Informational fast food: how to distinguish harmful from useful reading

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

As you absorb article after article and book after book, be careful: not all reading is equally useful. The life hacker figured out what to look for when choosing the information to be consumed so as not to waste time in vain.

What is informational fast food and how is it harmful

The food you consume has a huge impact on how your body works. Likewise, the books and articles you read affect the efficiency of your brain.

We are increasingly filling our heads with literary junk equivalent to fast food. You are unlikely to feel its negative effects on your brain in a day or even a week. Likewise, bad food doesn't spoil your stomach right away. However, if you increase the exposure time to a month, a year or more, you will face a frightening reality.

You will grow a whole belly of ignorance.

If you are considering your brain as a library, pay special attention to three things:

• information that you collect in this library, its reliability and importance;
• your ability to find and recall the information you need;
• the ability to apply it if necessary.

There is no point in organizing a whole store of knowledge in your head if you are not able to find what you need among its contents and apply it in practice.

Information trash in your mind is like a drug. It relaxes the brain and makes you feel better for a short time. And the more you consume it, the more you want it - a vicious circle.

However, the brain cannot be fooled. He understands that he does not need this muck. Your body's dopamine levels rise slightly, but nothing good is getting into your library.

The price of this thoughtless consumption is extremely high - wasted time.

In order not to fall into this trap, it is important to filter information and understand what filters it has already passed through.

Information distortion problems

Negative filters can be found all over the place. Nobody canceled the effect of a broken phone.

Imagine a boss who reports to six more levels of managers. What happens at zero level, such as the interaction between a sales person and a customer, usually goes through six filters. The likelihood that after this information will remain accurate enough to make adequate management decisions is very small.

The boss should acknowledge this fact and tell his direct rapporteurs, "I'm not sure I got the right information from you." He will have to turn off the usual path and start looking for more detailed, relevant and objective data from people close to the problem under consideration.

There is another complication associated with this. In our search for a source of wisdom and quality information, we often turn to short phrases taken out of context. These can be quotes, summaries, reviews, or links to specific books.

All this fragmentary knowledge is very deceiving.

Of course, they make you seem smarter and feel more confident. But the problem is that this surface knowledge can be cut off as easily as sod, and there will be nothing worthwhile underneath.

Unfortunately, most people are used to being content with just this level. Therefore, we rarely, if ever, get caught talking nonsense. Our interlocutors are often no better than us. And sometimes they are simply afraid that they themselves will be caught doing the same.

As a result, we rely too much on this illusory knowledge when we have to make decisions. This often happens on a subconscious level. The scenarios for the development of events are varied, the results are deplorable.

How to determine what is worth reading

There is one simple principle that will help you figure out what to put in the library of your consciousness, and what is better to leave outside of it. You only need to pass the information through two filters:

• time;
• details.

The first filter will show how strongly the information is tied to the present moment, how relevant it is. How long will it remain relevant: 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years? If it won't be of any importance soon, you might want to filter it out right away.

One way to test whether information will stand the test of time is to evaluate its accuracy through details.

Parts are small but extremely powerful vitamins that are essential for your reading diet.

You need to learn from people who are versed in a certain area of knowledge. The best filter is a smart brain. Rely on information from those who know what they are talking about.

To assess how competent a person is, pay attention to the details of his story. Articles with shallow content are sometimes deliberately made so that the general public can understand them. However, more often the reason is different: their author has extremely superficial knowledge. If a person cites various sources, this shows that he has carefully filtered the information he is presenting to you.

99.9% of "fast food" articles do not go through these filters.

Remember that even a neglected situation with the consumption of information can be corrected. Read more quality content from established authors and your informational taste will improve. This will help you get used to what real pure thoughts look like and develop your inner filter to automatism. You will be able to distinguish low-quality reading material from real healthy food for the brain at a glance.