In these brand new days apart from streaming music platforms for my first time in TEN years, it shapes how I view the larger world. I don't have to own or have access to everything. I know, this runs counter to the Internet age, this push that every book, movie, TV show—whatever medium, should be under our fiefdom.

Now on the surface, such access seems like a good thing, doesn't it? Why wouldn't we want to have everything? Whereas journeys toward the infinite might appear to be a fun ride, we are finite creatures. A succinct analogy: when we are thirsty, we should not attached ourselves to the hose attached to a fire truck.

But, isn't that life in today's Internet age? We are overwhelmed by the 24-hour news downward cycle and the ping pong volley of social media. Music is an extension of this: instead of holding to a valued (and worn) set of albums, it is all about quick access to a flurry of singles, thereby ignoring the nuances of each album and musical morsels. Try it out: put on a favorite vinyl and afterward queue up a single in a playlist; there's a qualitative difference.

Like my cutting the cord of music innovation, I continue to appreciate my departure from daily news and social media—it hasn't been absolute as I was bummed on Friday of learning of last month's passing of Grant Imahara. But, I have otherwise remained ignorant of all that others choose to occupy their minds thereby shaping their worldview for their own real world application.

I came to this realization on my own, or perhaps my recent bruxism with its accompanying TMJ peril informed me.

Turns out, I'm not alone. Today, as I listened to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, I ran across better articulated thoughts that parallel my own experience:

It takes a huge investment in introspection to learn that the thirty or more hours spent "studying" the news last month neither had any predictive ability during your activities of that month nor did it impact your current knowledge of the world.

...

...the mental probabilistic map in one's mind is so geared toward sensational that one would realize informational gains by dispensing with the news.

...

...newspapers do not have to have a screaming headline saying that nothing new is taking place (though the Bible was smart enough to declare ein chadash tachat hashemesh—"nothing new under the sun," providing the information that things just do recur).

Finally, I love this Taleb quote so much that I had to stop immediately what I was doing so that I could record it:

My problem is that I am not rational and I am extremely prone to drown in randomness and to incur emotional torture. I am aware of my need to ruminate on park benches and in cafés away from information, but I can only do so if I am somewhat deprived of it. My sole advantage in life is that I know some of my weaknesses, mostly that I am incapable of taming my emotions facing news and incapable of seeing a performance with a clear head. Silence is far better.