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I'm feeling like Gurwinder's teacher's pet after reading this because the last thing I wrote yesterday was a response to a question asking, "Do smart people actually learn anything from all that reading they do?" In a nutshell, I said, no, not unless they engage the material intellectually and write about it. You have to care enough about what you're reading to find the motivation to write about it. Maya Angelou was once asked what she thought about a breaking event concerning a social justice issue and she responded with a comment that went something like this: "I don't know what I think about most things until I write about it, so it has to be something meaningful to me. I'll let you know after I've written something" That happened in the 1980s and it hit my brain and became lodged forever. I could never be at peace with reading thereafter unless it was subject matter I intended to spend time with intellectually. I note that the person who asked the question as to whether "people actually learn anything from all that reading", well, he NEVER engaged ANYONE in conversation about it. Just posted the question in some kind of smug "Don't I look like an intellectual for asking this question?" way, and then abandoned the ENTIRE conversation. He didn't care about the question he was asking. He just want to appear "smart" for asking. My standard reaction when I notice people doing that is to NEVER engage them again. They're junk dealers.

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Not exactly related but every time I read a book, I re-write all the highlighted lines in my diary. It helps me revisit whatever I found important, and writing it down completely solidifies it in my mind. It's also really fun to go through my diary instead of scrolling on the phone; I get to read such interesting things haha.

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Yeah, I too follow this habit; I add my thoughts on the book's topic after summarising the highlighted lines from the book. I even do this everytime after listening to any podcast episode.

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Oh, I like this idea!

So a follow up, could you give a litte more detail on your process?

Do you use highlighter, or right small notes in the side…

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Hey! So I am almost always reading on the kindle. After completing the book, I revisit the highlighted notes section and copy all of it into my designated notebook by hand.

I only highlight the important parts and/or parts that resonate with me, so it acts as a good refresher or 'summary' of the book! You should definitely give it a try. It's so fun to curate literature for yourself.

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I recommend not eeading on a kindle as the brain engages better with the content when it has a physical location. I read with a pencil in hand and make notes that i often then type out. I try and read asking myself questions about things that catch my attention eg. What else have i read that relates to this etc. It is the links between what you read that is the real gold

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Ooo I like this thread and its associated ideas and practices! I read real books (no kindle) and somewhere along the way I stopped writing notes and only highlighted the books, or underlined/starred passages and /or wrote notes in the margins and between the lines. This drives my husband crazy because obviously it is hard for someone else to read that book and no one can ever sell it or give it away 🥴😔. I’m afraid I don’t know when I started that habit, but I do know why. I started having less time to read and even less time to take notes on what I was reading. This must have been after college and even after we had our first child. However, before that I used to take really good notes (I learned in high school for college prep and just because I had great teachers who demonstrated it.) I also once worked in the education department of an archaeology museum and we taught a class to field tripping middle schoolers. We had to develop the program and we were given the opportunity to take a teacher’s development class (for off site educational opportunities like ours.) most of the things they taught I already intuitively knew, because like I said I luckily had very good teachers (and parents!)

But one of the things they said stuck with me: how kids, really people of all ages, remember things. Telling them something is the least effective method. Telling them a STORY is more effective. Adding VISUALS/AUDIO 🎶/ MOVEMENT increases their memory of the story/information. Making them WRITE down NOTES that SUMMARIZES the information helps them retain it even more, and adding MANIPULATIVES / objects, helps retain the information still more so. Finally test taking can reinforce the information, provided it focuses on APPLYING the information to varying hypothetical situations (and NOT just regurgitating facts. Although for some fields like mathematics and times tables I suppose some rote memorization is perhaps necessary. Although I still think there must be better ways than that to remember times tables!) Hope this helps someone.

I have recently begun to re-learn how to take proper notes again, so hopefully I will stop marking up my books and will make more progress on memory and application. 😘👍

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I’m not a real “writer” per se, like most of the people here, but when I read (or converse) I engage with the material, as you state. My temperament is curious, I enjoy learning, and I engage intellectually with my own thoughts as well as others’ thoughts. This helps me understand people, processes, and society better (I hope.) However I agree mostly with the junk food analogy the author expounds upon in this essay (or article?)

I find there are people who will never answer a question you pose, except with another question (or perhaps some rhetoric around the question to disguise they never answered the question, just posed another question.) I know these are usually called trolls (recently when I was admittedly tired and headachy and couldn’t think, I unfortunately called someone an idiot. Their thought processes were just - UGH 😣.) Most of the time you can never get anything sensible out of them, even in the form of an intelligent disagreement! I call them TIME WASTERS. That’s what they really are. Either intentionally or by default, from being “intellectually obese” or “intellectually obtuse” they simply waste time. 🥴🤦‍♀️🥴

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''You have to care enough about what you're reading to find the motivation to write about it.'' This feels validating. Sometimes, when I write to make sense of the world, without having to intend to share my writing afterward, I feel almost guilty, thinking it's just ''detachment-as-intellectualization'' and that I should be doing something more concrete in the ''real world'', be it educating others or getting involved in various other forms of activism. But no, it's true, writing IS caring. But also, as Ursula K. LeGuin said ''“To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.” So there's a middle ground to all of this.

