In this Atlantic Wire series looking at how people stay on top of the news without surrendering to its chaos, Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson shares his tips. One of them is that two filters–a social and an importance filter–are really good ways of identifying what really matters to people. “If I hear about news through social means, and if I hear about it three times, then I pay attention,” Anderson says of his media diet. “Once I identify a long-wave trend, then my appetite is infinite. Whereas what’s going on in Washington today, I may not hear about it for months.”