Which one really is the matter of life and death?

Today you will be tempted - pressured even - to stay abreast of current events. To watch the news, to read a few articles, to check the stream of real-time events on Twitter. Resist this impulse.

Remember what Thoreau said: "To a philosopher, all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over tea." Remember what Epictetus said, "If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters."

Unless you're a hedge-fund manager or a journalist, most of the breaking news out there is utterly irrelevant to your life ( to say nothing of it being endlessly manipulative, exploitative and often incorrect ).