7 ms·

Is this a good book for me, now?

235 points by ingve 3y ago

barrysteve 3y ago
Uhh, yes. This article has a very neutral perspective. The supposed 'reservations' against the article's thesis is just a restating of the article's thesis. Reading books you won't immediately apply is good, and reading books that you will never apply is good. You build an internal map of the problem space. Oversee in a short period of time where people have gone before you. It helps when you know nothing. Yes the book is good for you now, because there was a reason you picked it up in the first place. You don't have to 'experience' or undergo emotional turmoil to understand. Books can be both an emotional journey and packed full of useful knowledge. It's up to you how emotionally invested you become while reading.
- falcor84 3y ago
  >Yes the book is good for you now, because there was a reason you picked it up in the first place. I agree in general, but not with that specific statement. Even if there was a good reason you picked it up, it might not be a sufficiently good reason to spend 10 more hours on it, or to block the queue of other books that would be more valuable to you at that point in time.
  - mangamadaiyan 3y ago
    How do you know the book is (or will be) valuable to you until (a) you finish reading the book, and (b) experience a set of circumstances that make you appreciate the "value" of the book? Is a period of 10 hours (or however many) spent reading a book _so_ important to one that one must judge a book before picking it up?
    - jebarker 3y ago
      I think it depends on the type of book. I agree that you can't really appreciate what value you'll get from literature before reading, digesting and living with it. But lots of non-fiction should actually just be a blog post or some bullet points. There's certainly an opportunity cost to reading those books.
- zen_of_prog 3y ago
  I think the message is useful for people who receive or want to give recommendations. The reason I often pick up something is that it was rated highly on some online review, or that somebody told me I should read it under the assumption that it will be as eye-opening to me as it was to them. > Yes the book is good for you now, because there was a reason you picked it up in the first place. I disagree. That can be the case, but the assumptions under which it was picked up are often wrong, misleading, or become wrong over time. This article sheds light on those assumptions. > You don't have to 'experience' or undergo emotional turmoil to understand. But if I expect an experience and I think the characters are all flat, I'm disappointed. If the book speaks to me, I become more invested. Using recommendations and understanding their subjectivity can prevent you from picking up junk, assuming that's what you want.
- ltbarcly3 3y ago
  I think you are deciding good on an absolute scale, and you are right in that any time you spend actively engaging your mind and growing is not going to be a complete waste of time. In a world where it is often almost impossible to know what effect a book has on you until much later, if at all, it's very hard to know whether a book you just read was 'huge' or just another book. So while I did enjoy the article and applying the little framework to my own reading history, there's no way to know before you read it, and probably even after you read it in a lot of cases, whether a book was the 'right book for you' at a given time. I guess that is the point of the article in the end, you can't reasonably build a book recommendation system based on past reading history and reviews of books. That 5 star you gave Huckleberry Finn, remembering how much you enjoyed it when you were 13, might be a 1 star if you read it for the first time today. Or maybe it would be 5 stars still. There's almost no way to know.
OmarShehata 3y ago
I relate to a lot of this! I have had a similar transformation. I think it's really important and changes practically how you read books. It frees you from this "I need to read these books that X said transformed their life". But also, the small things like, you can just skip a section, or drop a book. If it's not working for you, then powering through it isn't necessarily going to make it better. But also this mindset has allowed me to re-read books, knowing that the "me" is different and I might get something new out of it. I once read an HN comment a long time ago saying "why would you ever re-read books? You already have this knowledge. Seems like a complete waste of time" and I couldn't disagree more, but had trouble articulating why. Next time I will link to this post!
- hammock 3y ago
  7 Habits for Highly Effective People transformed my life. But not before I read it 3 times. I skipped around each time. I still have never read it cover to cover. Most crucially, the valuable parts that transformed me were not the actual seven habits or what the online cliff notes cover, but the other, non-headline concepts taught deep in some of the chapters (specifically: universal spiritual morality, Personality Ethic and Character Ethic, Circles of Concern and Influence, and some others)
  - sBqQu3U0wH 3y ago
    [flagged]
- slothtrop 3y ago
  I've dropped books in the past I just wasn't ready for (too young/inexperienced a reader), and enjoyed them later. On the other hand, these days I feel I can gauge well enough whether it's worth my time to finish what I'm reading. Usually I do, but not always. I get more into a book if I can allow myself a large enough block of time to read it. I had a phase where it was basically the last thing I did in my day, and I'd only chip away at 10-15 min, having to re-read pages, not getting immersed. I still like to read a bit at night but I give myself other blocks.
taopai 3y ago
"Every time someone reads a book a new book is being created." But not only reading. Try going for a walk while thinking about some book your read some time ago. Look for the underlying ideas or story and reflect about it. This also applies to memories. Changing, growing up, can make you change how you feel and reflect about past experiences. I am know reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while having a part time job delivering pizzas in motorcycle. It's a pretty awesome experience.
