I hate Awareness Supremacists and Newsfeed Gluttons.

But let me dial it back a bit first.

For the longest time at my gym, they would have 20 TVs up.

They were all playing the news or music videos.

So I had to be inundated with whatever music was popular or some kind of news because, goddamn it, I can’t exercise blind.

If I look down all the time and look up all the time, my posture’s fucked, and I’m undoing some shit at the gym.

Personally, I really hated being inundated with all this information that wasn’t useful.

The same information that Awareness Supremacists love.

Recently, I moved, and I’m working out in a different location.

This location has no TVs whatsoever.

So if I go to the gym, I can listen to either nothing, music, or a podcast of my choosing.

And I got to tell you, it’s fucking awesome.

When you have less input in your brain, it’s very, very calming.

All this information takes up space in your head, and these awareness supremacists just fucking love it.

They revel in information that doesn’t mean anything because they can’t act on it.

It’s just taking up bandwidth.

Can you imagine how useless it is to know that, in a different country or government, something is happening?

Or that something is happening 2 towns over?

You’re not going to do anything.

It doesn’t really affect you, but, hey, wouldn’t you like to know about it?

Say no.

Do not be an Awareness Supremacist.

Those are the same people who, when you happen to not know something, are like, “Oh, how can you not know?”

“Don’t you care about what’s happening in the world?”

No, not fucking really.

If it doesn’t affect me, I don’t care that much.

And the thing is, I don’t need to access the news to know what will affect me.

You know what’s going to happen when something affects me?

I will be made aware.

I don’t need to be a supremacist to get that awareness.

Someone will fucking tell me.

I live in Chicago, and several weeks ago, there was some fire in Canada, and the smoke was coming toward us.

I noticed it when I left my home one day.

I was thinking, “Oh, it must be another fire or some world-ending catastrophe.

I guess this is how I’m finding out.”

I did not need to go to the news to find out that was going to happen to me.

Now, imagine some fucker in Germany is like, “Oh mein Gott! Can you imagine how hard it is for these people in Chicago and Canada?

They’re breathing in all this smoke!”

What the fuck does it matter to that dude in Germany who’s looking this stuff up?

That’s the same thing a lot of Americans do .

They look up stuff happening in other countries (that may not be cool), and they’re like, “Oh, how can this happen?

Guys, you got to know about this!”

Hey, are we going to do something about it?

“No, you just need to know!”

Cool.

This is the same fucked-up mindset that a lot of tech workers in my field use when they subscribe to all these email updates for every little ticket, every little project, every single thing.

If it doesn’t apply to you, don’t let it into your head because it doesn’t matter.

If it matters, it will reach you.

Someone will tell you. I promise.

I’m telling you all this because I used to be someone who would take in a lot of news and keep up with a lot.

During presidential election years, it can be funny sometimes, but it’s fucking horrific.

I wouldn’t recommend it.

And I wouldn’t recommend it when there’s not a bunch of silly shit happening either.

It’s not worth it.

I swear to you, the difference I felt from exercising in that gym with 20 TVs to a gym with none was staggering.

I feel so much better.

The day is calmer during and after.

It’s a game changer, honestly.

You can do this not just in the physical world, but in the digital world, where the biggest threat is.

The threat being all these fucking news feeds.

Don’t subscribe to them.

Don’t check them if you don’t need to.

(And you pretty much never need to.)

Now, if you’re keeping up with media stuff, like entertainment news, that’s a different thing.

It’s also not very important, but it’s not like, “Oh my God, there’s this real serious thing happening, and I just got to know about it.”

You don’t need to know about any of this shit.

And if you do need to know, you will know, eventually.

When people mention things that I don’t know about, I’m like, “Hmm, my day has not changed.

None of that information was important, and I’m glad I didn’t waste time seeking it out myself.”

It’s great.

If you work in tech and want to not get overwhelmed by shit like this, I have a lot of systems and tips in The Sane Tech Worker’s OS below.

Till next time,

Kevin Tejada