Great post from Seth Godin on people’s deliberate choice to be uninformed. I am continuously amazed how much trash media people consume, yet hardly touch high-quality thoughtful stuff which more available than ever.
Why is it that people will watch what we eat, but not what they read or watch? Why is it they will go to the gym for a workout, but won’t read a book or a blog post which exposes them to new ideas?
How did we get to a place where taking care of our mind suddenly became unfashionable?
It is going to be a really difficult next few years, and we are all going to have to figure out how to add value in a world where money is harder to come by. Jobs-for-life went ages ago, and the kind of jobs where you turn up day after day doing the same thing are getting scarcer by the day – and with the cutbacks in progress, the competition for those jobs will be immense.
Sadly, the people who choose not to keep on top of current affairs (and particularly the economy) are living in a happy little bubble and won’t know the world has changed until the change arrives on their doorstep, in probably quite a painful way. Which is a real pity.
Final word from Seth’s blog post:
Let’s assert for the moment that you get paid to create, manipulate or spread ideas. That you don’t get paid to lift bricks or hammer steel. If you’re in the idea business, what’s going to improve your career, get you a better job, more respect or a happier day? Forgive me for suggesting (to those not curious enough to read this blog and others) that it might be reading blogs, books or even watching TED talks.
As for the deliberately uninformed, we can ignore them or we can reach out to them and hopefully start a pattern of people thinking for themselves…