- mjklin 3y ago
  Watch out for those gumption traps!
- blairbeckwith 3y ago
  "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man."
  - HenryBemis 3y ago
    I have read Siddhartha quite a few times in my life (every 4-5 years). Every time I align with a different character, or with Siddhartha in the various phases. Timing is (almost) everything in life. I read 3-4 years ago "Though shall prosper" and "Half-time" and I could not have picked a better timing for both. I couldn't imagine appreciating either 20 years ago, and it would be "too late" reading them at my 70s. So yes, timing matters. But there is also 1984, which everytime I read it just hits the (same almost) spot!
    - labster 3y ago
      Orwell tends to be a clue-by-four precisely because he knows how people can misinterpret political theory to their own liking.
- epiccoleman 3y ago
  This is something I have been trying to work on lately - just cramming my head full of stuff that can be processed in the ol' background thread. What I have found is that sometimes, some seemingly innocuous thing I read years ago will pop out at just the right moment, some neural connection forms and all of a sudden I have the basis of a whole rabbit hole of interesting thoughts. I think it's important to fill your mind with good stuff, things that have the necessary depth and maybe enough subjectivity that they're ripe for that kind of background processing. You are probably not going to have deep interesting thoughts about Twilight (although maybe you will, no judgment.) But philosophy, poetry, great fiction, even religious texts - they're all crammed with symbolism and really reward re-reads and deep thoughts. A recent example of this for me is Kazuo Ishiguro's book The Remains of the Day. It was mentioned on a podcast I like and so I picked it up on something of a whim during a library visit. The book is about a butler who served a "great English house" and when I started it I was deeply skeptical that I would enjoy it. But it's a great example of the kind of work that really bears out for thinking on, and since I finished it I've really enjoyed turning things over in my mind. I'm usually a genre fiction guy (sci-fi, horror) and a lot of those books just don't have the same depth. I don't mean to disparage "light reading" because I'm truly not that kind of. snide intellectual douche. But it's really fascinating sort of watching your brain pick something apart that warrants deep thought, and it's a really cool feeling to be in some discussion with my wife and think "oh my god, that bit from the introduction of book XYZ is so perfect right now, I need to share it and talk about it." One other book that I've really enjoyed the "post-processing" phase on is The Essential Rumi - the Coleman Barks translation. Those little poems are so rich and full of meaning, and it's seriously rewarding to let your brain go to town on them.
iamben 3y ago
Fiction aside, I started reading the book summary in Blinkist before I read the book. I've found it helpful to a) know whether I want to actually read the book (ie, the fundamental ideas work for/with me right now, as per this article) and b) set me up for "what's coming," which seems to help me digest it a bit better. Obviously YMMV!
- jebarker 3y ago
  I think this a great strategy for many of the many self-help/life management type books that come out now too. They usually contain a few useful nuggets surrounded by a couple of hundred pages of cherry picked anecdotes posing as evidence and/or self-aggrandizing .
  - thanatropism 3y ago
    A better idea yet is to spend the time with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
    - me_smith 3y ago
      What would be a good starting point with Emerson?
      - dunk010 3y ago
        Presumably… Waldo?
    - groby_b 3y ago
      Not without some solid companions that bludgeon transcendetalism. For contemporaries, probably Poe. (On New England Transcendentalism, specifically). Melville and Hawthorne make good reads as well. Emerson, like so many self-help books, offers what looks on the surface trivial and immediately obvious, providing a seemingly simple "if-only" path. Meanwhile, his ideas on individualism have done untold damage to society as a whole. This isn't to imply something simple as "Emerson is wrong". He has valid insights. But reading them in a vacuum, assuming Emerson alone is sufficient reading, is not the best approach. Ultimately, it is no accident Emerson suggests to "set at naught books and traditions", because that is the only way his ideas can survive unscathed. (fwiw, the advice of "read widely" holds for any given book. Never believe one person has the answers)
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
2143 3y ago
> Not getting very much out of Anna Karenina, supposedly one of the aesthetic and emotional heights of human expression and experience, doesn’t feel great. Incidentally, I have very recently stalled a second time on Anna Karenina, generally considered to be a masterpiece. I'll probably revisit it later, but it's just not for me at the moment. Also, The Idea Factory by Pepper White doesn't seem to be very popular (or maybe it is?). I first read it when I was in college and loved it. Re-read it in grad-school and I loved it even more. I think it was because I was in grad-school and could empathize with the main character.
corethree 3y ago
Such a surface level view. Books can lie and deceive and they can be wrong and evil. There's this strange idea that books are good for you and television is garbage. Nothing is further from the truth. Both books and television are just different forms of human output both of which can be bad or good because humans themselves can be bad or good. One isn't particularly better than the other. One thing about books though is the amount of effort it takes to read it. The effort is so great that completion of a book often leads to more bias. Not always but often. The more effort you spend on something the higher positive bias you build towards it. Hence books tend to be more convincing then television which requires zero effort to consume.
- samsquire 3y ago
