4 ms·

> is just a restatement of the fact that everything enjoyable tends to give diminishing returns. I don't actually think literature, or music, or video games, or

by umvi 5y ago

> is just a restatement of the fact that everything enjoyable tends to give diminishing returns. I don't actually think literature, or music, or video games, or porn, or walking through nature is any different. I disagree - maybe passive-type entertainment like movies have diminishing returns. But lots of genres of books certainly don't. Maybe reading fantasy has diminishing returns, but some genres of books aren't written purely to entertain, but to inform and educate. Reading biographies won't burn you out on biographies due to overused biographical tropes or other mechanisms that cause "diminishing returns" - because biographies aren't made to entertain, though entertainment is often a side effect. They are made to educate you on a person's life and accomplishments.

edanm 5y ago
First, what makes a book any less of a "passive-type" entertainment option? It is basically the same as a movie or tv show in that regard - you're not creating anything, you're consuming content. Second, I'm not sure why you think that you get diminishing returns from fantasy, but not from reading biographies. The biggest problem with both is that you start by reading the best books, but eventually you can run out of those. After you've read the 10 best biographies or 10 best fantasy novels, if you continue, you're necessarily going to read 10 lesser books. [1] Third, it's absolutely true that after reading a bunch of biographies, you start getting used to certain standard tropes and ways of writing. Notes: [1] There is of course no real definitive list of best books, as it's highly individual, and it's hard to know ahead of time which books are the best for you so as you keep reading you can always find more gems. Still, as you read more of a genre, you'll tend to gradually work your way to works that have less chance of being good (though reading a new genre allows you to "restart" this process somewhat, and the more you read, the better you might get about finding good books... so there are ways to mitigate this effect.)

by umvi 5y ago

edanm 5y ago

First, what makes a book any less of a "passive-type" entertainment option? It is basically the same as a movie or tv show in that regard - you're not creating anything, you're consuming content. Second, I'm not sure why you think that you get diminishing returns from fantasy, but not from reading biographies. The biggest problem with both is that you start by reading the best books, but eventually you can run out of those. After you've read the 10 best biographies or 10 best fantasy novels, if you continue, you're necessarily going to read 10 lesser books. [1] Third, it's absolutely true that after reading a bunch of biographies, you start getting used to certain standard tropes and ways of writing. Notes: [1] There is of course no real definitive list of best books, as it's highly individual, and it's hard to know ahead of time which books are the best for you so as you keep reading you can always find more gems. Still, as you read more of a genre, you'll tend to gradually work your way to works that have less chance of being good (though reading a new genre allows you to "restart" this process somewhat, and the more you read, the better you might get about finding good books... so there are ways to mitigate this effect.)