Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: the Sigma Xi SmartBrief newsletter

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the Sigma Xi SmartBrief newsletter.

My New Years resolution last year was to read less clickbait and more curated news from trustworthy sources.  This is a resolution I'm still working on.  It still takes effort to remind myself that instead of reading whatever trash I'm reading on the internet, I could instead go read something from one of my trusted sources.  To mix metaphors, someone has already waded through the chaff and picked up a few gems for me: I just need to accept them.  I'll read higher quality journalism by going with curated news.  And if I'm concerned about confirmation bias, these trusted curated sources are undoubtedly better at providing me with balanced news than the algorithms of social media are.

One of my trusted news sources is the Sigma Xi SmartBrief newsletter.  Every day, I get brief summaries of about ten science news stories, with links to their coverage in the popular press.  If it's a big science news story, the newsletter won't miss it, so it's not like I need to keep my finger on the pulse of social media to know what's going on.  The newsletter does a good job of covering a variety of disciplines, so I get reliable news that I probably wouldn't have heard about otherwise.  It's great to hear about the products of scientists' hard work and to get a break from the outrage on social media, and I am thankful.

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