Maybe you disagree with something that I've said here? In that case, what data do you think generated this advice? What conclusions would you derive instead?
I disagree with your claim that obviously wrong information is still worth reading because it gives you clues into the author's thoughts and the evidence behind them.
This is kinda obvious, but I think that prior experience with successful from following this principle generated the advice. That, and possibly an overestimation of its useful due to the fact that it's counterintuitive- evidence for it could cause you either to overcorrect, or you may be more likely to remember the times when its correct, since those would probably be more memorable. (Alternately, you may be implicitly referring only to reasonably OK writing, or to descriptions of physical events, in which I'd be more equivocal.)
I'd say that bad interpretations are, in general, not worth reading.
Most incorrect interpretations tend to be very similar; once you've, e.g. read one explanation as to why Obama is a Muslim, there's probably very little more to be gained from reading more. This applies to less wrong, or even correct reasoning, as well- if you understood the first, there's probably relatively little to be gained from reading two textbooks covering the same material.
There's no reason to assume that the argument will, in fact, be an interpretation of an event, or, even if it is, that the description will be accurate. Even ignoring, e.g. post-modernist tracts, many accounts involve just making things up. e.g. I ignore anything from the Discovery Institute. (Which would tell me what? Something about what they think they want their readers to know? That's not useful to me, and I could probably make equally good predictions just by introspection.)
Any time you spend reading one thing is time not spent reading something else; just because the account provides a little useful information isn't a good reason to read it.
(Alternately, you may be implicitly referring only to reasonably OK writing, or to descriptions of physical events, in which I'd be more equivocal.)
I was referring more to reasonably OK writing. Obviously one needs some filter for which texts they read.
In Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight W. Swain gives advice on receiving advice:
One way to reduce damage done by cached thoughts is to cultivate a habit of asking questions about the origin of the thought. Do you remember where you heard the thought? Did it come from someone practicing good epistemic hygiene, or do they just unthinkingly pass on anything they hear? If somebody offered advice based on their own experiences, how representative is their experience? What kinds of experiences have they had that prompted that advice? Are there alternative ways of interpreting those experiences? Or if you're the one offering advice, which you came up with yourself, what situation led you to come up with it? How generalizable is it?
So far I have mostly been framing this as a way to notice flaws in seemingly good advice. But there's also an opposite angle: finding gems in seemingly worthless information.
All outcomes are correlated with causes; most statements are evidence of something. Michael Vassar once gave the example of a tribe of people who thought that faeries existed, lived in a nearby forest, and you could see them once you became old enough. It later turned out that the tribe had a hereditary eye disease which caused them to see things from the corners of their eyes once they got old. The tribe's theory of what was going on was wrong, but it was still based on some true data about the real world. A scientifically minded person could have figured out what was going on, by being sufficiently curious about the data that generated that belief.
Some people tend to stop reading a text whenever they come across blatantly incorrect statements. I mind much less. Yes, the person may be generally mistaken, but they may still have some worthwhile points mixed in. Folk theories can be useful, even when they're entirely wrong. What you're reading is somebody's interpretation of an event, which provides information about the event even if the interpretation is wrong. Can you come up with a better interpretation?
Maybe you disagree with something that I've said here? In that case, what data do you think generated this advice? What conclusions would you derive instead?