It’s incredible how much precious time people waste watching the news.
Let’s assume what’s reported is unbiased and not designed to enrage or terrify you (a huge assumption). Where is the value-add?
It’s impossible to gain perspective from a constantly changing news flow. Here today and gone tomorrow isn’t the path to wisdom.
The only rational conclusion one can draw from this incessant information firehouse is tomorrow’s story will be different.
Not all news exists in a vacuum.
Financial media provides more toxic effects than the Weather Channel. Worrying that stores will run out of milk during the next blizzard is less dangerous than radically altering your retirement portfolio due to last month’s inflation numbers.
How should we allocate our most precious resource – time?
Reading books that provide timeless knowledge on improving your health and wealth never hurts anyone. History, Psychology, and Science texts are a great place to begin. Biographies and classic novels add spice. Throw in some Science Fiction and Mystery books to create a well-rounded reading portfolio.
Keeping to a philosophy of eating my cooking, this year became a bonanza of permanent knowledge. Distancing myself from short-term market hyperbole, government conspiracy theories, and ever-present natural and unnatural disaster stories led to a vast increase in actionable permanent understanding of what matters.
Temporary News Knowledge is well…Temporary. My friend J.C. Parets sums up this time suck best. If you’re not too busy gossiping about fat Fred Savage getting arrested in the Bahamas or whatever inflation conspiracy theories are on basic cable…
Unfortunately, this message isn’t sinking in.
Source: Wordsrated
Here’s some stuff I picked up along 2022’s book journey.
Even though schools of philosophy are a thing of the past, people are in as much need of a philosophy of life as they ever were. (A Guide To The Good Life by William Irvine)
Flux and change around us are not an accident but an essential part of our universe,
We plan compulsively because the alternative is to confront how little control we have over the future. (Four Thousand Weeks Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkman)
When you render the process convenient, you drain it of meaning.
Everything we experience in this world goes through one filter – our minds – and we spend very little time bothering to see how it works. (10% Happier by Dan Harris)
People don’t understand the nature of their motivation, so when they are unhappy at work, they ask for more money. They yearn for something different, but they don’t know what it is – so they ask for the most apparent incentive: money. (Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work by Susan Fowler)
Autonomy, relatedness, and competence are the three psychological needs that motivate people.
Solving other people’s problems can expand knowledge and skills. (Give and Take Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant)
You should be willing to do something that will take you five minutes or less for anybody.
If you are focusing on something and you get interrupted, on average, it will take 23 minutes to get back to the same state of focus. (Stolen Focus Why You Can’t Pay Attention by Johann Hari)
The more you let your mind wander, the better you are at organizing personal goals, being creative, and making patient, long-term decisions.
Buy Experiences – People often get used to whatever they got. (Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton)
Make it a treat – When something extraordinary is always available, people are less inclined to appreciate it. Limit access to things we like.
The secret to fantastic performance is empowering talented people to succeed at meaningful work. (The Progress Principle Using Small Wins To Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work By Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer)
Money is applause (The Happiness Curve Why Life Gets Better After Midlife by Jonathan Rauch)
Young people consistently overestimate their future life satisfaction. They make a whopping forecast error as if you lived in Seattle and expected sunshine daily.
No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny or young or wise we are – none of it will matter unless we breathe correctly. (Breath The New Science Of A Lost Art by James Nestor)
The most significant indicator of lifespan is lung capacity.
The three things people need to get the most out of life are health, free time, and money. (Die With Zero by Bill Perkins)
People are more afraid of running out of money than wasting their life.
Most would agree these tidbits are more helpful than focusing on today’s crime report body count or fretting over the next plague.
Happy Holidays and see you in 2023!