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Yes. Also really believe this. The chair of my board used to say "write me a paper on it and we will see if you understand the matter". Just been discussing paul Grahams latest on this https://paulgraham.com/writes.html

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Reading sharpens your brain 🧠

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Great thread. My wife tells me the single most impactful thing I can do is to be non reactive to stimulus from interacting with other people as they may be manipulating you in either a good or bad way. Simply try to not react and and act In a manner that has come from your own self. I tend to put credence on her thoughts as she was a professor in psychology at the grand old age of 27 from Cambridge university. Anyway thanks Gurwinder for your thoughts

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Question-What do you mean by react by your own self?

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I can interpret that as, many people are used to getting what they want in a certain way - they can act aggressive, they demean you in subtle ways, they play mindgames to confuse you, and they deny that they do it - charitably, maybe they learned this subconsciously and they have no idea what they're doing is manipulation. And if you are someone who doesn't have a strong sense of what you want or how you act/react, if you're learned to be a social chameleon changing your values around every new group of people, you basically don't have defenses against having new motivations installed. (truthfully I'm trying to work on this)

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I like the obesity metaphor. Although there's a missed opportunity here to extend the metaphor to include "chewing". Part of what makes junk food bad is not just its addictive nature or lack of nutrient-value, but also that there's less chewing involved in these ultra-processed foods (which then forgoes a host of positive biochemical pathways triggered by taking our time to chew).

Similarly, a quick-fix intellectual diet eschews (excuse the pun) the kind of time and reflective work required to think through, and develop one's own thoughts on, the information that one is exposed to.

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First, thank you Gurwinder for this excellent article!

The analogy with properly and consciously chewing the food we eat is point on. As we were tought in biology class: proper digestion starts already in the mouth through proper chewing enabling the saliva to initiate the digestive process.

Look at all the ailments that our way of life has brought upon us. Everything has to be fast. A quick fix. Meal replacements. Microwaveable tv dinners. And on and on. Houses with kitchens that make a chef get tears in the eyes - and noone in that household knows how to cook.

People rushing to work in their vehicle while eating and drinking (what a disrespect to oneself, and to the vehicle),brushing their teeth, combing their hair, putting on make up, getting dressed - and even having sex while going down the Interstate.

And all because some entity long ago instilled in us that this was the way to a better, more rewarding life - whereit has been proven that the opposite is true. Look at all the Scandinavian countries. They did not have to come up with the perverted word "work-life balance". Look at the vacation time and quantity of public holidays people have in other countries - and the existing myth in the US that we outperform others has been thouroughly debunked.

The opposite is actually true (the same goes for large open office spaces vs. smaller ones, that were supposed to increase communication between the employees whereas it only triggers people setting barriers in order to maintain a level of privacy).

After working, free of charge as a salary employee, 55 hours (!) a week(or even more) "to get the job done", which is already 37.5% more than the 40 hour work week as per hiring documents, the productive curve rapidly declines to the extent that one makes more mistakes, that will have to be corrected afterwards, resulting in even more work. And once we become sick from playing by these excessive rules and have lost our usefulness (productivity), we are discarded off like lint.

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Great piece again!

The best way to avoid consuming junk food is to not have it in your house to begin with, rather than relying on your willpower; so the best way to avoid consuming junk information too is to not have it on your device.

Personally, I am not willing to let go of Twitter even though I realize I am inadvertently consuming a lot of junk, so I have to rely on other mental gymnastics. But if nothing else works, get rid of whichever app it is.

People who have done digital detox have spoken well of the experience. You can also do "intermittent fasting" of information!

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I'm a silversmith who works mostly at home, and have been dismayed at how much time I've spent online in the past three or four years. Much of it has been reading meaningful stuff, but still, it's a time-sucker, and my ravenous information gathering probably hasn't really done much for me or the wider world; I like to know and understand things - in my first life I was a journalist who did too much research - but I'm not sure how much difference it really makes. Recently I joined a local studio and have spent many hours there - during my time there I never check anything online, it doesn't cross my mind. And when I come home, I catch up a little bit but with nothing like the intensity of before.

In the early 90s I spent a couple of years backpacking in Africa. The only news we reliably got was about sports, specifically soccer, and whatever local news there was. No doubt we would have heard if there was a nuclear war somewhere. The lesson from that experience was how little of it really mattered to the average person, which is a lesson I seem to have forgotten in the internet age.

