Stephen Colbert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLjK9LFpeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLjK9LFpeo For those of you unfamiliar, he was a well-known and serious political pundit who in recent years has been performing as a character (of the same name) who parodies milquetoast late night centre-left almost-comedy.
owenpalmer 2y ago
> our brains have a tendency to think about what we consume True, and I use this to my advantage for constructive things. I bias my consumption towards things I aspire to. You can't always change yourself, but you can change your environment, which in turn changes you.
colordrops 2y ago
There's worrying about things, then there's seeing the truth and reacting appropriately, whether you worry or not about it. It's a common refrain to criticize people who spend time on nutrition and health are obsessive or orthorexic or whatever, then subsequently spend 4 hours digging into game of thrones lore or how to host Plex while eating doritos. Health is only the foundation of everything, that's all.
darepublic 2y ago
Late at night if such things trouble my sleep I try to resign myself to being utterly doomed.
Ridenight 2y ago
The last part reminds me of this Quote from the movie The End of The Tour about DFW. “We're going to have to develop some real machinery inside of our guts to turn off pure, unadulterated pleasure, or I don't know about you, I'm going to have to leave the planet.” “Why?” “Because the technology is just going to get better and better, and it's going to get easier and more and more convenient to sit alone with images on a screen, given to us by people that do not love us but want money. And that's fine in low doses. But if it's the basic main staple of your diet, you're going to die.” — Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfpOugmd9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfpOugmd9E
tgv 2y ago
> Things that I have no control over. That is not entirely true. First, you can reduce your personal contribution to pollution. Second, you can vote for parties or candidates that can make the larger change, or the minimal change needed. What happens if everybody says "there's nothing I can do"? Nothing. It's basically the attitude that got us here.
armini 2y ago
I can say for myself that seeing the wars have had a detrimental impact on my life & faith in humanity. Hearing people try to justify a genocide makes me completely checkout. The algorithms also don't help when you keep seeing kids & families decimated constantly on your reddit, instagram & x feed with genocide drones. I'm convinced that we are living in one of the most regrettable times in our century.
vasco 2y ago
> Don’t get me wrong it’s good to be informed about these things Why? Why is the problem the feed? Why isn't the problem the very fact of wanting and trying to be informed of things far away out of your control in the first place?
mmooss 2y ago
> Things that I have no control over. The problem is thinking that you have no control, an awful meme that is depressing - almost the definition of depressing - and self-fulfillingly self-defeating. The most powerful force in the world is public opinion in Western countries, especially in the US - that's why so many powerful parties invest so much to manipulate it. There are many entire news organizations, endless opinion writers/etc., influence campaigns run by everyone from corporations to political organizations to state intelligence agencies, etc. What are they all working so hard at, investing so much in, if it doesn't matter? Public opinion is formed by you acquiring information (including mis-info or dis-info), analyzing it, and communicating socially with others about it. Because many others don't do that, and most who do just repeat from received narratives, if you do it - if you form narratives - you have even more power. No single person ever accomplished anything - everything worthwhile has been done by humans in groups. We are social creatures, not lone wolves - that's how we operate; if you act like a lone wolf then yes, you will be mostly powerless. But if you act within a group, and especially if you act intentionally and intelligently, you have significant power.
- jumping_frog 2y ago
  To support you, I will provide an example. Canada's health care system was started by just one person. His activism and relentlessness is what forced Canada to adopt it. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead
  - buran77 2y ago
    Most people don't find a small measure of indirect control equally reassuring as a large measure of direct control. For example I can directly control my water usage but have very little indirect control over the world's water usage. So psychologically things out of direct control tend to be felt like outside of control. As for the exceptional people who managed to wrestle that small indirect control into direct control and an actual result, there's also the likelihood to consider. Most people aren't exceptional and they realize it, it's right there in the word. Trying and failing to be the exception can lead to at least as much but probably more psychological pressure and suffering as just feeling out of control. I'm happy that those people exist but for almost everyone else, direct control is the only thing that gives them mental relief. If you follow negative content it just amplifies the initially almost inconsequential realization that you have close to no control into a very consequential bad state of mind. The short of it is: don't go chasing the things that push your buttons the wrong way, and don't make unrealistic expectations especially about fixing the aforementioned things.
veunes 2y ago
Constantly being plugged into curated feeds can easily spiral into anxiety and helplessness
clcaev 2y ago
"God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

telman17 2y ago

Thank you, I think I’ll be looking into this.

