Is no news good news?

There are constant headlines and sound bites about what is going on in the world. Summarized versions of people’s perceptions, readily available on street poles and at the click of a button. Most of it is bad news. Things we would rather not occupy our minds with. Things that grab our attention and change how we feel. Things that sell newspapers and online advertising.

Is it, therefore, practical for a person to completely ignore current affairs and refuse to let the outside world influence them? Would one be better off by avoiding the negativity, or would one be worse off by becoming misinformed and irrelevant? My view is that sometimes it may be better to ignore the constant reminders of bad news and focus on what we can control daily. One of my friends actually proved this to be true for himself.

During one of our never ending periods of “unprecedented economic decline”, a friend of mine based in Zimbabwe seemed to be doing very well. He was in the process of building a new home, predominantly financed from the proceeds of his side gig which was a wedding entertainment business. I would read daily the government and independent press online and every day I became more and more negative on the future outlook of the country. One day I phoned my friend to verify the contents of the latest ludicrous economic policy launched by my government. My friend didn’t even know about it!

Shocked I asked him how it seemed that I knew more about what was happening in the country than he did, when I didn’t even live there. His response…the news was irrelevant. It didn’t change anything. All it did was distract him from his mission and occupy his mind with many more variables he couldn’t control.

Now any senior leader in a commercial organisation knows that it is important to remain aware of what is happening in the world so that your business can adjust accordingly. Imagine someone in Iran dependent on trade with the West, missing one of Trumps tweets or someone dependent on Chinese tourism when the Corona virus hit. You have to be aware of what is going on. So how do we achieve this balance between being informed, but not controlled by the news?

We are fortunate in that consumption of news media is becoming more personalised. One can choose which sources they trust and well as which content within those sources they wish to consume. We can literally choose the title, the medium, the author or presenter, the topic and the frequency. So if you find morning talk radio on the way to work depresses you then you can avoid it. However, you can catch up on selective economic news later during the day so as to remain informed.

Finally, I recently listed to an interview by a former bank CEO. He was doing a book review as he is an avid reader. He said that he encourages people to read and read a lot because if you don’t read and have the ability to read,you are just the same as someone who cannot read. Potentially we have become too obsessed with the sound bites and headlines and should read actual books that will give us the depth we need to understand the world better. Trading 30 minutes of news portal browsing with 30 minutes of an actual book. Either way, the best leaders I know are very informed about what is happening in the world, but also are able to filter out that which is interesting…but completely irrelevant.