Sharpening the Lens: How I Reclaimed My Information Diet with RSS

Jul 05, 2025

Every day, we’re faced with a firehose of information. Algorithmic feeds on social media and news platforms promise to show us what’s important, but it often feels like they’re optimizing for outrage, distraction, or someone else's agenda. The result is a sense of informational whiplash—drowning in noise while suspecting we’re missing the signal.

A few years ago, I decided to consciously step off this treadmill. I didn't disconnect entirely, but I changed how the information came to me. My solution was a piece of technology that’s been around for over two decades, yet feels more relevant than ever: the RSS feed.

The Four Freedoms of RSS

RSS, or "Really Simple Syndication," lets you "subscribe" to websites directly. Using an app called a feed reader, you get all the new posts from your chosen sources in one clean, chronological dashboard. It’s a simple concept, but its benefits are profound.

Freedom from the Algorithm: This is the most important one. With RSS, there is no secret algorithm deciding what you should see. You subscribe to what you value, and you see it all, in the order it was published. You become the editor-in-chief of your own news feed. No rage-bait, no promoted posts, no content that vanished because the platform decided you weren't "engaging" enough.
Freedom from Distraction: Social media is designed to be a slot machine of likes, comments, and retweets. An RSS reader is a calm, focused space. It’s just the content—the article, the essay, the research—stripped of the distracting social scaffolding. It’s a space built for reading and thinking, not reacting.
Freedom from Digital Amnesia: Ever try to find a great article you scrolled past on a feed days ago? It’s often impossible. With an RSS reader, everything from your subscriptions is saved, searchable, and organized. You don't "miss" things. You can read them when you're ready, building a personal library of ideas that matter to you.
Freedom to Support the Open Web: Subscribing to a writer's RSS feed is a small but meaningful vote for the independent web. It builds a direct connection between you and the creator, bypassing the giant platforms that control content distribution and take a cut of the value

How to Get Started (It's Easy)

Get a Feed Reader: There are many great options available online. I personally use Slack, which isn't built specifically for RSS, but it does include an RSS feature that shows the feed in chats
Find the Feed: Search RSS Finder and input the website URL.

My Current Lens: A Tour of My Subscriptions

To give you an idea of what's possible, this is the feed I've curated for myself. It’s heavily skewed towards technology (especially AI), rational thinking, and finance.

Here is my current subscription list, organized by category.

ZhiZhi Gewu

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