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As much as I respect Mr Newport, a lot of books like his could be one long form blog post (or paragraph!) instead of a 200~ page book.
by sotojuan 9y ago
As much as I respect Mr Newport, a lot of books like his could be one long form blog post (or paragraph!) instead of a 200~ page book.
- jrgifford 9y agoThis is true, however he is trying to explain the idea to multiple people, so he's explaining his ideas in multiple ways. So no, it could not be a long form blog post.
- freyir 9y agoIs the idea that complicated? Can it not clearly and concisely be explained in a way that makes sense to a large audience? We see more complex ideas explained more concisely all the time. It's not just Cal Newport, it's self-help and productivity authors in general. They have an idea, and then they repeat it over and over again until they have a book. Maybe the repetition benefits the reader. Maybe it's easier to internalize an idea when it is hammered into your skull. Or maybe books are just more profitable than blog posts.
- ashark 9y agoI find this even in well-respected and oft-recommended but relatively light non-fic outside the self help genre. Sagan's A Demon Haunted World and Cialdini's Influence both struck me as being twice as long as they had any reason to be, but they're nigh-classics in certain circles. It makes me reluctant to read non-fic, which tends either to be very specialized and ultra-dense (i.e. beyond my reach with a reasonable time investment) or fluffy trash. However, better small-scale (paragraph to paragraph) structure of the text and somewhat higher info-density, or simply being more entertainingly-written, can go a long way. See Graeber's Debt for the former and Fussell's Class for the latter.
- AlexCoventry 9y agoIt's not just exposition, it's rhetoric. Self-help books take a lot of words because they're exhorting you to an ideology, not just explaining things.