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I like the term intellectual obesity. In the prescriptions section, you missed the most obvious and easiest solution to over-consuming junk: don’t just consume. This is not the same as “just don’t consume”, the road a lot of deliberate or high agency people go down, which is abstaining yourself. The abstention can vary in intensity, from a vague sense of shame after scrolling too much, to a highly rigorous system of disciplined screen limitations. I’ve tried this is varying forms, but I never liked it because it feels like I’m fighting a losing fight against nature.

What I’ve found far more effective is bringing up the baseline of consumption from *just* consuming into something more active. The simplest examples of that are commenting on it, or putting it in a playlist. I think anyone who thinks they scroll too much would benefit from trying for a day to comment something, anything, underneath everything they read (practicing what I preach here). Or, if it’s something like music, to curate it into a list of similar things.

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The last few months, after tracking my time more rigorously, I have discovered that not only is browsing a massive black hole for time, but, since I often write fairly long and detailed commenting, commenting is usually a huge portion of that that can turn a 20 minute article or video into an hour of commenting on it. Commenting, especially in high-quality, can be a huge time sink, so if one does not have enough time (as has increasingly been the case for me), I would not recommend browsing and commenting at all, or if you do, I recommend limiting it to only a few limited channels of information so that it takes a limited amount of time instead of hours and hours. Furthermore, in my opinion commenting does not solve the "junk info" problem; it is very easy to get caught for hours arguing with someone you don't know about something that is not very important, or writing a long detailed response to something, that has so many comments on it already people are unlikely to read it. Perhaps browsing and commenting may be better than browsing alone, but in terms of time and effort… Commenting _feels_ easy and low effort enough for me to easily start it, while in actuality taking a ton of time that would be better spent on more worthwhile pursuits. The combination of browsing and commenting, is by far the biggest black hole for my time and can easily push out even things like playing video games due to its supposed "easyness".

Writing and editing this comment (and it could even use more edits; but for the sake of time I will avoid that) has taken over 11 minutes to write as of right now, which is about average for a medium length comment for me. These things take longer than one may think! And that is why they are so pernicious in terms of time.

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Agree - I'd like to think that taking the effort to write a comment is worthwhile (yes, I appreciate the irony). I'm also tracking time spent on comments. (5 minutes).

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I completely agree, the focus on what information will actually make a difference is the correct one.

And not coincidentally, that's also the trait that tends to separate top achievers in any field from those less successful (regardless of experience level or innate talent). Those that focus on what will make a difference outperform those that learn or act for other reasons or purposes.

But I'd argue that in a socially and emotionally responsible person, it's not just about what will make a difference to us personally. It's also about what will (or at least might) make a difference in someone else's life.

For example, when any of us write almost anything, the very act of writing may be enough to make a difference in our own lives. "Writing is thinking," and the understanding it brings may very well change how we behave in the future; that's definitely making a difference.

But that's the *writing*. We don't need to hit the publish button for us to benefit from that. (at least for those of us who don't monetize our writing). So, why do we hit publish? I'm sure that at least for some of us, the reason is that we hope it may make a difference for someone else- even if it's someone we don't know, and even if we can never know for sure what impact it had on anyone.

So, I believe this issue of intellectual bloat doesn't just apply to what information we consume. It also applies to what information we produce - as in actually publish. And for me at least, thinking in advance about what might actually make a difference in someone else's life is also a really good filter for deciding what to invest more of my intellectual calories in when choosing topics to write.

In addition to original posts, I think this also applies to which posts and notes we actually respond to and which we ignore. If I disagree with someone and tell them that, is there really any chance that I'm going to change their opinion (and thus make a difference to them)? And if not, why am I investing my precious time and intellectual calories to do it?

Although this is an unfinished thought, I'll try to close the loop with it since it may offer something that someone, somewhere finds valuable. I think deciding what topics we want to write about might also be a tool we can use filter what information we consume. If I'm never going to care enough about a topic or learn enough about it to write about it, is it really worth my time to consume information about it? So, as writers, we might be able to use our choice of writing topics to support our intellectual diets.

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I wonder why everything is a crisis. I wonder why we now live in an “attention economy” when we might actually live in a thousand different ways, not dominated by economic choices. I wonder why we focus on the outrage generated online, but overlook (or under highlight) the positive feelings generated as well. I don’t know the answers to these questions, and appreciate that this article provoked these wonderments in my mind.

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It is the first time in history that human beings are so connected (so close), and I think that people feel insecure and afraid, people are anxious to know what is happening out there, every minute; and Social Networks give them that possibility. Many people are afraid, they look at Social Networks to find out if they have become a trend or if something they care about has become a trend, so they consume information only for the purpose of seeking to feel sure that nothing is wrong (as for what their own little world) is happening.

