# How to sort through specific information-heavy content ## Web search & *lots* of data Curate the information into classifications to process it more quickly. - Consuming the same content of one subject will more quickly [educate](understanding.md) from the [patterns](symbols.md) you'll detect across the articles. - If you have more than 100 media items and more than 2 broad categories as you observe it, taking the time to [organize](organization.md) the information will save you time in the long term. - If you need, sub-categorize as needed. Don't read things that bore you, since there's likely someone else who made a more interesting version of the same information. - If you must read it, skim the headings to understand the main ideas. Practice speed-reading. - Speed-reading is easily trainable with practice, and absolutely *critical* in an [academic environment](education.md): - The average university student will read 6,000,000 words in 4 years, which at 250 words/min becomes 400 hours. - At merely 300 words/min, that reading time drops to 333.33 hours. - Stop mentally reading each word out loud as if you were saying it. - Pace yourself to read quickly for relatively familiar content and slow down for things you want to more intently want to focus on. - Avoid jumping around or getting distracting by scanning your finger along the text you're looking at. - Learn to group larger chunks of frequently used words together (e.g., "there will be a" instead of "there will" and "be a") - For non-fiction, skip over tons of details by only reading the first and last sentences of each paragraph. - However, it's a *complete* waste of time if you don't understand the information, so don't speed-read to where you don't remember anything. Avoid commentaries on the subject you're reading. - Use advanced search operators to clarify *exactly* what you want, then work outward to a broader topic if you can't find it (e.g., img HTML, PDF, "solved", "best recipe"). - Book summaries often fail to capture the spirit of what the book's author was trying to present, so generally avoid them unless it's for textbooks. - For an image, add as specific a description as possible. Typically, reading through *all* the results is a waste of time. - For a broader understanding, grab snippets of various results. - You don't need to *finish* the book to understand it, especially if it's a self-help book. When sifting through numerical data, learn to "feel" the numbers. 1. Pay close attention to unusual numbers and ranges of numbers that draw attention. 2. You're catching the oddly high or low numbers, so reverse your perspective to see the most *frequently used* numbers. 3. If the unusual numbers are less than 5% of the entire set, they are statistically irrelevant. 4. If you must verify, filter out the unusual ones and count what's left. Get rid of or consolidate duplicate information. - Use the source that's the most convenient or direct and delete the rest. - If you have several systems that manage the same kind of information, try merging them together into one system. ## News Most news is [useless hearsay](stories-storytellers.md). - If you read the news headlines about 1 month from when they break, about 85% of them were already disproven. Most news headlines tend to give the actual events at about the 2nd or 3rd paragraph, so skip ahead to it. Whenever possible, avoid news videos unless they're curated for time. - Most news coverage time involves drawing connections to other things, which should be *your* job as the consumer. For more accurate news, find a good journalism website. 1. Save several of the most interesting articles for each journalist you want to follow. 2. Wait about two weeks. 3. Compare what they're saying with the news updates about the matter since then. News organizations are typically funded by governments and corporations to spread propaganda. - This never really stops, so no news outlet is "safe" from bias. - The only way to fully understand is to consume *both* sides of the story (where the hero politician is the villain, and vice versa). Generally, smaller news organizations have different reasons than larger ones to [distort the truth](image-distortion.md). - Independent journalists tend to be more sincere because their credibility can't take the blows a reputable outlet can. - However, they also can have sincerely *extreme* opinions a popular media organization wouldn't be able to maintain. News outlets work *very* hard to trigger [emotions](mind-feelings.md). - People are more inclined to continuously read stories of injustice and catastrophe than updates on what's actually happening. - Continuous consumption is in the news outlet's best interests, so they prioritize sensationalism over journalism. - Feeling concern over things may make us feel connected, but it's a poor alternative to [legitimate friendships](people-4_friends.md) and [meaningful](meaning.md) activities. ## Social media A social media website is simply every user submitting information into a database for everyone else's consumption. The quality of a social media site comes from *what* people create on it, so avoid wherever most of the users are petty, [toxic](mind-feelings-happiness.md), or [generally unsuccessful](success-1_why.md). Most people addicted to social media are more drawn to the chance at social interaction without the risks of in-person engagement. - Look for more interactive social experiences that involve getting out of your home and going somewhere. - Generally, [one-on-one interactions](people-conversation.md) over the internet create *much* more meaning than large groups. ## Heavy content Most people can't reliably penetrate heavily made content because their thoughts are too busy arguing with the author to purely [understand](philosophy.md) what that person has tried to say. - Every writer, regardless of who and no matter how smart, has a distinct and specific [problem](purpose.md) they're trying to solve, which is critical to understand why they spent their time addressing a topic. - Often, the [cultures](people-culture.md) of the past can make ideas *very* impractical, though also often very [educational](education.md) about [human nature](humanity-universals.md). A specialized author is generally writing for their field of expertise. - To read a reliable [philosophy](philosophy.md) or [history](stories-storytellers.md) text (as well as spinoff domains like [economics](economics.md)), it usually helps to understand the [culture](people-culture.md) of that specific time, as well as *their* perspective of history when they looked back. - To read [math](math.md) and trade-related information (such as [science](science.md)), it requires clearly and simply understanding the basics of the discipline. When consuming something particularly dense with information, you *must* try to think like the author. - The medium of text is limited, so a writer often has to use many words to describe a view that would be straightforward in a more visual or practical example. - Before making a judgment on the content (and adding new information from your views) skim through *all* the creator's works that could associate or contrast the idea you're consuming.