6 ms·

Most of my professional life involved continually being surprised how little most people actually read.

by mrfusion 5y ago

BrissyCoder 5y ago
As in reading for pleasure?
- blacksmith_tb 5y ago
  Presumably - I have often wondered how much more we all read and write now compared to people 50yr ago (even if a lot of it is in Slack / email / SMS etc.) It does appear that reading books for pleasure is gradually trending down in the US[1] unfortunately, but in terms of raw words read or written, I would think that we're doing a lot more online than we used to do off... 1: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/09/01/book-reading...
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    There's a substantial difference between reading short takes and longer, complex texts. Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book illustrates this in the multiple levels of reading it describes. Critical and synoptic reading of complex works is a developed skill.
- mrfusion 5y ago
  Mostly writing emails and being shocked no one read them. I’m now a two bullet point max kind of emailer.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    Same here. Now if I need to ask someone about something over email I only include a single question per email Because you can be sure that only one will get answered and the rest are just ignored.
    - codr7 5y ago
      And, it will be the easiest to answer / least significant one.
racl101 5y ago
I remember one time being asked at work if I watched some Netflix show du jour ( I believe it was Tiger King at the time) and I replied with: "I don't watch a lot of TV in general. Yes, I have Netflix but don't watch it very often." Then I went to say that in my spare time I like to listen to music and reading. You'd think I'd have said that I'm into being a serial killer. Just weird puzzled and uncomfortable looks. It then struck me that many people, if not most, cannot comprehend spending their leisure time in any way other than passively watching movies, TV or videos on their smartphone or playing video games. And believe me, I'm not saying it just to be pretentious, but a lot of the time, reading is way more exciting than whatever's happening on the small screen. There's nothing wrong with TVs and movies but they're certainly not the only way to spend your leisure time.
- philomath_mn 5y ago
  I am the exact same way, I've watched maybe one or two shows this year and focused on non-fiction books in my free time. I've found it best to avoid saying "I don't watch much TV" though, precisely because of the reaction you mentioned. People will either think I am a freak or just trying to sound smart (or both) - it is a lose-lose situation.
- Spivak 5y ago
  > It then struck me that many people, if not most, cannot comprehend spending their leisure time in any way other than passively watching movies, TV or videos on their smartphone or playing video games. And then you go on to describe your own leisure time as two other passive forms of entertainment. There’s really nothing magic about the written word that makes a medium more challenging, because by historical standards people are literally reading more words than ever. And probably listening to more music than ever too. There’s just as much to dissect and analyze in artsy movies and TV as books and music. Normally when you want to be snobby about leisure time you’re supposed to talk about creating over consuming.
nbabitskiy 5y ago
I wonder what do you read if you keep being surprised.

Most of my professional life involved continually being surprised how little most people actually read.

BrissyCoder 5y ago

As in reading for pleasure?

blacksmith_tb 5y ago
Presumably - I have often wondered how much more we all read and write now compared to people 50yr ago (even if a lot of it is in Slack / email / SMS etc.) It does appear that reading books for pleasure is gradually trending down in the US[1] unfortunately, but in terms of raw words read or written, I would think that we're doing a lot more online than we used to do off... 1: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/09/01/book-reading...
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  There's a substantial difference between reading short takes and longer, complex texts. Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book illustrates this in the multiple levels of reading it describes. Critical and synoptic reading of complex works is a developed skill.
mrfusion 5y ago
Mostly writing emails and being shocked no one read them. I’m now a two bullet point max kind of emailer.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Same here. Now if I need to ask someone about something over email I only include a single question per email Because you can be sure that only one will get answered and the rest are just ignored.
  - codr7 5y ago
    And, it will be the easiest to answer / least significant one.

racl101 5y ago

I remember one time being asked at work if I watched some Netflix show du jour ( I believe it was Tiger King at the time) and I replied with: "I don't watch a lot of TV in general. Yes, I have Netflix but don't watch it very often." Then I went to say that in my spare time I like to listen to music and reading. You'd think I'd have said that I'm into being a serial killer. Just weird puzzled and uncomfortable looks. It then struck me that many people, if not most, cannot comprehend spending their leisure time in any way other than passively watching movies, TV or videos on their smartphone or playing video games. And believe me, I'm not saying it just to be pretentious, but a lot of the time, reading is way more exciting than whatever's happening on the small screen. There's nothing wrong with TVs and movies but they're certainly not the only way to spend your leisure time.

philomath_mn 5y ago
I am the exact same way, I've watched maybe one or two shows this year and focused on non-fiction books in my free time. I've found it best to avoid saying "I don't watch much TV" though, precisely because of the reaction you mentioned. People will either think I am a freak or just trying to sound smart (or both) - it is a lose-lose situation.
Spivak 5y ago
> It then struck me that many people, if not most, cannot comprehend spending their leisure time in any way other than passively watching movies, TV or videos on their smartphone or playing video games. And then you go on to describe your own leisure time as two other passive forms of entertainment. There’s really nothing magic about the written word that makes a medium more challenging, because by historical standards people are literally reading more words than ever. And probably listening to more music than ever too. There’s just as much to dissect and analyze in artsy movies and TV as books and music. Normally when you want to be snobby about leisure time you’re supposed to talk about creating over consuming.

nbabitskiy 5y ago

I wonder what do you read if you keep being surprised.