After reading “The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobelli, there was one chapter that really stayed with me. The chapter is called “Why You Shouldn’t Read the News.”
The author makes a strong case for cutting the news out of our lives, and explains how the habit of having to keep up with the headlines is a destructive one. The author stopped reading and listening to news, cancelled his newspaper subscriptions, got rid of his TV and radio and deleted news apps from his phone. This was not an easy habit to kick, but 3 years after doing so, he claims it has resulted in clear thoughts, more valuable insights, better decisions, and more time.
In his book, Rolf, gives 3 good reasons – there are more reasons- why we should purge the news from our lives.
1) Our brains react disproportionately to different types of information. Shocking, scandalous, constantly changing information stimulates us. Information that is more complex, abstract and unprocessed needs more effort from the brain and will sedate us.
The news takes full advantage of this by reporting sensational stories and “facts” that draw in our attention. This means the more complex, abstract, subtle and profound stories are filtered out; even though, they are much more beneficial and relevant to our lives. The news gives us a distorted view of the world.
2) The news is irrelevant. The author writes “In the past 12 months you have probably consumed about 10,000 new snippets – perhaps as many as thirty per day. But be very honest: name one of them, just one, that helped you make a better decision – for your life, your career or your business – compared with not having this piece of news.”
The writer also states “News organizations assert that their information gives you a competitive advantage. In reality, news consumption represents a competitive disadvantage.”
3) The news is a waste of time. He writes “An average human being squanders half a day each week on reading about current affairs. In global terms this is an immense loss productivity.”
If we cut the news out of our lives, what is a better source for understanding the world? Rolf’s advice is to read well researched articles and books. And that nothing beats books for understanding the world.
在拜讀了Rolf Dobelli所著的“思考的藝術”後，其中一章叫人感觸良多，這一章叫做“為什麼你不應該讀新聞”。
此書作者提出把新聞從生活中完全剔除的充分理由，並解釋我們緊追著頭條新聞的習慣其實是有破壞性的。
作者不讀不聽新聞，取消了所有報刊訂閱，把電視機和收音機從家中搬走，並將他手機上的新聞應用程序刪除。要改掉這種習慣不是一件容易的事，但這3年來他聲稱這樣的結果使得他的思維變得更清晰，見識更深遠，可以做出更好的決定，並有了更多的時間。
書中Rolf舉了三個很好的理由 – 其實還有更多的理由 - 為什麼我們該迴避新聞使它們從我們的日常生活中剔除。
1）我們的大腦對不同類型的信息有不成比例的反應，對於一些令人震驚和可恥的新聞不斷刺激我們會有極為強烈的反應。而對於比較複雜的，抽象的及沒有加油添醋的則有著極為微弱的反應。
許多新聞充分利用了這一點報導一些駭人聽聞的故事及“事實”來牢牢吸引著我們的關注力。
結果就是比較複雜的，抽象的，含蓄而深刻的故事都給自動地隱去：儘管
這些內容與我們的息息相關並且有益，新聞給了我們對世界扭曲的看法。
2）新聞是無關緊要的。作者寫道：“在過去12個月，你可能已經看了大約一萬則新聞片段 - 也許每天多達三十則。請你老實說出隨便一則新聞是否有幫助你做出更好的決定 – 對你的生活、事業或生意 - 與沒有這條新聞相比”。
作者還指出：“新聞機構聲稱，他們的信息提供給你更具競爭力優勢。但實際上關注新聞不是什麼競爭力的優勢，而是種劣勢”。
3）讀新聞是在浪費時間。他寫道：“一般人每星期平均花半個工作日在閱讀相關時事，從全球範圍來看，這給生產力帶來的損失是很大的”。
如果我們把新聞趕出我們的生活，什麼是了解世界的一個更好的來源? Rolf的建議是讀很好的研究文章和書籍，沒有比讀書更好的方法了。
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