When I was 15 I decided life was too short to follow both basketball and hockey. (And I never understood what Icing the puck meant anyway.)
That was the start of a life-long devotion to ignoring many of the thinkgs people today care about.
I ignore much of the news everyday, starting with the sports pages–except for the NBA–then the gossip page (also known as arts and culture), then the financial pages, and even much of the political pages.
On philosophy and politics, I read books and academic journals and journals of opinion and specialized reports. I read enough of the daily press to do my work and to follow the couple of sports I really enjoy, especially basketball. Even there, I pay a lot more attention to specialized on-line sports journals than the daily press. (Sports writers in the daily press are the worst of journalists, imo.)
I pay almost no attention to popular culture. I follow the arts I love—theater, film, painting and sculpture, and certain genres of music by reading reviews in journals of opinion and as importantly by cultivating knowledgeable friends who have good taste.
Sometimes people say I’m opinonated and it’s true about things I know a great deal about. I have no opinions, however, about many things including some trials that I see people expressing opinions about when then they have no real knowledge and their opinions have no effect on the world.
I have opinions on things I can do something about and where, having and discussing those opinions can give me deeper knowledge about things i love. Thus I have far more opinions (and sometimes controversial ones) about Plato’s Symposium and Miles Davis’ music than about anything most people are talking about today.
Cultivated ignorance has saved me an enormous amount of time which I’ve devoted to pursuing certain interests in depth and getting the joy that comes with deeper knowledge.
I highly recommend it.