¬ just serendipity 🍀 (not just serendipity)

Link to the original article from 2006 from the late Aaron Swartz:

Some people start their day by reading The New York Times. Others end it by watching the nightly news. Some get it from The Daily Show. Others download it from a variety weblogs. Some keep up-to-the-minute by following CNN. Others have instant news updates automatically text messaged to their phone. But everybody seems to agree: it’s a citizen’s responsibility to keep up with the news. Everybody except me.

I think following the news is a waste of time.

[…]

None of these stories have relevance to my life. Reading them may be enjoyable, but it’s an enjoyable waste of time. They will have no impact on my actions one way or another.

[…]

My life does not seem to be impoverished for it; indeed, I think it has been greatly enhanced. But I haven’t found many other people who are willing to take the plunge.

How relevant these words of wisdom still are!

I haven’t been closely following the news ever since the great pandemic™. This includes social media, apple / google news, and portals from news organizations. I go out of my way to prevent the constant barrage of unnecessary anxiety and fearmongering from affecting me.

There are other ways to stay up-to-date with relevant topics.

My primary sources are:

• the excellent miniflux, my beloved RSS reader. As of the time of this publication, I am following 350+ feeds. Quantity is not an important metric here, especially as most of these feeds do not publish daily
• local news. These are the most impactful ones, as they affect the environment where I live and could thus influence or change my short or medium-term planning
• friends & family, mostly via chat apps through individual conversations or group chats

There is rarely a need for immediate action. Furthermore the news that are truly important or relevant end up spreading like fire, to the point where it’s impossible not to have heard of them.

Corollary: Life is short, make a better use of your time. There are plenty of ways to do so¹!