  I want and prefer things that are in this category of words: good, light, love, faith, kindness, beauty, glory, majesty, magnificence, sophistication, elegance, awe, fruit, colour, right, righteousness, wholesome, truth, noble. I think television, films and books focus on the opposite of utopia. But if you know any that I would like, please recommend.
  - webnrrd2k 3y ago
    fruit? It seems out of place in your list. Is it an autocorrect typo?
    - quercusa 3y ago
      Not the poster but bearing fruit is a common biblical metaphor that fits with the rest of the list. The righteous... still bear fruit in old age. Ps 92
      - webnrrd2k 3y ago
        Oh, yes, thanks -- I read it too literally. It was meant in the sense of "being fruitful".
    - corethree 3y ago
jekude 3y ago
Amazing interview clip by Patrick Collison on his reading strategy (as well as John's) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkh3BHP6KJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkh3BHP6KJ0 Very much echoes some of the sentiment from this article.
thomasfromcdnjs 3y ago
I usually prefer reading over audio books, but if I don't feel like finishing a book, I just play the rest of it as an audio book while I am working.
csours 3y ago
"Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys had a very similar effect for me. Some of those songs hit different after different life experiences. I feel like a lot of people have album(s) like this, I'd love it if you shared.
- aidenn0 3y ago
  The album Days of Future Past by The Moody Blues is that way for me. As far as individual tracks: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (From Pet Sounds) certainly hits differently depending on when you hear it. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac has a similar effect for me.
carlossouza 3y ago
> Third, book recommendation systems based on your reading history can be helpful, but only so much. Book recommendation systems should be a hybrid system with content-based filtering and collaborative filtering systems. Reading history (lagging indicator) + browsing history (leading indicator) would form the basis of a content-based filtering. The collaborative filtering part would ensure the system compares users with same reading patterns. A system like this should address all author's concerns.
- nottorp 3y ago
  I think that at least once in a while one should read/watch something that is not recommended based on stuff they've read/watched before. Helps keeping the brain fresh.
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  There's lots of thornier issues that doesn't solve, like the famous Napoleon Dynamite problem from the Netflix challenge.
karaterobot 3y ago
> First, skipping sections that aren’t good. > Second, dropping books that aren’t good. I agree. This alone will make pretty much anyone read more, learn more, and enjoy it more. Too many people feel this weird sense of responsibility: having opened the book, I must read every word, in order, until the last page, or I have failed at my job. A healthier perspective is that books are there for you to use and throw away as needed, not a sacred burden.
- nottorp 3y ago
  Yes yes yes. Drop them if they don't click with you. Life's too short. I've even dropped a book by one of my favorite authors once. I just couldn't stand it [Makes note to check what Neal Stephenson wrote after Seveneves].
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
balaji1 3y ago
the hardest part of consuming info from books or online, especially online info, is to figure out how to calibrate that info for you. Lets say you are techie in your late 20s earning decently, living in a bubble of a unique society. What is good advise that you can apply as action immediately? That said, there are timeless advice. But those sometimes require a huge will power and straying from norm of today to incorporate.
brailsafe 3y ago
Absolutely agreed. A corollary to these points has been something I've been coming to terms with for the last 2 years or so, which is the idea of not spreading oneself to thin by continually trying things they're unprepared to commit to; while there are practically endless opportunities for inspiration, consumption, expressing creativity, or learning, it's probable that if they're worthwhile, they require a certain amount of immersion, and it's much easier to be excited about something than it is to shift anything else in your life out of the way to truly involve yourself with a new one. New hobbies and skills have a cost beyond their price. You're ready to learn to skateboard when you're 10 years old because fitness doesn't really matter, consequences don't really matter, and there's nothing else really competing for your attention. Same with Baldur's Gate. But you're not necessarily empowered to do either, someone else has to buy you the thing to get started. Later on, you become empowered to buy anything in your budget, but the liar in you pretends that you're actually in a position to learn to do it, even though the value it provides is tenuous at best. So you buy the skateboard because you've spent 10 years of adult life getting fat and increasing your investments, and today is the day to do something you literally need no other commitments on the calendar for, because you saw your buddy still does from time to time, not realizing that the purchase is the most trivial aspect and actually it'll take 5 hrs a week for a year before your core muscles can even keep you upright. The skateboard goes into storage, and you go back to whatever you've always done. By appreciating that any given thing takes a lot of work, you can better prepare yourself for the real practice of doing it, and reduce the likelihood that a new prospect will be a flash in the pan. You'll need at least the ability to allocate the time and money, because you'll need reps, and reps take commitment. Reading the book on Postgres internals is very unlikely to be valuable if you haven't ever heard of a database, have no use for one, or aren't a technical person of any kind, and you don't become one by buying it and putting it on your kindle for that one long flight. That said, it's easy to become too conservative, and you need to figure out when something that you have committed to has declined in significance or is demanding more than it produces in reward, at which time you should start considering what else you might do.

