Learn how to sniff out fake news with help from machine learning from MIT; how you can improve your to-do list with a “don’t-do” list; and how to maximize your creativity with a simple change in your morning routine. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: MIT Is Using Machine Learning to Sniff Out Fake News — https://curiosity.im/2Df0wq6 Forget the To-Do List, Make a Don't-Do List — https://curiosity.im/2DfxIhe For Maximum Creativity, Start Your Day With Morning Pages — https://curiosity.im/2Df1D8X Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn how to sniff out fake news with help from machine learning from MIT; how you can improve your to-do list with a “don’t-do” list; and how to maximize your creativity with a simple change in your morning routine.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/sniff-out-fake-news-with-machine-learning-and-increase-productivity-with-dont-do-lists-and-morning-pages
CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn how to sniff out fake news with help from machine learning from MIT, how you can improve your to do list with a don't do list, and how to maximize your creativity with a simple change in your morning routine.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award-winning Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Researchers at MIT are using machine learning to sniff out fake news. And their findings might help you sniff out fake news. And this story is not fake news.
CODY GOUGH: Sure. That's just the thing a fake newser would say.
ASHLEY HAMER: Same team, Cody. Same team.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, right. Yeah, sorry.
ASHLEY HAMER: So this isn't the first time somebody has tried to figure out a way to get rid of fake news. Facebook specifically has tried both human-moderated news filters and AI-based ones with questionable success in both cases. That's where MIT comes in. Their computer science and artificial intelligence lab worked with the Qatar Computing Research Institute to employ machine learning systems. Those can make surprisingly accurate predictions based on surprisingly little data.
Broadly speaking, a machine learning system works by attempting to make a prediction, then adjusting its next prediction based on the accuracy of the previous one. The result is that after having run through this process several thousand or million times, the system comes up with a pretty accurate model for getting the right answer.
But if they wanted to make sure the system was accurate, the researchers needed a reliable metric for calling out fake news. So they used MBFC or Media Bias Fact Check. That's a resource that uses human fact checkers to track the biases of more than 2,500 media websites, ranging from major players like CNN and Fox News to low traffic content farms.
The researchers checked the machine's ideas against the MBFC findings, and they wrote about their findings in a new paper, although it hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. At this point, it takes the machine learning algorithm about 150 articles from a particular source to make a judgment call on trustworthiness with about 65% accuracy. It can also figure out if a site is left-leaning, right-leaning, or moderate with 70% accuracy. And you can use their findings to spot fake news for yourself.
The researchers found that the factors that revealed the most about a source's accuracy were its linguistic features. Stuff like sentiment, complexity, and structure. For example, fake news sites used hyperbolic, subjective, and emotional language. And fake news sites also tended to have shorter Wikipedia pages with more references to phrases like conspiracy theory or extreme. Even the URLs could be a giveaway. Special characters and complicated subdirectories were more common in unreliable sources.
Even if you're already good at dodging fake news, the researchers are hoping to release an app that will give you articles across the political spectrum for any given news story. Never hurts to get outside your political bubble once in a while.
CODY GOUGH: How good are you at sniffing out fake news?
ASHLEY HAMER: I think I'm very good at sniffing out fake news, although I think everyone thinks they're very good at sniffing out fake news.
CODY GOUGH: Ah. That's the trick, isn't it?
ASHLEY HAMER: That's the trick. It's like everyone thinks they're a good driver. I'm probably not a good driver, let's be honest.
CODY GOUGH: If you're like me, your to do list is probably about a mile long. But there's a productivity hack that might help you quickly cut it down. It might be time to make a don't do list.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've actually been working on this. And I think I'm getting pretty good at it.
CODY GOUGH: The don't do?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Deciding which things I'm going to do and which things I just am not going to do because what happens is that whenever I get excited about something, I want to do it, and I never pay attention to the rest of my schedule. And then I just get overloaded, and stressed out, and then I hate it.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. I should start doing this.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: Well, this idea comes from Allison Rimm, a management consultant and executive coach writing for the Harvard Business Review. She says that when you make a to do list, you should make not one, not two, but three lists. The first list is for important stuff with no deadline, like buy more socks, or schedule a vacation, Ashley. The second list is for stuff to do now, like email a client or write the script for tomorrow's podcast episode. I'm working on it, Ashley. But that final list might be the most important one, and it's your don't do list.
But hold up. The name is kind of misleading. It's not for things you shouldn't do. Like you're not going to write down, don't waste time on Facebook. Instead, it's for things you're tempted to add to one of your other lists that you just don't have time for. This is where you list things you can delegate to someone else, or stuff that's not in line with your larger goals, or something that's just not as important as everything else on your list.
The don't do list is kind of similar to the idea of swapping I can't for I don't, which we talked about on a previous episode. You won't say, I can't go out tonight because I'm working tomorrow. Instead, you'll say, I don't go out on weeknights. Now, there's another version of the don't do list where you list things you don't do while you're working. Stuff like I don't listen to music with words, Ashley, or I don't work past 6:00 PM, or I flip a my phone upside down on my desk, so I don't see notifications. That's me. Combine the practices that work best for you with a firm sense of your priorities, and you might be surprised at how much you can get done, Ashley.
ASHLEY HAMER: Geez. Before we get to our last story, I want to give a special shout-out to some of our patrons for supporting the show. Thank you, Dave Burchinski, Montecito One, Dane Norris, Steve Guy, and Mary for contributing to our Patreon page. You are a vital part of helping us keep the show going. If you're listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit patreon.com/curiosity.com, all spelled out.
CODY GOUGH: Even a couple of bucks a month would be a huge help. That's less than a subscription to a fake news site. And our patrons get lots of exclusive stuff, like bonus interviews. There's a free bonus interview for everyone, by the way, on our Patreon page right now that you can check out. Go visit us at patreon.com/curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Now that how to be more productive, how about a way to be more creative? Author Julia Cameron has a fix for focusing. And it's called morning pages.
CODY GOUGH: And we're not talking about the New York Times.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, no. We're not these are not pages you read. These are pages you write.
CODY GOUGH: I like it.
ASHLEY HAMER: So the idea is deceptively simple. When you get out of bed in the morning, write three pages longhand, not typed. Write what, you might ask? Anything. Everything. There's no wrong way to do it. Cameron wrote, quote, these daily morning meanderings are not meant to be art or even writing. Pages are meant to be simply the act of moving the hand across the page and writing down whatever comes to mind. Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid, or too weird to be included, unquote.
The point is to get rid of all the petty, silly, stupid, weird thoughts that block your creative expression throughout the day by getting them down on paper. They're not even meant to be read. Just write them down, and put them in an envelope. If you have to, you can go back and read the gibberish you wrote after a few months. But otherwise, keep them out of sight, and don't show them to anyone.
Morning pages might sound ridiculous, but there's solid science behind getting things down on paper and out of your brain. We've talked about how writing your to do list before you go to sleep can reduce anxiety and help you fall asleep faster. And another study showed that writing about a stressful or traumatic event can help reduce anxiety in people who generally express their emotions. So get your pen and paper and start writing. It's so simple, it just might work.
CODY GOUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow with the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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