What I am trying to say is that one of the possible reasons why people consume garbage information is because the world today is so connected and that makes people feel that they are part of everything that happens. This made me think (and remind) of the Mercerismo religion boxes (from the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), the people linked in these boxes share the suffering of others.

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Superficially closer to more people. But Fundamentally further apart and to fewer people.

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I have been thinking about this a lot lately. You worded it very well, and great comparison to the boxes.

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"You'll probably read this article, briefly consider the damage junk info has done to you, and then return to aimlessly scrolling Twitter." I love this and NO I will absolutely not do that. Instead I will share the article and I will think about it and do the 10/10/10 thing.

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Anger and hatred are indeed very passionate emotions, as passionate as joy and zest yet far easier to invoke and much harder to exhaust. Unsurprisingly, they're often the lifeblood of social media. As you pointed out, headlines are designed to flame bait readers from all factions, consumers of info put out by such journos often espouse a very inciteful and dangerously misinformed outlook on a matter, sparking an equally furious reaction, setting into motion an endless stream of dominoes.

And its precisely for this reason that, when taken to its logical extreme, an unregulated free speech framework morphs into an orthodoxy of ideas guarded by aggressive cancel culture to phase out the cultural dissidents. Much like how an unregulated free market could segue into an exploitative monopoly and neutralise competition in a given industry. Going forward, it'll be interesting how future historians evaluate the current age. An exchange between two guys in an office break room about Reagan during the waning of his Presidency is lost to the nether. But political discussions these days tend to happen in text which has fortified visibility and survivability, ergo should a forgotten exchange between two Twitterati about Trump resurface in say, 2070, merely assessing the transition would be an odd experience, in my opinion.

People used to see the social media metaverse as something alluring and viable largely because it had not had enough time to manifest an end state: it was all about dreams and hopes, potentials and what-ifs, not long term, sober results. Now, we've already entered a period where there has been enough time lapse to broadcast, publish and post not only the "journey," the young-and-hopeful side, but the actual results. And the picture in front of us is not looking very good.

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Very well written,thought provoking article, agree absolutely with u there. My belief is like people are now realising the ill effects of junk food ,one day they will open their eyes too to the disastrous effect of lapping up everything thrown at them under the garb of news.But it might be too late by then.

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It is important to have awareness about what we are consuming. Avoidance is not possible but moderation is possible despite, at times, being difficult. X is my favorite platform and while I admit it can serve as a mindless distraction tool it can also massively improve my learning process when I curate my feed, via my attention, in a productive manner. That takes deliberate effort, which I lack when I am tired or merely want entertainment.

Jack Dorsey understands the attention principle https://x.com/jack/status/1798724351195533728?s=46 which I would expect from one who has managed a social media space.

Thanks for this insightful article!

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Thanks for this. I have been thinking for a while about how various features of modern life are essentially subversions of evolved survival strategies: e.g, gossip is useful in smaller societies for iterative interactions but the online version of it (unlimited, about people you will never actual meet) is wasteful. Will try to write it all out, per your suggestion. Appreciate also any book/long form article recommendations on the subject.

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Yes, many modern problems arise from the fact that we've created for ourselves a world we didn't evolve for, causing many of our adaptations to become maladaptive. It's a concept known as "evolutionary mismatch". Good books about it include 'Unfit for Purpose' by Adam Hart, and 'Mismatch' by Mark van Vugt.

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This is accurate, however, something which I have written about and will be writing about is that what we evolved to do does not have to matter; we are our own masters and are capable of learning and self-programming. The hard part is getting others to take responsibility for themselves and their lives, and then actually having the willpower to change according to your desires and to adapt to the environment.

We are capable of miraculous feats - we must help those around us live better and improve just as we do so ourselves.

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Great article! I like the advice of the 10-10-10 rule. I've been actively trying to not be persuaded into reaching for my phone and forcing myself to be more productive instead. As you said, usually going online is just looking at memes, random posts that make you think for a second, and whatever else. A lot of it isn't too useful or worthwhile. Creating, on other hand, IS worthwhile to me, so I'm trying to do better in just taking care of myself. Not constantly scrolling has certainly helped.

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One of the best things you've written in ages (right up their with audience capture). I find the sheer quantity of information creates both a sense of exhaustion but also, at times, a sense of helplessness. 'everything is awful - I'm going to start ignoring it'.

At the same time, to stand out from the crowd, people need to be louder, make bolder claims, and resort to more outrage to make things work. It's been a shame to see NYT, CNN, and other outlets go down this road.

I'm hoping channels like Substack can make a difference - but we'll see. It feels we're very close to a nadir in the quality of today's media.

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