The Intellectual Obesity Crisis - by Gurwinder - The Prism
gurwinder.substack.com · 1,312 words · saved by 1 readers
Our addiction to information is clogging up our minds with harmful junk
“Our minds are hurt more often by overeating than by hunger.” — Petrarch We evolved to crave sugar because it was a scarce source of energy. But when we learned to produce it on an industrial scale, suddenly our love for sweet things became a liability. The same is now true of data. In an age of information overabundance, our curiosity, which once focused us, now distracts us. And it’s led to an epidemic of intellectual obesity that’s clogging our minds with malignant junk. The analogy of information as sugar is not just rhetoric. A 2019 study by researchers at Berkeley found that…
related reading
- The Intellectual Obesity Crisisgurwinder.blog
- Defetterdefetter.com
- Attention Traps - by Varun Shenoy - Varun's Notesvarunshenoy.substack.com
- A Better Information Diet - Ed Batistaedbatista.com
- Brain Food: Stop Overdosing on Celebrity Gossip and Low-Quality Newsjamesclear.com
- Attention Economyjzhao.xyz
- The internet is already over - by Sam Krisssamkriss.substack.com
- Stand Out of Our Lightcambridge.org
- Desire, Dopamine, and the Internet - by L. M. Sacasastheconvivialsociety.substack.com
- Desire, Dopamine, and the Internetsubstack.com
- On Ultra-Processed Content - Cal Newportcalnewport.com
- The State of the Culture, 2024 - by Ted Gioiahonest-broker.com