3 ms·

I relate completely with the comments here. I have only recently even managed to finish reading a couple of books, but it took me months. I would really like t

by jmacd 5y ago

I relate completely with the comments here. I have only recently even managed to finish reading a couple of books, but it took me months. I would really like to blame how busy I am (new startup, 3 kids, other commitments), however I see my wife who is a physician who works in 2 departments and also teaches and runs a residency program and I know she is quantitatively much busier than I am and has far less control over her time. However, she manages to read a couple of books a month at least. I think that during the 2000s/2010s when I was sucking in a firehose of information and learning to consume exclusively in places like HN, she was still researching, studying and learning through long form papers, textbooks and experiments. Our brains are trained on very different cadences. So when she sits down to read, there is almost no distraction, her comprehension is far better than mine, and she sort of shoots through a chapter with much better momentum than me. I've recently resolved to stop trying to read anything popular/trendy that I might be attracted to just because it's there and instead only read history, which is my real interest. No more business books or novels I don't really enjoy. That has made a difference and it's already becoming much easier as I am more disciplined about it.

hiq 5y ago
> Our brains are trained on very different cadences. I think this is a very interesting concept. If you're used to quickly finding out which information is relevant or not for you (e.g. from technical docs, emails, etc.), going back to reading a book from cover to cover is a completely different approach from what you're used to. In this case, would it be easier to try to read books just like you usually read, possibly in a non-linear order, starting with what seems to be more important? I know too many people who seem to struggle with reading, simply because they have this idea ingrained in them that they have to read the whole book, from the first page to the end. Even if you're a good reader, it's not clear you want to read a book like this when it's still of unknown quality to you. See also: the levels of reading mentioned in How to Read a Book[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book

by jmacd 5y ago

hiq 5y ago

> Our brains are trained on very different cadences. I think this is a very interesting concept. If you're used to quickly finding out which information is relevant or not for you (e.g. from technical docs, emails, etc.), going back to reading a book from cover to cover is a completely different approach from what you're used to. In this case, would it be easier to try to read books just like you usually read, possibly in a non-linear order, starting with what seems to be more important? I know too many people who seem to struggle with reading, simply because they have this idea ingrained in them that they have to read the whole book, from the first page to the end. Even if you're a good reader, it's not clear you want to read a book like this when it's still of unknown quality to you. See also: the levels of reading mentioned in How to Read a Book[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book