Your information diet shapes your worldview as powerfully as your food diet shapes your body. Consume mostly outrage → you perceive a world of threats. Consume mostly advertising → you perceive deficits that need purchasing to fill. Consume mostly algorithmic feeds → your reality narrows to what generates engagement.

Designing an intentional information diet means choosing your sources, format, cadence, and depth deliberately — rather than accepting whatever the algorithm serves.

Core principles: (1) Source diversity: vary political orientation, geography, funding model, and format. No single source gives a complete picture. (2) Depth over breadth: one long-form investigation per week teaches more than 100 headlines. (3) Primary sources over commentary: read the actual study, report, or document — not someone else's summary. (4) Scheduled consumption: news at set times, not continuous feed. (5) Strategic ignorance: deliberately not following stories that don't affect your life and where your engagement is being monetized.

A practical information diet:

Wire services for facts (AP, Reuters): lowest editorial layer, used by all outlets. The shared factual foundation.

Long-form investigation for depth (ProPublica, The Intercept, local investigative reporters): actual journalism that changes understanding.

International perspectives for blind spots (BBC World, Al Jazeera English, The Economist): different framing reveals what your domestic media takes for granted.

Primary sources for important topics (research papers via Google Scholar, government reports, SEC filings, court documents): removes the editorial layer entirely.

Subject-matter experts for technical topics (follow actual practitioners on blogs/newsletters, not generalist commentators): the person doing the work knows more than the person commenting on the work.

Drop: 24-hour cable news (entertainment masquerading as information), social media as news source (algorithmic curation distorts), aggregator commentary (opinions about opinions). This isn't about political balance — it's about structural diversity in how information reaches you.