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I think that if there were a clear outline at the beginning of articles, essays or blog posts like this I might waste less time trying to skim them for the poin
by sosuke 10y ago
I think that if there were a clear outline at the beginning of articles, essays or blog posts like this I might waste less time trying to skim them for the point. I didn't read nearly enough of it to find the author's point but personally I've started skipping over content that doesn't present clear goals up front. If I want suspense, mystery and surprise endings I read fiction.
I would think that "Deep Reading" isn't something you can't do today that you could do yesterday but something that has to be prioritized. I never could find time for fiction in my life today like I could chew through books as a kid. I have to divide my attention now because I have taken on responsibilities outside myself. I simply cannot get lost in a book unless I've planned to get lost in a book that day.
I'm writing awfully different than usual today. Oh look my phone is blinking.
- web007 10y agoTl;dr: infinite information and social streams satisfy our needs, TODOs carry a mental tax, http://project.wnyc.org/infomagical/ http://project.wnyc.org/infomagical/ worked for the author. I really wish this was framed differently, so I'd know there was an answer buried in there. I read this as an informational article, and didn't realize there was a "solution" until paragraph 33 out of 35.
- zodPod 10y agoQuestion, did you count the paragraphs or do you have some extension that does it for you? That sounds helpful..
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoI think I got the point pretty quickly: there is too much useless information out there that we swallow up regardless of value. So I stopped reading after a paragraph or two.
- rmelly 10y agoI would love to see a writing format with something like the following structure: 1) A TLDR of Twitter length 2) A paraphrase of the key concepts and point argued in the article 3) The actual full-length article This way you could ramp up at each stage and decide if it's valuable to keep reading.
- peff 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid I actually agree with your list; I think the inverted pyramid is really about prose construction in an age where print space was at a premium. We can be a lot more free with formatting or redundant information (if it is clearly marked as such) on the web. I mostly wanted to point out that the concept is not new, but as far as I can tell, it has been pretty much forgotten in most modern web journalism.
- 50CNT 10y agoI've been reading some academic papers recently and taking notes in org-mode. What I find is that a lot of information expressed in solid paragraphs becomes a lot easier to parse once you convert them into an appropriate list, tree or graph structure. A surprising amount of the text I've been reading is lists that have some relation ("x is used in x_1,...","x consists of x_1,..."). This ties in to authors deciding to shake things up by adding unnecessary complexity to these simple lists. This kills the reading comprehension. For example K. Merton developed in the 1940s his nor- mative framework for the conduct of sci- ence based on universalism, communalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism becomes K. Merton developed in 1940s a formative framework of scientific conduct based on: - universalism : <definition of universalism> - communalism - disinterest : <note on disinterest> - organized skepticism : <example of organized skepticism> A nice bonus is that that allows me to annotate specific items in these lists very easily, and visually match up items to notes quickly. (Note how that statement itself is a list due to being joined by an "and").
- mbrock 10y agoI've been thinking similar things. Also, diagrams are underrated. Maybe "reading" is a low tech invention that we just don't have the patience for anymore. Instead we want to "explore" a theory or network of statements or social graph. It's pleasant to click around in Wikipedia and get a sense for how different topics relate, but reading the (often turgid and boring) prose seems like work.
- DYZT 10y agoI have a very similar problem of 'get to the main point' in videos. That is why I've built BriefTube (brieftube.net). It gives you instant automatic summarisation of lengthy youtube videos (with more platforms on the way).
- vitd 10y agoI'm torn about this. On the one hand, people are very bad at editing in general and editing video in particular. They post 4 minute videos of something cool or funny, where it realistically could have been trimmed down to 10-20 seconds. On the other hand, this constant need to condense everything, including complex topics, into 10 second sound-bites is problematic, in my opinion. Some topics can't be properly understood without more background or explanation of a position. I'll have to check out your site. Looks like a cool idea. I just hope it doesn't go too far!
- DYZT 10y agoGood point. My app doesn't replace the video as the source, but rather creates a smart way to navigate it. Give it a try. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.
- zodPod 10y agoI'm with you! I complain about this a lot. You go to an article looking for say "A recipe for Kombucha" and, instead of a recipe for Kombucha, you find 6 paragraphs about how great Kombucha is and how the writer's kids love helping them make it and how easy and fun it can be and why it's good for you and stuff. NO. I came here for a Kombucha recipe not to read this fluff crap.