On Information

it’s because we have generated a cult of experts that we have been subjected to the podcastization of all knowledge. If you “dialogue with the experts” in the right way, it’s as if the knowledge magically becomes yours.

We have begun treating knowledge in an acquisitive way , as if the more little tidbits one knows, the more intelligent one is

But the informational value of the web has been nearly destroyed. Fake News isn’t even the biggest problem. It’s the digital ecosystem’s insistence on stifling curiosity by prioritizing ANSWERS over questions.

Most impactfully, the web has been systematically re-engineered to hinder discovery in order to drive people as quickly as possible to comme... See more

In this world, with content as a supreme cultural value, it’s better for something to be interesting than ethically sound. Widespread attention bestows an aura; becoming content is how reality is made real.

Especially in the age of AI generated abundance, possibly in a post-content-scarcity world, how do we make sense of what is "true art", what is "exceptional"? When so many generations and re-rolls exist, maybe the only thing that matters is that *this* one is special simply because it is the one you chose.

the ideal of limitlessness consumption serves the modern economy quite well, but it does not serve the person well at all.2 This ideal imparts to us all a spirit of scarcity that darkens our experience: not enough time, not enough attention, not enough capacity to care. But upon what does this spirit feed? It feeds, in part, on the temptation to li... See more

A subscriber recently asked me how I decide what information to consume.

The first step is to distinguish good info from junk info. Good info is that which changes you, either by making you think or act differently, or by changing the certainty with which you already think or act. Junk info is the opposite; you’re exactly the same after consuming i... See more

The largest companies today are obsessed with generating content in a completely de-ritualized context. But content always exists in tension with form. Ritual is the form we have abandoned in our relentless quest for content.

I stopped following the news, which doesn’t mean I ignore what’s happening in the world. A system based on creating anxiety, fake urgency, and designed to keep people on their toes stays out of my life. If it’s not an in-depth analysis, a long-form article or a book, it doesn’t get my attention. This article by Rolf Dobelli is a good starting point... See more

Being online more than that just feels like a threat to my creativity. A therapist I interviewed recently told me that digital overconsumption interrupts one’s capacity to dream and create; not to mention, studies of phone addiction suggest that spending too much time hunting for new online trends dulls our ability to appreciate novelty in the real... See more