In search of sources of high quality information
(Yeah yeah, I know I said I'd be silent for several days while on vacation. Unfortunately I've come down with what is perhaps the worst sore throat I've had in years, and I've been confined to the house all day. Yuck. But, it has allowed for some Nyqil-induced introspection.)
It started on the shores of Maui during our honeymoon back in 2004. I was reading the book Bull! A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982 - 1999. I read about how the mainstream media told investors like me exactly the wrong thing to do, and how non-mainstream sources (who were actually motivated to tell the truth as they saw it) got it right. I felt pretty stupid, and I resolved not to let that happen again.
Then, the Iraq war happened, and as no weapons of mass destruction were found, it became clear that we had all been duped, not just by our government, but by the mainstream media who had abdicated their responsibility as government watchdog and fact-finder. Bill Moyers' series Buying the War is an excellent summary of just how badly the media failed us in the run up to the Iraq war. (It's also an interesting counterpoint to the notion that the media has a liberal bias. If anything, it may be that the media has neither a liberal nor conservative bias, but a financial bias.)
Then, the housing crash happened. Fortunately, I bought my house long before the real insane part of the bubble hit, but once again, the disconnect between what the media was reporting and what was really happening became apparent when reading blogs like Seattle Bubble and Housing Panic.
What's that old quote? Once is a outlier, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a trend? On three of the biggest issues of recent times, the mainstream media has been wrong. And, when you dig into why, it seems to come down to the financial motivations of the companies involved. Sadly, people often aren't being incented to dig, question, and try to find the truth; they're incented to make money for their corporations. And, while this doesn't guarantee that the truth won't be told, it sure makes it easier to say what people want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Damn that human brain's weakness for confirmation bias.
All my daily news information used to come from mainstream sources. Seriously, I used to be proud of regularly watching the NBC Nightly News and reading Newsweek and The New York Times. Today, I still read mainstream sources (primarily MSNBC.com and The New York Times), but more and more those sources are consumed just so I can have context around random conversations at work and at friends' places, and so I can maintain a feeling for what the nation is talking about. But do I use those sources to make important decisions about what I do in my life (for example, stocks to trade, whether it's a good time to buy a house, or which candidate to vote for)? Heck no.
Pundits are predicting the death of newspapers within the next decade due to a collapse in their financial model. I wonder if their death--along with perhaps the death of other mainstream media--will actually come for a different reason: because people eventually realize that they're just not good sources of information.
And what will replace them? If my personal experience is any indication, it will be a mix of blogs, web videos, and an occasional book, all from sources that don't make money by telling me what I want to hear, but by having a long track record of being able to figure out what's actually happening more often than not. I want to be told the truth, not what I want to hear. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know about it sooner rather than later. And, I'm willing to pay for that kind of information, when I can find it.
I've found many good sources of information through random books, conversations, blogs, and so on, and I guess to "pay it forward" I should be doing the same on this blog. I don't expect every pointer I post to be perfectly factual or accurate, but they will be interesting things that challenge what I see in the mainstream media.
Want to get started? How about these interesting videos, both pointers from the HousingPanic blog:
First, a short but entertaining video arguing for why you should stop trusting what realtors say (and, by the way, after reading Seattle Bubble long enough, you should also be careful of what the mainstream media reports...if they're just regurgitating what the realtors spin to them, watch out).
And second, a ~1 hour speech from Peter Schiff from Nov 13, 2006 (well before the housing bust happened) about the state of the housing bubble and the greater economy. The speech is in eight parts, starting here. Note: Peter Schiff is an economic advisor to Ron Paul, and in case you missed it earlier in my blog, I'm an Obama supporter.
It started on the shores of Maui during our honeymoon back in 2004. I was reading the book Bull! A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982 - 1999. I read about how the mainstream media told investors like me exactly the wrong thing to do, and how non-mainstream sources (who were actually motivated to tell the truth as they saw it) got it right. I felt pretty stupid, and I resolved not to let that happen again.
Then, the Iraq war happened, and as no weapons of mass destruction were found, it became clear that we had all been duped, not just by our government, but by the mainstream media who had abdicated their responsibility as government watchdog and fact-finder. Bill Moyers' series Buying the War is an excellent summary of just how badly the media failed us in the run up to the Iraq war. (It's also an interesting counterpoint to the notion that the media has a liberal bias. If anything, it may be that the media has neither a liberal nor conservative bias, but a financial bias.)
Then, the housing crash happened. Fortunately, I bought my house long before the real insane part of the bubble hit, but once again, the disconnect between what the media was reporting and what was really happening became apparent when reading blogs like Seattle Bubble and Housing Panic.
What's that old quote? Once is a outlier, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a trend? On three of the biggest issues of recent times, the mainstream media has been wrong. And, when you dig into why, it seems to come down to the financial motivations of the companies involved. Sadly, people often aren't being incented to dig, question, and try to find the truth; they're incented to make money for their corporations. And, while this doesn't guarantee that the truth won't be told, it sure makes it easier to say what people want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Damn that human brain's weakness for confirmation bias.
All my daily news information used to come from mainstream sources. Seriously, I used to be proud of regularly watching the NBC Nightly News and reading Newsweek and The New York Times. Today, I still read mainstream sources (primarily MSNBC.com and The New York Times), but more and more those sources are consumed just so I can have context around random conversations at work and at friends' places, and so I can maintain a feeling for what the nation is talking about. But do I use those sources to make important decisions about what I do in my life (for example, stocks to trade, whether it's a good time to buy a house, or which candidate to vote for)? Heck no.
Pundits are predicting the death of newspapers within the next decade due to a collapse in their financial model. I wonder if their death--along with perhaps the death of other mainstream media--will actually come for a different reason: because people eventually realize that they're just not good sources of information.
And what will replace them? If my personal experience is any indication, it will be a mix of blogs, web videos, and an occasional book, all from sources that don't make money by telling me what I want to hear, but by having a long track record of being able to figure out what's actually happening more often than not. I want to be told the truth, not what I want to hear. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know about it sooner rather than later. And, I'm willing to pay for that kind of information, when I can find it.
I've found many good sources of information through random books, conversations, blogs, and so on, and I guess to "pay it forward" I should be doing the same on this blog. I don't expect every pointer I post to be perfectly factual or accurate, but they will be interesting things that challenge what I see in the mainstream media.
Want to get started? How about these interesting videos, both pointers from the HousingPanic blog:
First, a short but entertaining video arguing for why you should stop trusting what realtors say (and, by the way, after reading Seattle Bubble long enough, you should also be careful of what the mainstream media reports...if they're just regurgitating what the realtors spin to them, watch out).
And second, a ~1 hour speech from Peter Schiff from Nov 13, 2006 (well before the housing bust happened) about the state of the housing bubble and the greater economy. The speech is in eight parts, starting here. Note: Peter Schiff is an economic advisor to Ron Paul, and in case you missed it earlier in my blog, I'm an Obama supporter.
Comments