4 ms·

I'm not going to expand too much on this because I haven't made up my own mind about it either, but you strike me as being in the same position. I've grown up

I'm not going to expand too much on this because I haven't made up my own mind about it either, but you strike me as being in the same position. I've grown up online, constantly consuming information and thus building up what to me seemed like a large body of useful knowledge on topics from comp. sci, data science, history, psychology, business, marketing and more. The issue is that just constantly reading articles, books and consuming information has made me think I'm knowledgable, but in reality that knowledge is superficial, shallow, fleeting and hard to act on. Anything I think I know takes way longer to do because of unknown unknowns and a myriad of other factors you just don't get exposed to. To use knowledge you need to internalize and create mental connections and the only way of doing so is by actually doing - not consuming. You may feel smart when you recall something you read months or years ago and share it in a relevant situation - but that's just a tiny fraction of what you've consumed. People don't learn by reading, they learn by doing. The question: "why am I spending so much time consuming instead of acting" is an important question to ask oneself and for me the answer is that doing is boring. My brain has been hijacked by easy dopamine from games, forums (like HN and Reddit), YouTube and even Spotify. All of these easy, on-demand sources of digital dopamine have made all other activities harder to do without getting bored out of my mind. For instance I was learning Ansible 20 minute ago, but I got bored and started wasting time on HN instead. Anyways, while I do enjoy FS, lesswrong, and a handful of other industry bloggers, blogs and aggregators I came to the realization that reading isn't furthering my goals. Only directed attention, effort and completing discrete projects will bring me to where I want to be. More reading: Deep Work - Cal Newport. "Digital Detox" https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqlfWDyS1Io https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqlfWDyS1Io Ps. It's easy to waste time reading about this too. My biggest realization has been that using any forms of digital feeds in the morning wrecks my attention span most of the day.

alexanderdou 6y ago
> Only directed attention, effort and completing discrete projects will bring me to where I want to be. I agree with you here. But I also want to point out that you have to ends to the spectrum of "using information": * At one end: Pure Consuming * At the other end: Pure Doing What I'm getting from what you wrote is that if you're not "Pure Doing" (e.g. doing discrete projects), then you might as well not do anything. Is that accurate?
- dotandgtfo 6y ago
  Not at all, of course you need to stay informed about the knowledge, actors and networks you're participating in. I think we agree here, it's a balance. I'd say optimally 5-30% reading, 95-70% doing. But it depends on what you enjoy, want to spend time on, goals, and other personal factors. If you enjoy reading; read. Also, my post was about my own experiences and observations and was a direct response to quietthrow - he seemed distraught and the emotional angle seemed more fitting than a neutral and balanced response.

alexanderdou 6y ago

> Only directed attention, effort and completing discrete projects will bring me to where I want to be. I agree with you here. But I also want to point out that you have to ends to the spectrum of "using information": * At one end: Pure Consuming * At the other end: Pure Doing What I'm getting from what you wrote is that if you're not "Pure Doing" (e.g. doing discrete projects), then you might as well not do anything. Is that accurate?

dotandgtfo 6y ago
Not at all, of course you need to stay informed about the knowledge, actors and networks you're participating in. I think we agree here, it's a balance. I'd say optimally 5-30% reading, 95-70% doing. But it depends on what you enjoy, want to spend time on, goals, and other personal factors. If you enjoy reading; read. Also, my post was about my own experiences and observations and was a direct response to quietthrow - he seemed distraught and the emotional angle seemed more fitting than a neutral and balanced response.