Why I Don’t Stay Informed

Photo by Hatice Yardım on Unsplash

I hope they don’t succeed in destroying JRE. It’s pretty much the only way I stay informed to the extent I want to be informed.

I agree with Nassim Taleb’s observation that there’s no reason to read the daily news, and it’s not good for you. If there’s anything truly worth knowing, it will reach your ears somehow.

Those stray pieces of information are enough for me, though I admire those independents who write articles and essays chockful of links to information that paint a layered picture of a world event. I read them sometimes.

But for the most part, I glance through Internet headlines on my way to things I really want to read, read one or two blogs regularly, read The Kiplinger Letter (invaluable in its pithiness and politically-informed non-partisanship) . . . and listen to the Joe Rogan Experience.

I find it’s more than enough, especially since it leaves me room for stuff I’d rather read, like history. A broad base of historical knowledge is worth more than a quotidian reading of the New York Times for ten years. You can see what’s happening in Kazakhstan and intuitively realize, “It’s just a continuation of the Great Game, which has long been filled with secret ops. There’s more here than meets the eye.”

You can read about Russian troops on the Ukraine border, remember Stalin’s eight-figure…