We have moved from the age of Memorized knowledge > Printed books > Digitized info > Search engine > GPTs
Though convenience and speed of getting information/knowledge has increased, we have consistently lost independence of thought with each abstraction layer.
Who decide what is important for you? And who decides which information is correct?
And how?
- The search engines and AI tools decide for you. They decide which digitized information is right, which is important, and what you should reach - Content creators whose objectives may not be same as yours, hence missing the context totally - Through algorithms, which may or may not replicate your way of making decisions
The challenge is that with passage of time, this is getting controlled by very few people.
Fundamentally, the food for your thought is controlled by people who may or may not care for you, and are doing it for some gains - spreading their idealogy, twisting history from certain point of view, or just for financial gains.
We have stepped into the world of misinformation and agenda driven narratives long time back - and more and more convenience seeking is just dragging us deeper into this deep ocean.
This is not a post to rant about concentration of power controlling narratives and what our mind consumes. It is to remind of the risks, and suggest how you can get a little more independence in your information consumption.
Few actionables: 1) Go back to classics for fundamental knowledge. The older, the better. Old can really be gold.
2) Consume long form content. It generally has more logic (for right or wrong) and it can motivate you to think or challenge the narrative
3) Consume content from practitioners and experts. People who are writing from real life experiences. Most of these content may not be in trending format and might be difficult to understand.
They may not be popular as they have no desire to be famous. They may have been too busy doing their work or learning.
4) Read counter thesis as well, if the information you are gathering is critical
5) Go deeper in search result pages i.e beyond first few pages.
6) Ask GPTs to always offer a counter opinion and link to information sources.
7) Question everything. In this world there is nothing which is black or white. We live in shades of gray.
Hope this helps in staying sane, and for being the individual you are. Claim back your agency, and control over your thoughts.
P.C.: Ashish at his Kombucha factory in Sukhiapokhri
#misinformation #authentic #knowledge