A Better Information Diet

@tags:: #lit✍/📰️article/highlights
@links:: attention, engagement, information diet,
@ref:: A Better Information Diet
@author:: edbatista.com

2023-09-26 edbatista.com - A Better Information Diet

Book cover of "A Better Information Diet"

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PART II: (WE ARE) PRODUCTS IN AN ATTENTION ECONOMY

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(highlight:: As a result, information in the attention economy is carefully engineered to:
Engage System 1, which is "gullible and biased to believe," while avoiding extensive utilization of System 2, which can feel taxing and depleting: Content is short, simple and easily digested. Minimal context is necessary for understanding. Consistency with pre-existing beliefs is carefully maintained.
Trigger emotions in every possible way: Images are arousing or troubling or touching. Outrage and anxiety are stoked repeatedly, and then comfort is offered. Feelings are always ratified, never challenged.
Harness the power of the narrative engine: Just enough data is provided to construct a plausible story. Stories are left open-ended, and the question of "What happens next?" is teased constantly. All stories--fictional and non-fictional--fit within larger narratives consistent with pre-existing beliefs.
Invite social comparison: Representations of other other people are a primary form of content. Most representations are carefully manicured to induce a sense of anxiety. Some representations are deliberate vilifications to induce a sense of superiority. A sense of competition with others is heightened.)
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PART III: DESIGNING AN INFORMATION ECOSYSTEM

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Where you allow your attention to go ultimately says more about you as a human being than anything that you put in your mission statement.
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- consumption, favorite, information diet, attention,

1. Ways of Thinking

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meta-attention: the ability to pay attention to where our attention goes.
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Treat attention like a resource that must be invested wisely.
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Commit to a consistent mindfulness practice, which is a workout in attention management.
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- attention, mindfulness,

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Stop multi-tasking--we think it makes us more productive, but it actually renders us chronically distracted. [20, 21]
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Create the right conditions for strategic thought: A regularly-occurring block of time in an appropriate setting that's of sufficient duration for our needs.
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- attention, deep work, strategy,

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Recognize the cognitive cost of communication interfaces that involve "continuous partial attention,"
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2. Emotions are Attention Magnets

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Get regular exercise, which helps us be more attuned to the physiological signs of emotion.
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Get sufficient sleep--when we're better-rested we're more effective at emotion regulation and experience less anxiety.
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Reduce sources of chronic stress, which hampers our ability to down-regulate a threat response.
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Create the spaces necessary to talk about feelings and write about them, processes that help us manage emotions more efficiently than mere reflection.
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Identify the ways in which our communication tools and devices are designed to trigger a emotional response (particularly anxiety and surprise) in order to provoke engagement, and switch off as many as possible.
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3. The Narrative Engine

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The goal isn't to turn the narrative engine off--that's neither possible nor desirable--but to be more aware of its impact on our behavior.
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4. The Inevitability of Social Comparison

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Be aware of the competitive dynamics triggered via social comparison--and the illusory sense of anxiety and distress that results when we imagine that we're "losing."
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Recognize that information in the attention economy--particularly that presented to us via social media networks--has been carefully engineered to promote deeper engagement via social comparison. User beware.
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CONCLUSION: FOCUS IS A LUXURY GOOD

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Because we have allowed our attention to be monetized, if you want yours back, you're going to have to pay for it.
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We pay in any number of settings to avoid ads, or we accept ads in return for "free" services--paid for, of course, with the currency of our attention. The right to not be interrupted--to maintain our focus--is now a luxury good. The question then becomes: How will you pay for it?
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- attention, focus, favorite, productivity,

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The Art of Self-Coaching: Attention (Stanford GSB Class of 2016 Reunion) (2017)
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You're Not Multi-Tasking, You're Half-Assing (2016)
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Seeing What's Not There (The Importance of Missing Data (2016)
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- to-read,

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[8] When Heuristics Go Bad
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[25] "Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World" (Herbert Simon, in Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest, Martin Greenberger, editor, 1971)
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[26] The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction, page 12 (Matthew Crawford, 2015)
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In Defense of Distraction (Sam Anderson, New York, 2009)
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The False Question of Attention Economics (Stowe Boyd, 2010)
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