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Discussion on: How to Get Smarter Without Knowing Anything

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taillogs profile image
Ryland G

So glad to hear you liked it. I agree that things change fast and sometimes itโ€™s very hard to keep up with trends. I recommend creating some methods to quickly go through the most important trends (through a twitter list or custom reddit).

I also donโ€™t care for memes but sometimes keeping up with that stuff is critical.

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jasonbrown1965 profile image
Jason Brown

Back around 2015 I applied for a journalism grant to study the impact of memes on public debate, and potential positive impact on news flows.

My application was rejected on the basis that it lacked sufficient academic "vigour".

Weird flex for a journalism app, but okay - four years later memes have had a huge impact globally, and continue to do so, as an example of what the author - hi Ryland ! - rightfully suggests.

As for trend monitoring, suggest twitter and reddit, maybe fed through email so it just becomes part of the yeah-yeah daily flow?

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taillogs profile image
Ryland G

Interesting story, there would have been some serious material had you been approved for the grant.

I think memes are unfortunately just a reflection of how global culture has shifted in recent times. Memes epitomize the low invest, high reward model that drives modern news and information distribution.

I use both twitter and reddit, although ironically, twitter is horrible out of the box. Reddit just makes it so easy to minimize the time it takes to find the information you want.

Iโ€™d love to hear more about your efforts. Also thanks for reading and leaving a great comment.