(OR: Gorging on Junk Food for the Mind) …
Building on my last Observation, let me get personal. My wife thinks I’m nuts … or, worse yet, lowbrow. I regularly buy the New York Post and the Daily News. Tabloids! And me, a Stanford MBA!
Well, it’s my little version of the “Independent experts” idea above. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and the Washington Post are hardly kindred spirits. Or are they? I’d say they are. Their editorial views are surely at odds, but mostly their reporters went to the same (“good”) schools and report the news according to the Best Practices (occasional slips notwithstanding). In fact I read all three newspapers religiously. But … I also “religiously” read the New York Post and Daily News, the Boston Herald, People magazine … and I never miss Matt Drudge or Andrew Sullivan or 10 to 15 others of their ilk on the Web. What I’m doing (hats off to Mr. Surowiecki) is seeking the “wisdom of crowds.” I AM A PROUD (self-righteous, even) “JUNK READER.” I figure that skimming Many Disparate Sources beats delving deeply into just one or two of the Perceived (Big Word … perceived) Best.
I heartily recommend my Gourmand’s Junk Food Diet for the Mind!