235 points by ingve 3y ago

Uhh, yes. This article has a very neutral perspective. The supposed 'reservations' against the article's thesis is just a restating of the article's thesis. Reading books you won't immediately apply is good, and reading books that you will never apply is good. You build an internal map of the problem space. Oversee in a short period of time where people have gone before you. It helps when you know nothing. Yes the book is good for you now, because there was a reason you picked it up in the first place. You don't have to 'experience' or undergo emotional turmoil to understand. Books can be both an emotional journey and packed full of useful knowledge. It's up to you how emotionally invested you become while reading.

falcor84 3y ago
>Yes the book is good for you now, because there was a reason you picked it up in the first place. I agree in general, but not with that specific statement. Even if there was a good reason you picked it up, it might not be a sufficiently good reason to spend 10 more hours on it, or to block the queue of other books that would be more valuable to you at that point in time.
- mangamadaiyan 3y ago
  How do you know the book is (or will be) valuable to you until (a) you finish reading the book, and (b) experience a set of circumstances that make you appreciate the "value" of the book? Is a period of 10 hours (or however many) spent reading a book _so_ important to one that one must judge a book before picking it up?
  - jebarker 3y ago
    I think it depends on the type of book. I agree that you can't really appreciate what value you'll get from literature before reading, digesting and living with it. But lots of non-fiction should actually just be a blog post or some bullet points. There's certainly an opportunity cost to reading those books.
zen_of_prog 3y ago
I think the message is useful for people who receive or want to give recommendations. The reason I often pick up something is that it was rated highly on some online review, or that somebody told me I should read it under the assumption that it will be as eye-opening to me as it was to them. > Yes the book is good for you now, because there was a reason you picked it up in the first place. I disagree. That can be the case, but the assumptions under which it was picked up are often wrong, misleading, or become wrong over time. This article sheds light on those assumptions. > You don't have to 'experience' or undergo emotional turmoil to understand. But if I expect an experience and I think the characters are all flat, I'm disappointed. If the book speaks to me, I become more invested. Using recommendations and understanding their subjectivity can prevent you from picking up junk, assuming that's what you want.
ltbarcly3 3y ago
I think you are deciding good on an absolute scale, and you are right in that any time you spend actively engaging your mind and growing is not going to be a complete waste of time. In a world where it is often almost impossible to know what effect a book has on you until much later, if at all, it's very hard to know whether a book you just read was 'huge' or just another book. So while I did enjoy the article and applying the little framework to my own reading history, there's no way to know before you read it, and probably even after you read it in a lot of cases, whether a book was the 'right book for you' at a given time. I guess that is the point of the article in the end, you can't reasonably build a book recommendation system based on past reading history and reviews of books. That 5 star you gave Huckleberry Finn, remembering how much you enjoyed it when you were 13, might be a 1 star if you read it for the first time today. Or maybe it would be 5 stars still. There's almost no way to know.

