Ask HN: How do you deal with constant requests to be outraged?
7 comments
I try to mostly ignore everything that I don’t physically interact with in a given month. That tends to focus me on my family, church, work, friends, and hobbies. I simply cannot care about everything, no matter how much I want to, no matter how noble they are.
If it doesn't personally affect you or anyone you know, it's not worth getting outraged.
Although if you feel like you care about the issue, then try and look at all sides to the story and you'll notice the outrage diminish as you reflect on all perspectives/motivations and circumstances of the people in the issue... you'll become objective and calm towards the issue, much like a supreme court judge.
Although if you feel like you care about the issue, then try and look at all sides to the story and you'll notice the outrage diminish as you reflect on all perspectives/motivations and circumstances of the people in the issue... you'll become objective and calm towards the issue, much like a supreme court judge.
Various people argue that one should go on an "information diet". Focus on consuming information that is actionable or likely to be valuable in 1 year, 10 years.
Eg stop reading the news, read non fiction books from the library instead about useful topics, read a history book every 10 years to catch up on current events...
Eg stop reading the news, read non fiction books from the library instead about useful topics, read a history book every 10 years to catch up on current events...
If it’s not adding value to your life, get rid of it. For me that includes the mainstream news. Subscribe to content that interests you via newsletter or RSS. Disengage from content that isn’t enriching your life.
Think of most major news networks as advertisement companies, inclusive of their "news" broadcast. The outrage is there to get people to watch the ads. Social media is just a step more, they want the outrage because it causes reactions and commentary which drives page views. They don't care what the outrage is about.
BBC news tends to have more actual reporting and less outrage but even they have stupid stuff on their home page like "Have Gender Reveal parties gone too far?"
BBC news tends to have more actual reporting and less outrage but even they have stupid stuff on their home page like "Have Gender Reveal parties gone too far?"
I think OP probably means the stuff going on at StackExchange and Gitlab. It's not companies that want you to be outraged to increase profits, but rather community members that want to gather support for change in the platforms they frequent.
Sometimes you just acknowledge that this is not something worth your time, take a couple of deep breaths and regain focus.
You can try out this exercise as well https://howitzer.co/category/fix-stuff/
Tune out the news as much as you can. I think Tim Ferris had a part in his 4 Hour Work week to address this.
Focus on what you can change in the world, focus on providing value and creating things.
Focus on what you can change in the world, focus on providing value and creating things.
However, one can feel numb with the constant flow of outrage-invoking news. How do you handle this? Do you engage? Ignore?