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For fiction I read e-books. However for all technical books, things like O’Reilly, No Starch, etc, I always buy physical. The decision to do that has very much
by Bucephalus355 8y ago
For fiction I read e-books.
However for all technical books, things like O’Reilly, No Starch, etc, I always buy physical. The decision to do that has very much 10x my learning. Even when it comes to long documentation (MySQL is an astounding 5,000+ pages) I’ll usually print out portions to cover if it’s reasonable.
I don’t know why this has increased my learning so much. The best I can come up with is that memory is based on some kind of spatial geography + other stuff. As I’m working on something, like configuring a CentOS server to a lengthy CIS Security Benchmark, I can recall in books what the page looked like, where I was when I read it, the feel of the page, and the part of the text I underlined in pen. Very strange.
- ionised 8y agoI'm the same. I still buy textbooks to this day because I find it far easier to absorb technical information from that medium.
- Rotdhizon 8y agoIn my current job I have a lot of downtime, which means I can do whatever I want for a few hours a day. I try to read but I find it so difficult. I don't know what it is about reading ebooks but I can't hold my attention on them for more than a few minutes at a time. I have a few physical books in my desk that I can focus on very well, but they aren't the ones I need right now. Considering ebooks are typically half the cost of physical books (also that most ebooks can be obtained for 'free' through some medium), it's hard to pull the trigger on getting a physical copy.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoIf you buy from Amazon, some books fall under their "Matchbook" program, where if you buy the paper copy you receive the ebook version for free or small additional cost ($2-3).
- jamespo 8y agoO'Reilly used to do this until they ditched their online store
- icantdrive55 8y agoWow---I had no idea. It's sad to read the reason why they ditched the online store. I was in BN awhile ago. I distinctly heard a girlfriend scolding her boyfriend over a small book purchase. "Only idiots buy books anymore. Just look it up on the internet?" It stuck with me. Don't agree, and found the statement depressing. I repair/service watches. I have learned so much from books, especially older books. Yes--it's a niche field. There are times where I'm looking through a 60 year old book, and find something I didn't know. https://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/why-oreilly-media-no-longer-selling-books-online-607871 https://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/why-oreilly-media-n...
- derrikcurran 8y agoJust to make sure, have you tried an E Ink display? They really make the difference for me. They look very much like paper and ink.
- emodendroket 8y agoAlso the devices are really designed to foster reading and not flitting around.
- H1Supreme 8y agoE-Books may be half the cost of retail books, but there are lots of used books out there at much less than half. Or, free books to read from your local library. Obviously this doesn't applies to all new books, but if you're willing to read older books, there's a lot to read for relatively little cost.
- psychometry 8y agoLiterally the opposite of me. eBooks are searchable, paper books are not. I don't need to search a novel for a particular phrase, but I certainly do for a textbook.
- cgag 8y agoWith real books I find it easy to remember where in the book and what part of the page whatever I read was on, plus I find I'm much more likely to actually sit down and read offline.
- neaden 8y agoFor books I'm trying to learn and retain from, like a textbook or a technical book it really helps me to take notes, underline, highlight, write questions, etc in the book itself. I think it both helps me retain it better the first time and then allows me to review the text later and get more out of it.
- emodendroket 8y agoI find myself often marking up e-books a lot more
- jandrese 8y agoI tend to prefer PDFs for technical books because it has a search feature. Most of the time I'm not reading a 1200 page technical reference cover to cover and of course Indexes aren't always comprehensive.
- emodendroket 8y agoI like physical books for textbooks because they do much better with illustrations and tables and are far easier to flip back and forth in. For anything I"m going to read sequentially pretty strictly I'll go with an e-book.
- pharrington 8y agoYeah, the spatial aspect of books is definitely a factor in why its easier for you (and just about everyone probably) to learn from physical texts than current electronic texts. For myself, though, it's just not resource efficient to use physical copies of all the technical documentation I read. For example, I'm learning Vulkan right now, and there's just 0% chance I'm going to print out 1300+ pages of documentation that's liable to change a few times a year in subtle ways. Then again, just thinking about it now, maybe specifically printing out just the diffs when the spec changes could make it easier to stay up to date?
- commandlinefan 8y ago> for all technical books, things like O’Reilly, No Starch, etc, I always buy physical Same here. I always feel odd when I'm reading a physical book at my desk, though, since I've never, ever, not even once in 25 years, seen anybody else actually reading a book - not even the ones who have a shelf full of them at their desks.
- dmd 8y agoWhere on earth do you work? Everyplace I've ever worked (over the last 15-20 years), people constantly close their doors and read.
- darioush 8y agoWhere do you work that has doors?
- dmd 8y agoI would never in a million years even consider working someplace that doesn't.
- commandlinefan 8y agoHonest question - how do you have that flexibility? I'm qualified as hell - or at least, I look really good on paper. Yet I probably have at least a 3-to-1 rejection ratio for jobs that I'm insanely qualified for. As much as they go on about a "tech labor shortage", I feel pretty grateful when I find full time work because I get turned down so often - plus, I feel like even if I demanded (the quiet that I actually need to work effectively but who cares, right?), they could rescind that at any moment and I'd be left choosing between quitting and being unemployed again or just gritting my teeth and taking what they dish out.
- Apocryphon 8y agoIn Silicon Valley, I've only seen offices for all employees at Microsoft's Mountain View campus.
- SamReidHughes 8y agoFor me it depends on whether the subject matter requires flipping back through pages a lot.
- shostack 8y agoThe issue I've found is that my primary reading device is my Kindle Paperwhite, however for many technical books, that screen size is just not big enough. The net result is that code examples are often too tiny to easily read. Particularly when reading at night with dimmer brightness settings.