HPsquared 2y ago

You are what you ingest. Both food and information!

firecall 2y ago

Based on your comment, I remembered I used Feedly when Google Reader went away. Logging into Feedly was like going back in time! I must have imported all my Google Reader feeds into Feedly. It's a Time Capsule of a bygone age! :-D

stevenAthompson 2y ago

> it’s good to be informed about these things That's an interesting assumption. Is it really? I suspect that informed citizens are better for society, but it might be worse for the the individuals.

galleywest200 2y ago
In regards to things like microplastics, knowing which products to avoid may be useful to the individual.
- teaearlgraycold 2y ago
  Exactly. Use less plastic for food containers. Don’t use plastic cooking utensils, filter your water, etc. This is one you do have some influence over. Oh, and donate blood as often as they let you.
  - simianparrot 2y ago
    How exactly is donating blood “as often as they let me” good for me?
    - hgomersall 2y ago
      It's a good way to drop your blood pfas levels.
      - teaearlgraycold 2y ago
        And probably other toxic junk from the environment.
        stevenAthompson 2y ago
        <jk> Maybe they were onto something with bloodletting. </jk>
        hgomersall 2y ago
        Blood letting is occasionally the right treatment, for example for hemochromatosis.
        teaearlgraycold 2y ago
        Go to a blood donation center. You'll notice the blood bags say "VOLUNTEER" on them. Not because some people are getting their blood stolen. The alternative is "THERAPEUTIC". We still bloodlet today.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
rTX5CMRXIfFG 2y ago
Of course it is. Knowing the events shaping your world have repercussions on your personal decisions. What should I eat? What should I learn? What career should I embark upon? What should I invest in? To think that you can shield yourself from the world is one of the biggest yet most foolish ideas of individualistic cultures
- stevenAthompson 2y ago
  For most people the answers to your questions are all obvious without anything more than weekly local news. Maybe without even that. > What should I eat? Food, from the grocery store. Adjust based on your family doctors advice and your own preferences. > What should I learn? Whatever your boss suggests will advance your career. > What career should I embark upon? Whatever is available locally and, optionally, suited to your abilities and interests. > What should I invest in? Whichever index fund option in your 401k is least volatile.
  - Spivak 2y ago
    Or most volatile depending on your age. Yoloing an all stock portfolio is a pretty safe bet when you have time to play the long game.
  - rTX5CMRXIfFG 2y ago
    Most people don’t consult their family doctors when food isn’t available or when they are confronted with a variation in recipe. It isn’t the case that most people blindly follow their boss’ advice. Most people don’t decide their careers based on short-term local availability. And almost no investor who’s financially literate enough to consider an index fund would consider volatility as a metric of attractiveness of the fund. I was going to say that your arguments only hold so long as you oversimplify what are inherently complex decisions that require multiple and current information sources, but the very foundation of your line of questioning is just plain wrong.
    - jpc0 2y ago
      I'm going to disagee with you there. You are seeing the world through a different lens driven by constant churn in the tech industry. In many industries if you are just a drone that does their job reasonably well, will work overtime every now and then when it's available and have shown willingness and ability to improve, management will make sure you stay at that company. Your only actual fear would be that the company fails but then very likely you are on the shortlist for that same management at their new company. Assume incompetence not malice, people aren't out to get you and trying to get the worst for you, they want to best for themselves and if you make it so that making you comfortable also makes them comfortable then you aren't at risk. Regarding food... Buy what's on the shelf, nobody needs their special kale only diet or whatever is the trend. What the parent was saying is follow general food guidelines, avoid excessive meat, keep portion sizes reasonable, half you plate should be vegetables etc... Same with the index fund thing, if you start investing with a reputable investor when your are in your 20s even if it doesn't beat the market you will retire comfortably. You don't need to minmax life. You can hit autopilot and just go where life takes you while just make small course corrections every now and then and you will be fine. You wont have a great life or a bad one. You will fall close to the middle of the bell curve and that's actually good enough. Focus on the things that are important, spend time with your loved ones etc. Trust me I understand your point of view as well, that's me I can't be vanilla with these things, my mental health doesn't allow it. I need to shoot for the moon and do it as efficiently as possible. I just know that's not necessary.

1shooner 2y ago

I've come to a similar conclusion. I'm reconsidering the relative importance of different kinds of info I consume(timely and otherwise). I've concluded I've become way too passive in that decision, and that's clearly unhealthy. It's not that I want to be completely ignorant of e.g. US politics, but maybe I try a 30 minutes summary of concrete facts per week, rather than what I used to get when I would drop onto national news sites as a distraction or focus break. If I could just figure out a browser extension that intercepts search result links to reddit and gives me a quick LLM summary of the post and discussion instead, I will have cut out most of these sources of distraction.

