Doc Edward Morbius ⭕​Sep 8, 2023

On cheap rejection

... As anyone who's implemented an adblocker or similar online annoyance filters is aware, automating the process of distraction rejection is a vastly more effective and less-attention-costly approach. Rather than individually reject cookies, or cookie notices, or trackers, or ads, or various interstitials / "recommendations" / nags / pop-ups / fly-overs, and the like, I've applied and created sets of tools which remove those without my further conscious awareness. Users of PiHole may occasionally check the dashboard blocking statistics and be amazed at how much not only useless but actively counterproductive crud has been avoided.

Information overload requires cheap, fast, regret-free rejection tools.[1] I've come to suspect that worldviews and models specifically function in this manner, identifying key information which we should focus on, and costlessly discarding the rest.[2] The article does nod to this briefly, particularly in the note referencing Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011, but on balance misplaces its emphasis, most especially in its suggestions....

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37440218

An HN response to "Critical ignoring as a core competence for digital citizens" (2022)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/09637214221121570

#Attention #Noise #AttentionEconomy #Filters #BlockFuckwits #Rejection #NoiseRejection #CheapRejection #Disinformation #Misinformation #Propaganda #Advertising #Surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #AdTech

That informational abundance or *disinformational* abundance create a scarcity o... | Hacker News

Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ⭕​Jan 21, 2022

@jec Yes, this is very much what I'm getting at.

There are some Mastodon tools you can use, more on that in a follow-up.

On the concept itself, earlier writings:

Cheap Rejection as a Feature

Builds the idea that cheap and fast no-gregats information rejection is a feature in an information-rich world:

[M]ental models are not simply modeling devices, but information rejection tools. Borrowing from Clay Shirkey’s “It’s not information overload, it’s filter failure”, the world is a surprisingly information-rich space, and humans (or any other information-processing system, biological or otherwise) simply aren’t equipped to deal with more than a minuscule fraction of it. We aim for a useful fraction. It paints an incomplete, but useful picture.

Even a bad model has utility if it rejects information cheaply.

<https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/ab83b940180801391b0d002590d8e506

Refutation of Metcalfe's Law revisited: network effects meet Sturgeon's Law
https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1yzvh3/refutation_of_metcalfes_law_revisited_network/

On bullshit, S/N, craft, respect, and originality
https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1sdvma/on_bullshit_sn_craft_respect_and_originality/

#SignalNoise #Information #InformationOverload #CheapRejection #Models #Satisficing #InformationTheory

Cheap Rejection as a Feature

Cheap Rejection as a Feature I’m increasingly convinced that worldviews / mental models are not simply modeling devices, but information rejection tools. Borrowing from Clay Shirkey's "It's not information overload, it's filter failure", the world is a surprisingly information-rich space, and humans (or any other information-processing system, biological or otherwise) simply aren't equipped to deal with more than a minuscule fraction of it. We aim for a useful fraction. It paints an incomplete, but useful picture. Even a bad model has utility if it rejects information cheaply: without conscious effort, without physical effort, and without lingering concerns or apprehensions. It's a no-FOMO mechanism. Usually, what happens is that we apply our bad models to a given scenario, act, process the new resulting scenario, and notice that that is obviously not favourable, and take appropriate actions to correct the new circumstance. Net loss: one round of interaction. Net gain: not su...

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