Our obsession with being informed makes it hard to think long-term. We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is, the news doesn’t make us informed, quite the opposite. The more news we consume, the more misinformed we become.

<aside> 💬 News is, by definition, something that doesn’t last

</aside>

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE NEWS

1. The speed of news delivery has increased. Writing as fast means surface-level insights.
2. The cost of producing news has dropped significantly. Quality is poor.
3. Like other purveyors of drugs, producers of news want you to consume more of it. Like a drug, the news is addictive. Once you get hooked, it’s hard to stop.
4. The incentives are misaligned. The goal is no more to inform people, but to let people visit the page and make money with advertising.
5. Most journalists are not interested in the search for truth. They’re interested in telling a particular version of a story.

News is a perspective, not truth.

News doesn’t make you more informed. It just makes you more confident the information you have is all there is.

News reinforces what we already believe.

News substitutes the thinking of others for thinking.

When all you consume is noise, you don’t realize there is a signal.