throwup238 2y ago
In that vein I mostly consume the Wikipedia current events portal [1] for my global and national news. It’s relatively neutral and the pinned topics at the top give a good overview of the important stuff with the option to dive into more specific articles or primary sources. It still suffers from selection bias (i.e. Notre Dame reopening is at the top while the Syrian regime falling is a footnote at the moment) but it feels like the right signal to noise ratio. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
- huijzer 2y ago
  In response to Wikipedia being “relatively neutral”: “Multiple studies have found a left-wing bias at Wikipedia in both article content and editor sanctioning.” [1] [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideological_bias_on_Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideological_bias_on_Wikipedi...
  - 20after4 2y ago
    Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
    - Y_Y 2y ago
      I think it's only fair to credit Stephen Colbert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLjK9LFpeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLjK9LFpeo For those of you unfamiliar, he was a well-known and serious political pundit who in recent years has been performing as a character (of the same name) who parodies milquetoast late night centre-left almost-comedy.

owenpalmer 2y ago

> our brains have a tendency to think about what we consume True, and I use this to my advantage for constructive things. I bias my consumption towards things I aspire to. You can't always change yourself, but you can change your environment, which in turn changes you.

colordrops 2y ago

There's worrying about things, then there's seeing the truth and reacting appropriately, whether you worry or not about it. It's a common refrain to criticize people who spend time on nutrition and health are obsessive or orthorexic or whatever, then subsequently spend 4 hours digging into game of thrones lore or how to host Plex while eating doritos. Health is only the foundation of everything, that's all.

darepublic 2y ago

Late at night if such things trouble my sleep I try to resign myself to being utterly doomed.

Ridenight 2y ago

The last part reminds me of this Quote from the movie The End of The Tour about DFW. “We're going to have to develop some real machinery inside of our guts to turn off pure, unadulterated pleasure, or I don't know about you, I'm going to have to leave the planet.” “Why?” “Because the technology is just going to get better and better, and it's going to get easier and more and more convenient to sit alone with images on a screen, given to us by people that do not love us but want money. And that's fine in low doses. But if it's the basic main staple of your diet, you're going to die.” — Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfpOugmd9E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCfpOugmd9E

tgv 2y ago

> Things that I have no control over. That is not entirely true. First, you can reduce your personal contribution to pollution. Second, you can vote for parties or candidates that can make the larger change, or the minimal change needed. What happens if everybody says "there's nothing I can do"? Nothing. It's basically the attitude that got us here.

armini 2y ago

I can say for myself that seeing the wars have had a detrimental impact on my life & faith in humanity. Hearing people try to justify a genocide makes me completely checkout. The algorithms also don't help when you keep seeing kids & families decimated constantly on your reddit, instagram & x feed with genocide drones. I'm convinced that we are living in one of the most regrettable times in our century.

vasco 2y ago

> Don’t get me wrong it’s good to be informed about these things Why? Why is the problem the feed? Why isn't the problem the very fact of wanting and trying to be informed of things far away out of your control in the first place?

mmooss 2y ago

> Things that I have no control over. The problem is thinking that you have no control, an awful meme that is depressing - almost the definition of depressing - and self-fulfillingly self-defeating. The most powerful force in the world is public opinion in Western countries, especially in the US - that's why so many powerful parties invest so much to manipulate it. There are many entire news organizations, endless opinion writers/etc., influence campaigns run by everyone from corporations to political organizations to state intelligence agencies, etc. What are they all working so hard at, investing so much in, if it doesn't matter? Public opinion is formed by you acquiring information (including mis-info or dis-info), analyzing it, and communicating socially with others about it. Because many others don't do that, and most who do just repeat from received narratives, if you do it - if you form narratives - you have even more power. No single person ever accomplished anything - everything worthwhile has been done by humans in groups. We are social creatures, not lone wolves - that's how we operate; if you act like a lone wolf then yes, you will be mostly powerless. But if you act within a group, and especially if you act intentionally and intelligently, you have significant power.

jumping_frog 2y ago
To support you, I will provide an example. Canada's health care system was started by just one person. His activism and relentlessness is what forced Canada to adopt it. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead
- buran77 2y ago
  Most people don't find a small measure of indirect control equally reassuring as a large measure of direct control. For example I can directly control my water usage but have very little indirect control over the world's water usage. So psychologically things out of direct control tend to be felt like outside of control. As for the exceptional people who managed to wrestle that small indirect control into direct control and an actual result, there's also the likelihood to consider. Most people aren't exceptional and they realize it, it's right there in the word. Trying and failing to be the exception can lead to at least as much but probably more psychological pressure and suffering as just feeling out of control. I'm happy that those people exist but for almost everyone else, direct control is the only thing that gives them mental relief. If you follow negative content it just amplifies the initially almost inconsequential realization that you have close to no control into a very consequential bad state of mind. The short of it is: don't go chasing the things that push your buttons the wrong way, and don't make unrealistic expectations especially about fixing the aforementioned things.

veunes 2y ago

Constantly being plugged into curated feeds can easily spiral into anxiety and helplessness

clcaev 2y ago

"God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer