Infoslop

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” — Simone Weil

I think Infoslop has a lot to answer for.

I'm not sure if I have invented the word, but I will try and define it and explain why I think why Infoslop makes us less well-informed yet more confident in our (faulty, or at least non-nuanced beliefs). I am taking measures to try and avoid infoslop in my life, but its a journey - I would love to hear from you, how you have successfully achieved this.

To add insult to injury, infoslop takes a huge amount of an average person's free time. But, there might be some positive news, many are wising up to it by reducing their consumption of social media.

What is Infoslop?

Infoslop is the continuous flow of incorrect, misleadingly framed or out of context news that looks like it's merely informing us. It arrives through headlines, feeds and group chats and can be a huge time-suck with regret coming for dessert.

Today's blog defines the problem, shows why it is produced, and sets out some guidelines of how I am tackling this in my life.

Let's start with a definition

Infoslop (borrowing “slop” from workslop) is content that:

1. Is poorly researched — assertions without methods, sources or bounds.

2. Is framed to mislead — selected context to create an emotional reaction rather than understanding.

3. Is torn from context — snippets from more complex underlying material.

4. Biases speed over quality — “what’s new” outranks “what’s true”.

These problems are not created by, but are definitely amplified by digital media sources.

Why it spreads

• Incentives: Most platforms sell attention. Engagement metrics stand in for value, so we are shown what elicits reaction, not what improves judgement.

• Format bias: Ranking systems prefer brevity, certainty and emotion. Well researched information does not pay the bills. Those who do produce thorough research, are required to "sex-up" their research to make it more clickworthy.

• Who and why: Is the author who they say they are? Why are they creating this content?

• Velocity premium: Being first to break a story has a huge premium and that creates incentives to share half-baked hunches

People say “social media is a conversation.” It is not. A conversation implies reciprocity; feeds are distribution systems. The residue left on you is magnitudes larger than any impact you have on them. This is becoming more evident as many users are choosing to spend less time on social media.

Why is infoslop so misleading?

One of the killers of good judgment, is confidence without understanding. How does infoslop get you to this perilous state?

1. Emphasises speed: a sense of being “up to date”. But what do you know of the background?

2. Persuades through repetition: Repetition of falsity is an effective way to side-step evidence. It taps into the idea, that it must be true otherwise someone else would have challenged it.

3. False consensus: Repeated and algorithmically amplified lines make the idea appear mainstream.

4. Made-up connections: Something like x happened because of austerity/immigration/tariffs without any supporting evidence.

5. 'Obvious' framing: Things are described as obvious, or people called terrorists or far-right to justify ignoring what they say.

6. 'Emotional framing': Protests become 'heroes showing up for their country' or 'yobbos threatening the nation', you are being given someone's opinion in the way it is being presented.

7. Overconfidence from thin evidence: strong conclusions formed on weak inputs.

I am trying my best to avoid anything that looks like infoslop, but it is challenging.

An Investor's lens

As an investor, it is very easy to get dragged into infoslop. Rumours, headlines and price moves makes people rush into acting before they miss out on further moves. Investors herd into certain investments due to pure FOMO from seeing infoslop about them. Infoslop degrades investor judgment at each step:

Sourcing

• Rumours and snippets crowd out primary material (filings, transcripts, data releases).

• Narrative loops: one desk note becomes “market consensus” by repetition.

• People keen to talk positively about investments they own, or worse still are selling to you

Interpretation

• Early “hot-takes” anchor people's views before the real story lands.

• Outlier narratives dominate. More balanced analysis get less airtime.

Action

• People are praised for their boldness rather than patience

• Time is lost twice: first in reaction, then in rationalisation.

This is exactly the opposite of good information from which to make an investment decision from.

So what to do instead?

This is definitely work in progress but here is how I am thinking about it:

1) Spend much less time in general on consuming information by removing things that feel like infoslop. Low grade newspapers/websites and social media are making us less smart.

2) Good information like good food is not served up for free. As soon as you enter the free news or social media sphere, you are a sitting duck for infoslop. Some of your sources need to be sources you are willing to pay for. Good sources will have better headlines and better researched material.

3) Go to source. Headlines from reputable sources are prompts for further information, but in general if anything important is referred to, it is worth going to source. I think that applies in particular for health, company news and world conflicts. If you can't be bothered to go to source, its not important enough to form a view on it.

4) Long-form wins: In my humble opinion, one well-researched article or long-form podcast on a topic will beat 100 disparate infoslop sources. There are some excellent interviews out there. I don't need to know what the Telegraph says about Donald Trump or Viktor Orban if I can listen to a podcast where they explain themselves in long form.

Some good filtering questions

1. Can I protect my thinking time?

   1. Will this time investment help me be more knowledgeable about the world

2. Where should I go for info?

   1. 3 trusted sources per domain with a quarterly review.

3. What's the other side?

   1. What are the serious arguments to the contrary.

Mental health benefits

I think of all the outcomes, including better decision-making, the one that sits at the top of the list is mental health. Cutting infoslop will not only make you better informed, it will make you feel better too.

• Reduced anxiety. Deeper dives are less sensational and the negative skew less pronounced. Also, the format will not encourage you to doom-scroll.

• Improved focus. By consuming less media time in general, you will be able to reclaim headspace for reflection and deeper work.

• Greater agency. When you have selected your source and when you choose to read, you can regain control over your attention. You also feel less bullied into thinking a certain viewpoint.

I feel we will look back on this era in 10 years' time and think how did we allow such pernicious content to be delivered to adults and children without any regulation. It will also impede the advance of AI platforms if they are not able to train their algorithms on higher quality human writing, this will require better sharing of the spoils between content creators and AI platforms.

So what:

1. Infoslop is junk info dressed as news - incorrect, out of context, engineered for reaction.

2. Why it fools us: Repetition breeds false consensus; labels/moralising shut down thought.

3. Confidence trap: Thin inputs, strong opinions - you feel informed without understanding. This is particularly dangerous for investors.

4. Do instead: Consume less. Pay for quality. Go to source and favour long-form.

5. Mental health upside: Less anxiety, better focus and sleep, more agency—and more time for what compounds.

Next time: “The death of straight talk.” If you’d like to receive the blog by email, you can subscribe here: Blog | Deciders.