I’m convinced that recency bias makes a lot of choices for us. It is probably aided by powerful algorithms that serve us content, but I think there is an opportunity for change.
Content consumption
It is pretty clear if you look at the trends of what’s popular that it’s always something recently produced. The content creation treadmill keeps creators churning out content. To stop would endanger themselves to becoming irrelevant.
TV shows
According to IMDB among the top 10 TV shows are Breaking Bad, The Wire, and The Sopranos. I’m guessing you haven’t watched all of these. None of these had a new episode in the last 10 years, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of watching. Yet we give much more credence to shows which are currently airing or have just been dropped on Netflix.
Books
The same is true of books. If you want a new release you’ll have to wait months on the library waitlist. But you can probably grab a copy of 1Q84 today!
Sports
People love to follow sports, but I don’t think it is just about watching their team play. I asked some guys if they recorded a football game if they would watch it the next day and they said they wouldn’t be interested.
Breaking news
It’s not possible to keep up with the news. But that doesn’t mean people don’t try. I listened to the radio for 10 minutes today and learned about the presidential election, the war in Ukraine, and the stock market. Your mind isn’t capable of taking all this in and so I’d recommend avoiding trying to keep up. If something is important enough you’ll probably get notified in some way other another. Personally, I have a weekly print magazine I read.
Vacations
Nowhere is “new” per se, but destinations become popular and then get flocked to by tourists. Bali, Barcelona, Venice, and many more have become overrun by people wanting to see the location. Often a popular movie or book can inspire crowds. There are plenty of other non-popular options for travel that are wonderful. In fact, comment on this post with what you like and I’ll give you a recommendation.
Work
In my experience recency bias plays a huge role at work. You may get an annual review, but rarely is your work from the beginning considered as much as your most recent performance. Instead of focusing on solving for the big, long-term problem often constant fire drills will get in the way. Businesses do a weekly business reviews and focus so much on what just happened when there could be a longer trend at play. Often a week-over-week changes may just be noise, but lots of effort is put trying to explain it.
I’m convinced that if you are able distance yourself from the constant urgent asks that pull your focus from bigger tasks you’ll accomplish some pretty impressive things. Depending on the culture of the company you may be beyond the event horizon and ever stuck looking at the recent past.
Conclusion
Challenge yourself to try things that are to your liking and not just what an algorithm figured would satisfy you. Recently I’ve watched some older movies and shows. This article is a good reminder for me to reach out to some old friends. Just because I haven’t seen them recently doesn’t mean they aren’t as good as others.