OmarShehata 3y ago

I relate to a lot of this! I have had a similar transformation. I think it's really important and changes practically how you read books. It frees you from this "I need to read these books that X said transformed their life". But also, the small things like, you can just skip a section, or drop a book. If it's not working for you, then powering through it isn't necessarily going to make it better. But also this mindset has allowed me to re-read books, knowing that the "me" is different and I might get something new out of it. I once read an HN comment a long time ago saying "why would you ever re-read books? You already have this knowledge. Seems like a complete waste of time" and I couldn't disagree more, but had trouble articulating why. Next time I will link to this post!

hammock 3y ago
7 Habits for Highly Effective People transformed my life. But not before I read it 3 times. I skipped around each time. I still have never read it cover to cover. Most crucially, the valuable parts that transformed me were not the actual seven habits or what the online cliff notes cover, but the other, non-headline concepts taught deep in some of the chapters (specifically: universal spiritual morality, Personality Ethic and Character Ethic, Circles of Concern and Influence, and some others)
- sBqQu3U0wH 3y ago
  [flagged]
slothtrop 3y ago
I've dropped books in the past I just wasn't ready for (too young/inexperienced a reader), and enjoyed them later. On the other hand, these days I feel I can gauge well enough whether it's worth my time to finish what I'm reading. Usually I do, but not always. I get more into a book if I can allow myself a large enough block of time to read it. I had a phase where it was basically the last thing I did in my day, and I'd only chip away at 10-15 min, having to re-read pages, not getting immersed. I still like to read a bit at night but I give myself other blocks.

taopai 3y ago

"Every time someone reads a book a new book is being created." But not only reading. Try going for a walk while thinking about some book your read some time ago. Look for the underlying ideas or story and reflect about it. This also applies to memories. Changing, growing up, can make you change how you feel and reflect about past experiences. I am know reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while having a part time job delivering pizzas in motorcycle. It's a pretty awesome experience.

mjklin 3y ago
Watch out for those gumption traps!
blairbeckwith 3y ago
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man."
- HenryBemis 3y ago
  I have read Siddhartha quite a few times in my life (every 4-5 years). Every time I align with a different character, or with Siddhartha in the various phases. Timing is (almost) everything in life. I read 3-4 years ago "Though shall prosper" and "Half-time" and I could not have picked a better timing for both. I couldn't imagine appreciating either 20 years ago, and it would be "too late" reading them at my 70s. So yes, timing matters. But there is also 1984, which everytime I read it just hits the (same almost) spot!
  - labster 3y ago
    Orwell tends to be a clue-by-four precisely because he knows how people can misinterpret political theory to their own liking.
epiccoleman 3y ago
This is something I have been trying to work on lately - just cramming my head full of stuff that can be processed in the ol' background thread. What I have found is that sometimes, some seemingly innocuous thing I read years ago will pop out at just the right moment, some neural connection forms and all of a sudden I have the basis of a whole rabbit hole of interesting thoughts. I think it's important to fill your mind with good stuff, things that have the necessary depth and maybe enough subjectivity that they're ripe for that kind of background processing. You are probably not going to have deep interesting thoughts about Twilight (although maybe you will, no judgment.) But philosophy, poetry, great fiction, even religious texts - they're all crammed with symbolism and really reward re-reads and deep thoughts. A recent example of this for me is Kazuo Ishiguro's book The Remains of the Day. It was mentioned on a podcast I like and so I picked it up on something of a whim during a library visit. The book is about a butler who served a "great English house" and when I started it I was deeply skeptical that I would enjoy it. But it's a great example of the kind of work that really bears out for thinking on, and since I finished it I've really enjoyed turning things over in my mind. I'm usually a genre fiction guy (sci-fi, horror) and a lot of those books just don't have the same depth. I don't mean to disparage "light reading" because I'm truly not that kind of. snide intellectual douche. But it's really fascinating sort of watching your brain pick something apart that warrants deep thought, and it's a really cool feeling to be in some discussion with my wife and think "oh my god, that bit from the introduction of book XYZ is so perfect right now, I need to share it and talk about it." One other book that I've really enjoyed the "post-processing" phase on is The Essential Rumi - the Coleman Barks translation. Those little poems are so rich and full of meaning, and it's seriously rewarding to let your brain go to town on them.

