2 ms·

I come from the academic world where the right references were (and still are) a big thing. I spent long hours on libraries when gathering information (from whe

I come from the academic world where the right references were (and still are) a big thing. I spent long hours on libraries when gathering information (from when I was a kid to when preparing my PhD in physics). Today my children, when preparing some presentations for school, rely exclusively on Internet, starting with Wikipedia. I told them that one needs to cross check sources and whatnot. To this we went together to our library to do this the right way. What a nightmare. We lost so much time going through books and books to find the averzge size of a horse, or how Versailles was built. All this was readily available on internet, from zillion sources. From Encyclopedia Britannica and from the blog of John Doe who thought that horses weighted 2000 ks. So yes, for non-fiction books are not worth it. Once someone learns to be skeptical (which, by the way, the old "books are sanctuaries" approach will not teach) then Internet is the way to go.

jackdbd 7y ago
> So yes, for non-fiction books are not worth it. Once someone learns to be skeptical (which, by the way, the old "books are sanctuaries" approach will not teach) then Internet is the way to go. I agree. I have been reading/listening to 60+ books a year (~60% books, 40% audiobooks on Audible) for the past 3 years, and I rarely find a tech book more valuable that a collection of blog posts of authors that I already know and trust. I actually find that a good blog post with many insightful comments has much more depth of a book. A nice exception would be one of these short books by O'Reilly (https://gist.github.com/augbog/d65f6600188fece854cb341734c5fd12 https://gist.github.com/augbog/d65f6600188fece854cb341734c5f...). I always reach for them when I want a quick overview of a technology I'm not familiar with. Many other non-fiction books - e.g. almost all self-help books - are also not worth reading, and you could summarize them in a few pages. A few tips: - try Audible if you don't find the time to sit and read a book. I always listen to an audiobook when I go for a walk or do some light exercise. - read book summaries with something like Blinkist (https://www.blinkist.com https://www.blinkist.com) before deciding to read a book. - don't feel guilty leaving a book unfinished. If it sucks, or if it starts repeating itself, stop reading it. - in the case of a non-fiction book, always take notes.

jackdbd 7y ago

> So yes, for non-fiction books are not worth it. Once someone learns to be skeptical (which, by the way, the old "books are sanctuaries" approach will not teach) then Internet is the way to go. I agree. I have been reading/listening to 60+ books a year (~60% books, 40% audiobooks on Audible) for the past 3 years, and I rarely find a tech book more valuable that a collection of blog posts of authors that I already know and trust. I actually find that a good blog post with many insightful comments has much more depth of a book. A nice exception would be one of these short books by O'Reilly (https://gist.github.com/augbog/d65f6600188fece854cb341734c5fd12 https://gist.github.com/augbog/d65f6600188fece854cb341734c5f...). I always reach for them when I want a quick overview of a technology I'm not familiar with. Many other non-fiction books - e.g. almost all self-help books - are also not worth reading, and you could summarize them in a few pages. A few tips: - try Audible if you don't find the time to sit and read a book. I always listen to an audiobook when I go for a walk or do some light exercise. - read book summaries with something like Blinkist (https://www.blinkist.com https://www.blinkist.com) before deciding to read a book. - don't feel guilty leaving a book unfinished. If it sucks, or if it starts repeating itself, stop reading it. - in the case of a non-fiction book, always take notes.