jmh530
March 1, 2013, 4:23pm
#21
Barry Ritholtz basically turns off the televisions in his office, saying that things like CNBC provide more distractions than useful information and make you feel like you have to react to every little twist and turn as if it’s the most important thing that ever happened. I used to be in an office that had CNBC on all the time, but now I don’t. I actually think maybe listening for an afternoon a week might be good, just to figure out what they’re talking about, but not to overdose on it.
I have a tv with Bloomberg on near my desk, but I can’t see it at all if I’m looking at my computer and I keep it on mute except when something actually important is going on, i.e. pretty much 99% of the time.
“Some men read Playboy. I read annual reports.” - Warren Buffett
I read the tape, advance/decline lines, breadth, NYSE tick… and way too much sci-fi.
I read my own posts for entertainment and wise words of wisdom.
Cigar Afcienado, Card Player, Zzyzzva, NY Times, Rollingstone, Pitchfork, Playboy, Esquire
Economist, Zerohedge,
No, you just lose the noise for substance. 95% of newsflow is detrimental garbage. Less market for filler.
People used to think this way. We actually had responsible reporting, and distilled thoughts. Not sensationalized ratings driven, polarized 24/7 networks.
^That is true, major news networks used to see themselves as providing a public service to the immediate community. In more ways than desirable, this has been replaced with a much more ratings driven corporate culture. The Walter Kronkites , Dan Rathers of the news world really left some big shoes to be filled.
Yeah, maybe the best question is not the sources, but how do you decide which of the 1000s of pieces of info a day are worth listening to. There are some blogs I follow that do a reasonable job of finding interesting stuff, but I somehow feel that’s not necessarily the best way.
I admit that I occasionally take the Taleb point of view that anything worth knowing about eventually filters up to me, but then I get caught sounding ignorant when something just pops out and it hasn’t gotten to me yet. Of course, this industry has the game of “did you know about this piece of information that I probably scooped,” with the implication that “anyone good must know what I know.”
Barry Ritholtz basically turns off the televisions in his office, saying that things like CNBC provide more distractions than useful information and make you feel like you have to react to every little twist and turn as if it’s the most important thing that ever happened. I used to be in an office that had CNBC on all the time, but now I don’t. I actually think maybe listening for an afternoon a week might be good, just to figure out what they’re talking about, but not to overdose on it.
I read the Economist, though not as regularly as I like, and the WSJ. I like listening to Bloomberg radio more than CNBC and do that sometimes.
Anyway, all this seems to work, but I just get the feeling I could be doing this better.
In our office we had CNBC but the volume was on mute. We didn’t want to hear the noise but wanted to know what were the mainstream headlines.
^yup, was on mute. Always on mute actually. I mean, they come and go these hot talking heads… Now they got Amanda Drury…