You need to read, apart from your professional interests or your entertainment sources, one mainstream news site. Even if it’s just for less than five minutes a day. There’s no universal need to be a current events junkie, but it is important to know which parts of the world are at war, when earthquakes and floods happen, when world leaders die or transfer power. At least, so that you can be aware if something puts people you know at risk, and so that you don’t look too foolish around the water cooler.
I gave up being a news junkie—it was a time sink, and if I want a time sink I want to do it with things that make my brain happy, like science or literature. But I always, always scan the New York Times. What if something really important happened?
You’d glance it in the “In The News” section of Wikipedia on your way to learning actually useful knowledge. :P
Seriously, even that small chunk of world news is more than enough. If something important happens, your friends will tell you. If it’s something in a domain that is important for other reasons, like AGI, then you should have seen it via more specific channels already. It’s not like knowing who the president is actually matters, and you only get embarrassed once when you find out for the first time.
it is important to know which parts of the world are at war, when
earthquakes and floods happen, At least, so that you can be aware
if something puts people you know at risk, and so that you don’t
look too foolish around the water cooler.
I have rarely found any of these things of any great use, apart from flooding around where I live—that covers 50-100,000 people whereas the mainstream news covers flooding everywhere on the globe—much more information than matters to me.
And as for looking foolish … that’s not a great reason for doing something if you consider it a waste of time.
What if something really important happened?
Well? What if it did? Something really important happened and you missed it … is that so bad?
it is important to know which parts of the world are at war, when earthquakes and floods happen, when world leaders die or transfer power
I don’t read any news sources, though I turn on the radio occasionally. Yet I can’t avoid knowing these things from the blogs I read. I’m far, far from convinced I need to know them, though. There was something recently that I learned it in person, a week late, but I forgot what it was. I was surprised that I hadn’t learned it, so my filter has more holes than I know, but it wasn’t something I cared about.
You need to read, apart from your professional interests or your entertainment sources, one mainstream news site. Even if it’s just for less than five minutes a day. There’s no universal need to be a current events junkie, but it is important to know which parts of the world are at war, when earthquakes and floods happen, when world leaders die or transfer power. At least, so that you can be aware if something puts people you know at risk, and so that you don’t look too foolish around the water cooler.
I gave up being a news junkie—it was a time sink, and if I want a time sink I want to do it with things that make my brain happy, like science or literature. But I always, always scan the New York Times. What if something really important happened?
You’d glance it in the “In The News” section of Wikipedia on your way to learning actually useful knowledge. :P
Seriously, even that small chunk of world news is more than enough. If something important happens, your friends will tell you. If it’s something in a domain that is important for other reasons, like AGI, then you should have seen it via more specific channels already. It’s not like knowing who the president is actually matters, and you only get embarrassed once when you find out for the first time.
I have rarely found any of these things of any great use, apart from flooding around where I live—that covers 50-100,000 people whereas the mainstream news covers flooding everywhere on the globe—much more information than matters to me.
And as for looking foolish … that’s not a great reason for doing something if you consider it a waste of time.
Well? What if it did? Something really important happened and you missed it … is that so bad?
I don’t read any news sources, though I turn on the radio occasionally. Yet I can’t avoid knowing these things from the blogs I read. I’m far, far from convinced I need to know them, though. There was something recently that I learned it in person, a week late, but I forgot what it was. I was surprised that I hadn’t learned it, so my filter has more holes than I know, but it wasn’t something I cared about.