Good insights but too much preaching

I am half way through this book and I think I understand the main ideas. With some of them I agree, however there is also plenty to dispute. The author briefly describes his path to the epiphany of abandoning the news and follows up by calling the reader to follow on his footsteps, listing the benefits of saving time and using it to read proper staff, such as books and in-depth analysis.


While I agree that most of the news are largely irrelevant to one's personal life, it doesn't mean that on a rare but important occasion the information conveyed won't be crucial, specially if you live in a large city. There might be an attack or a riot with the epicentre in your neighbourhood. A new computer virus might have been just discovered or a cloud of chemical waste blown towards your city. The stock market might be tumbling. Yes, you'll eventually hear about it from your friends (if you have friends) but it might be too late.


There is also entertainment value in the news. A person who ate a can of worms in Arizona is a far away freak, but he is still entertaining. Not everyone wants to work constantly on self improvement by reading scientific journals. Some people have plenty of time to spare on nonsense.


Most news is the brightly coloured rubbish sweets, the noise, which the book is convincingly demonstrating. Yet, the author assumes that his reader is a silly child in a sweet shop, while many of us are already adults with some concept of healthy eating.

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Excellent! This book should be required reading in schools

I agree with almost everything said here. Consuming daily global and national news is making us a population of sick anxious, paranoid individuals that have fallen prey to learned helplessness. If you really want improve your life focus on actually taking action on a limited amount of issues you care enough about to deep dive into, and actually have time for. The only thing I disagreed with the author about was physical volunteering Vs giving money to charities . I give money to charities sparingly (I do the red cross, and small sporadic amounts to a few others), but generously volunteer my time with local charities and causes. The reason is I disagree with how many large charities spend money on six figure CEOs and chuggers (paid collectors who harass people on their doorstep and in the street). If I 'm directly involved with volunteering face to face, I get more of a sense of how the funds are being spent

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Very helpful to me in reducing Anxiety

I was anxious following news on the pandemic. After minimising news, I sleep better, enjoy going to supermarket again. Enjoy walks, cooking easy meals.

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2 people found this helpful

Not sure books this short really justify a credit

The book is pretty good, no doubt. A big issue is a book that is under 3 hours long (Closer to 2 hours for me as I listen to them at 1.5 speed) is the same price as other books that are far longer. Quantity doesn't always mean quality, I know. That being said I did enjoy the book even though I'm far from a "news junky" myself, it's interesting to hear from the perspective of someone that was once.

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4 people found this helpful

Good stuff and well argued

I have already stopped reading the news for a week now, or should I say listening to the today programme, watching ‘politics live’, endlessly checking the guardian and listening to PM and watching channel 4 news plus reading the times and telegraph and watching you tube clips. I knew I had a problem and this book has put the argument for leaving the news media cycle into a succinct and mostly well reasoned set of principles. Well worth reading even if you decide to carry on reading the news! He offers alternative ways of being informed and actually taking action rather than endlessly consuming news media and being a passive recipient.

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2 people found this helpful

A Need Text

I have known that The News and Mass Media are terribly unhealthy for quite a while now. This book just clarified why so. It's really a must read.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting and makes total sense.

Will only tailor to those who are not living in a bubble. No sheep required here !!!

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Interesting and challenging

A good read. I enjoyed this and it helped me to see things from several angles.

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Astounding privilege

Anecdote, conflation, repetition, unsubstantiated claim, repetition, lists of headlines, repetition, and HUGE privilege. Don't waste your time.

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