tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post2370310966272546702..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Soul-Destroying, Time-DestroyingAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-88680310440759693882016-09-28T15:00:46.294-04:002016-09-28T15:00:46.294-04:00As a first step, I've been trying to avoid com...As a first step, I've been trying to avoid comments lately. (Some sites like this one excepted, obviously.) I just now was at Instapundit, and there was a post that was interesting to me on a number of levels, and the tempting label: "468 comments". What I want is a meaty discussion bringing out all aspects of the subject. Reading and participating in something like that would not be a waste of time. It would be outright good. The problem is that the actual comments section is going to be ninety-nine percent (variously) fussing and fighting, observations I've already thought of, and off-topic rants about Trump and responses to them and responses to responses. So I shouldn't click.<br /><br />The problem with <i>that</i> is that, statistically, I can expect four or so comments with one or more of a trenchant point I haven't thought of already, an interesting link, or a joke that will actually make me laugh. And I want those four comments.<br /><br />And the problem with <i>that</i> is that spending forty minutes reading in order to get four possibly interesting things is a stupid use of time.<br /><br />P.S. Thanks for linking the Warren essay. I liked that.jaedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03328666344764784829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-81178630400546030122016-09-27T18:42:42.519-04:002016-09-27T18:42:42.519-04:00DAvid Warren's latest is closely related.
jae...<a href="http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/2016/09/27/fight-night/" rel="nofollow">DAvid Warren's latest</a> is closely related.<br /><br />jaed is on the money--there's lots of "Read Me!" and not much they actually say.<br /><br />Reading news is my gluttony. There's lots available off the beaten path--not always accurate, of course, but you can learn to adjust for some of that. But it just sort of fattens me up well beyond my needs. 7 deadly sins...jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-2384526577749179912016-09-27T17:10:13.824-04:002016-09-27T17:10:13.824-04:00There's "keeping situational awareness&qu...There's "keeping situational awareness" and then there's obsessively following current events. The former is sort of a general awareness of what the current events are, without following the details, and "glancing at the front page" used to give you that. (The operative word being "glance".)<br /><br />I started noticing a year or two ago that I wasn't following links to analysis pieces that sounded interesting, because the odds were very good that they wouldn't contain anything I didn't already know.<br /><br />I think part of the problem here is that we see a story, we want to get details and analysis, and we see a lot of text that looks like it promises these things. So we start reading and following links, only to find that there's no meat to any of it. It's all fluff, and very repetitive. I get into this frustrating cycle where I'm doing all this reading but the first thing I read actually contained all the facts I'm going to get. I could have spent two minutes instead of an hour... but I really do want to know more, so I continue helplessly trawling for any actual information. It's thin on the ground.<br /><br />It's sort of like feeling gnawing hunger (because you need protein), and therefore grazing on anything you can find in the kitchen (crackers, Snakwell's, whatever) which is mostly carbohydrate. I used to do that a lot before I realized that the sensation means I should eat some meat or cheese or eggs, not grab whatever I can get my hands on. I would end up feeling physically stuffed, but still hungry. A very unpleasant sensation, and not unlike what happens when I try to catch up on current events.jaedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03328666344764784829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-65078474419567742762016-09-27T12:05:08.638-04:002016-09-27T12:05:08.638-04:00amen. thank you for your post - it's better th...amen. thank you for your post - it's better than any newspaper article!herfsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09585410351709863622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-53420526154839381102016-09-26T21:43:21.811-04:002016-09-26T21:43:21.811-04:00I'll bet if you read thoughtful non-news sourc...I'll bet if you read thoughtful non-news sources you pick up most of it anyway. Nicholas Nassim Taleb defines it in terms of poor signal-to-noise ration in the news.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-41924038162561327602016-09-26T08:51:36.799-04:002016-09-26T08:51:36.799-04:00I'm boycotting the news for the most part late...I'm boycotting the news for the most part lately, but I don't feel right about it. I do feel it's an important obligation of citizenship to keep up with the problems facing the commonwealth, and the proposed actions of our elected government to deal with them. Nevertheless, lately I've just had it.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-68776701219927240582016-09-25T22:13:17.062-04:002016-09-25T22:13:17.062-04:00"If you don't read the newspaper, you'..."If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed."<br /><br />― Mark Twain <br /><br />We use yahoo mail for some things, and in the list of news/op-ed squibs that appear when you logout was the headline: "Why the Brangelina breakup matters."<br />jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-29413858970757624862016-09-25T16:12:13.299-04:002016-09-25T16:12:13.299-04:00Do what's important to you. We'll wait.Do what's important to you. We'll wait.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.com