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It’s been a while since I read 451, and I definitely remember it differently than this portrayal. It sounds to me as if it was more insightful than I gave it cr

It’s been a while since I read 451, and I definitely remember it differently than this portrayal. It sounds to me as if it was more insightful than I gave it credit for. I’ve fallen into the pattern mentioned in the article and book: too distracted to sit down and have a long, quiet read. Part of this is due to having young kids and little high-quality spare time. But part, too, is due to addiction to distraction (such as Hacker News)!

robin_reala 8y ago
Go for short story compilations first and allow yourself distraction only after you’ve finished. That’ll get you back into the reading mindset.
jerf 8y ago
I can give you one secret, which is that despite what you hear in the press, the phone can be a double-edged sword, one that can also cut for you, instead of against you, with just a bit of discipline. Non-zero discipline, but not impossible amounts of discipline. With a book-reading app, you can get through anything, even War and Peace, in ten minutes here, ten minutes there, and maybe 40 minutes in the evening if you can scrape it together. I'm saying this not because I lack the attention span to read for three hours, because I still can... the problem is assembling those three hours when you've got a job and young kids. I've also been learning a foreign language for about an hour a day over the past year and a half, and believe me, very few of those hours have been contiguous. But I can recover five minutes here and five minutes there, and finish up in the evening, and I'm making real progress. (Unlike reading, where the attention being cut up will diminish the impact, once you're memorizing vocab and such, it's actually possible that breaking it up throughout the day is a benefit rather than the same amount of time in one block. It may help convince your brain that what you're doing is important and shouldn't be discarded, because it keeps coming up, rather than being something it can compartmentalize easily.) With a bit of creativity you can turn this to your benefit, or at the very least, somewhat to your benefit rather than merely to your continued disadvantage.
- quicklyfrozen 8y ago
  I had pretty much stopped reading for enjoyment before smart phones. Have plowed through a bunch of books now thanks to the Kindle app. It's a combination of always being with you, remembering where you were across devices, and being able to adjust the font size to whatever's comfortable at the time. The kids getting older doesn't hurt either :-).
  - nvarsj 8y ago
    I consumed a lot of books with Audible last year when I had a commute. It's amazing how much time you can fill during those getting from A to B trips.
beatgammit 8y ago
I have found that I waste most of my time in the evening, when I need to "unwind" and end up watching something instead of reading or being productive in some manner. After working all day and taking care of the kids all evening, I'm mentally exhausted and prefer to have something else distract me until I'm tired enough to sleep. To counter this, I decided to wake up earlier and take my time first. I get up at 5 and then exercise, read, etc, so by the time the kids are in bed, I'm pretty much ready for sleep, and sometimes I read fiction for that last 10-30 minutes until I can't focus enough to read another page. This has made it easier for me to fall asleep and ensures I have time when I'm alert for everything I want to get done. The main downside is that my wife likes to stay up late, so I'm tired for our time together, but I find I can usually go to bed a few hours late once or twice a week and be fine, so it works out. As for things like Hacker News, I try to schedule 5 minute break throughout the day to catch up on that type of stuff. I use the pomodoro technique and catch up on stuff in the 5 and 15 minute breaks while getting a little exercise.
- anderspitman 8y ago
  This. I've been getting up at 5 for the past few weeks. Initially I mostly wanted to be more disciplined, but I quickly realized the value in having my free hours at the beginning of the day instead of the end. Before, my energy level when programming from ~10PM-2AM would be completely dependent on how draining the day had been. The constant distractions throughout the day would also put me in a more fragmented state of mind by the evening. Now, I wake up fresh and spend my best hours reading and hacking on the things that are most important to me. I'm still trying to figure out the right balance for socializing though, since I'm usually braindead by 9PM.

robin_reala 8y ago

Go for short story compilations first and allow yourself distraction only after you’ve finished. That’ll get you back into the reading mindset.

jerf 8y ago

I can give you one secret, which is that despite what you hear in the press, the phone can be a double-edged sword, one that can also cut for you, instead of against you, with just a bit of discipline. Non-zero discipline, but not impossible amounts of discipline. With a book-reading app, you can get through anything, even War and Peace, in ten minutes here, ten minutes there, and maybe 40 minutes in the evening if you can scrape it together. I'm saying this not because I lack the attention span to read for three hours, because I still can... the problem is assembling those three hours when you've got a job and young kids. I've also been learning a foreign language for about an hour a day over the past year and a half, and believe me, very few of those hours have been contiguous. But I can recover five minutes here and five minutes there, and finish up in the evening, and I'm making real progress. (Unlike reading, where the attention being cut up will diminish the impact, once you're memorizing vocab and such, it's actually possible that breaking it up throughout the day is a benefit rather than the same amount of time in one block. It may help convince your brain that what you're doing is important and shouldn't be discarded, because it keeps coming up, rather than being something it can compartmentalize easily.) With a bit of creativity you can turn this to your benefit, or at the very least, somewhat to your benefit rather than merely to your continued disadvantage.

quicklyfrozen 8y ago
I had pretty much stopped reading for enjoyment before smart phones. Have plowed through a bunch of books now thanks to the Kindle app. It's a combination of always being with you, remembering where you were across devices, and being able to adjust the font size to whatever's comfortable at the time. The kids getting older doesn't hurt either :-).
- nvarsj 8y ago
  I consumed a lot of books with Audible last year when I had a commute. It's amazing how much time you can fill during those getting from A to B trips.

beatgammit 8y ago

I have found that I waste most of my time in the evening, when I need to "unwind" and end up watching something instead of reading or being productive in some manner. After working all day and taking care of the kids all evening, I'm mentally exhausted and prefer to have something else distract me until I'm tired enough to sleep. To counter this, I decided to wake up earlier and take my time first. I get up at 5 and then exercise, read, etc, so by the time the kids are in bed, I'm pretty much ready for sleep, and sometimes I read fiction for that last 10-30 minutes until I can't focus enough to read another page. This has made it easier for me to fall asleep and ensures I have time when I'm alert for everything I want to get done. The main downside is that my wife likes to stay up late, so I'm tired for our time together, but I find I can usually go to bed a few hours late once or twice a week and be fine, so it works out. As for things like Hacker News, I try to schedule 5 minute break throughout the day to catch up on that type of stuff. I use the pomodoro technique and catch up on stuff in the 5 and 15 minute breaks while getting a little exercise.

anderspitman 8y ago
This. I've been getting up at 5 for the past few weeks. Initially I mostly wanted to be more disciplined, but I quickly realized the value in having my free hours at the beginning of the day instead of the end. Before, my energy level when programming from ~10PM-2AM would be completely dependent on how draining the day had been. The constant distractions throughout the day would also put me in a more fragmented state of mind by the evening. Now, I wake up fresh and spend my best hours reading and hacking on the things that are most important to me. I'm still trying to figure out the right balance for socializing though, since I'm usually braindead by 9PM.