5 ms·
Commoditization of this form of reading is happening as well, the idea usually being something linked to reducing a book to 20 minutes of reading [0]. To me, t
by alextheparrot 6y ago
Commoditization of this form of reading is happening as well, the idea usually being something linked to reducing a book to 20 minutes of reading [0].
To me, this shows what little quantity of value these books actually have. That doesn't mean that the small number of useful ideas aren't of quality, just that they would have been better formatted as essays. Tragic that we can't find a way to align value with form.
[0] https://www.blinkist.com https://www.blinkist.com
- rahimnathwani 6y agoSome Blinkist summaries contain most/all important ideas from the related book. Those books tend to have a simple set of ideas, illustrated by heaps of anecdote and examples. But Blinkist also provides summaries for books that have a lot of ideas and depth (e.g. 'The book of why' by Judea Pearl) which would not benefit from being shortened. In these cases, a summary or blog post can whet your appetite, but isn't a substitute for the book.
- james_s_tayler 6y agoBlinkist honestly just never really helped me. I can't say I feel like anything really stuck. The one way I thought about using it that would probably actually work reasonably well but I was too ADHD to stick with without structural support to keep me on task, would be listening to every single book in an entire category (there can be like 30 odd) and triangulating the core of the subject based off that. Taking copious notes on what shows up in multiple books etc. That idea is basically the 'how to read a book' blinkist version. Though it kind of defeats the purpose of the nice quick summary I still like the idea. Maybe I should try it now that I could probably pull it off.