8: Get Off the Cocaine Pellet Dispenser: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman Made You Think

For some people, yes, computers are necessary and valuable, but for a lot of other people, they are simply accelerating and enabling this useless information consumption.
In this episode, we cover how the Internet, social media, television, and technology is ruining our abilities to think, reason, entertain ourselves, and what to do about it. Amusing Ourselves to Death is one of both of our favorite books, and it was fun to see how much it related to the other topics we’ve been covering.
We covered a wide range of topics, including:
How various forms of information affect our perception The prevalence of fake news now People concerned about others more than themselves Technology negatively affecting our attention spans The psychological aspects of the media and commercials Minimizing technological distractions How technology has changed our conversations Enjoy! If you want more on Amusing Ourselves to Death, be sure to check out Nat’s notes on the book and to pick up a copy yourself!
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to listen to our episode on The Sovereign Individual, to better prepare yourself for the cyber-economic future, and to our episode on In Praise of Idleness, to reduce the guilt to work so much and to improve your leisure time.
Mentioned in the show:
Orwell’s essays [2:37] USA Today [12:50] Buzzfeed [13:05] Business Insider [13:10] Lincoln and Douglas debates [17:09] Pulp Fiction [21:10] Nat’s article on most popular internet sites [28:20] Alexa [28:22] Nat’s 5-day water fast article [30:45] Nat’s article on Buzzfeed vs WSJ [33:46] Neil’s website [33:13] Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine [40:59] The Daily Show [1:02:24] The Colbert Report [1:02:25] Jon Stewart interview fake news [1:05:05] Jon Stewart interview on Crossfire [1:05:37] Crossfire show [1:05:37] Free speech issue on campuses article [1:06:59] Trump’s policies [1:12:55] Trump’s speech in Virginia [1:13:35] The Google Memo [1:16:10] (Nat’s article on this) Made You Think episode on The Sovereign Individual [1:22:05] Estee Lauder [1:25:10] Sesame Street [1:27:50] Duolingo [1:29:18] Nat Chat podcast [1:31:12] Slack [1:36:18] Nat’s Facebook setup [1:41:06] Second Life [1:53:04] Books mentioned:
Amusing Ourselves to Death [1:05] (Nat’s Notes) Brave New World [1:32] 1984 [1:18] Antifragile [9:13] (Antifragile’s Made You Think episode) (Nat’s Notes) It’s Charisma, Stupid [9:25] Thomas Paine's Common Sense [21:56] The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k [22:41] (Nat’s Notes) 50 Shades of Grey [23:15] Musashi [31:36] The 4-Hour Workweek [1:36:50] (Nat’s Notes) People mentioned:
Neil Postman [1:07] George Orwell [1:18] Aldous Huxley [1:32] William Taft [7:20] Abraham Lincoln [7:25] Franklin D. Roosevelt [7:55] Donald Trump [8:30] Barack Obama [8:40] George Bush [8:41] Bill Clinton [8:43] Ronald Reagan [8:44] John F. Kennedy [8:47] Chris Christie [8:52] Paul Graham [9:24] Shakespeare [17:02] Stephen A. Douglas [17:09] Samuel L. Jackson [21:19] John Travolta [21:19] Thomas Paine [21:56] Mark Manson [22:39] James Patterson [26:54] Walden [37:41] Jim Kramer [51:55] Bernie Sanders [1:00:04] Plato [1:09:50] Socrates [1:09:50] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:10:12] Hillary Clinton [1:21:00] Scott Adams [1:21:07] Ted Cruz [1:21:07] Justin Mares [1:36:16] Tim Ferriss [1:36:56] 0:00 - Intro to the book’s discussion, an excerpt being read, and the book’s background.
4:14 - Discussion on how the form of the information portrayed affects how we perceive that information, and some of the informational form shifts that we’ve had so far.
6:57 - The visual components of information, and the power of appearance and charisma on success and popularity.
9:58 - Thoughts on the validity of written things versus other forms of information.
12:20 - Discussion on the media and the change of what now passes for quality knowledge.
17:17 - Talk on the lengthy Lincoln and Douglas debates in the 1800’s and how people we