iamben 3y ago

Fiction aside, I started reading the book summary in Blinkist before I read the book. I've found it helpful to a) know whether I want to actually read the book (ie, the fundamental ideas work for/with me right now, as per this article) and b) set me up for "what's coming," which seems to help me digest it a bit better. Obviously YMMV!

jebarker 3y ago
I think this a great strategy for many of the many self-help/life management type books that come out now too. They usually contain a few useful nuggets surrounded by a couple of hundred pages of cherry picked anecdotes posing as evidence and/or self-aggrandizing .
- thanatropism 3y ago
  A better idea yet is to spend the time with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
  - me_smith 3y ago
    What would be a good starting point with Emerson?
    - dunk010 3y ago
      Presumably… Waldo?
  - groby_b 3y ago
    Not without some solid companions that bludgeon transcendetalism. For contemporaries, probably Poe. (On New England Transcendentalism, specifically). Melville and Hawthorne make good reads as well. Emerson, like so many self-help books, offers what looks on the surface trivial and immediately obvious, providing a seemingly simple "if-only" path. Meanwhile, his ideas on individualism have done untold damage to society as a whole. This isn't to imply something simple as "Emerson is wrong". He has valid insights. But reading them in a vacuum, assuming Emerson alone is sufficient reading, is not the best approach. Ultimately, it is no accident Emerson suggests to "set at naught books and traditions", because that is the only way his ideas can survive unscathed. (fwiw, the advice of "read widely" holds for any given book. Never believe one person has the answers)

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

2143 3y ago

> Not getting very much out of Anna Karenina, supposedly one of the aesthetic and emotional heights of human expression and experience, doesn’t feel great. Incidentally, I have very recently stalled a second time on Anna Karenina, generally considered to be a masterpiece. I'll probably revisit it later, but it's just not for me at the moment. Also, The Idea Factory by Pepper White doesn't seem to be very popular (or maybe it is?). I first read it when I was in college and loved it. Re-read it in grad-school and I loved it even more. I think it was because I was in grad-school and could empathize with the main character.

corethree 3y ago

Such a surface level view. Books can lie and deceive and they can be wrong and evil. There's this strange idea that books are good for you and television is garbage. Nothing is further from the truth. Both books and television are just different forms of human output both of which can be bad or good because humans themselves can be bad or good. One isn't particularly better than the other. One thing about books though is the amount of effort it takes to read it. The effort is so great that completion of a book often leads to more bias. Not always but often. The more effort you spend on something the higher positive bias you build towards it. Hence books tend to be more convincing then television which requires zero effort to consume.

samsquire 3y ago
I want and prefer things that are in this category of words: good, light, love, faith, kindness, beauty, glory, majesty, magnificence, sophistication, elegance, awe, fruit, colour, right, righteousness, wholesome, truth, noble. I think television, films and books focus on the opposite of utopia. But if you know any that I would like, please recommend.
- webnrrd2k 3y ago
  fruit? It seems out of place in your list. Is it an autocorrect typo?
  - quercusa 3y ago
    Not the poster but bearing fruit is a common biblical metaphor that fits with the rest of the list. The righteous... still bear fruit in old age. Ps 92
    - webnrrd2k 3y ago
      Oh, yes, thanks -- I read it too literally. It was meant in the sense of "being fruitful".
  - corethree 3y ago

jekude 3y ago

Amazing interview clip by Patrick Collison on his reading strategy (as well as John's) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkh3BHP6KJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkh3BHP6KJ0 Very much echoes some of the sentiment from this article.

thomasfromcdnjs 3y ago

I usually prefer reading over audio books, but if I don't feel like finishing a book, I just play the rest of it as an audio book while I am working.

csours 3y ago

"Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys had a very similar effect for me. Some of those songs hit different after different life experiences. I feel like a lot of people have album(s) like this, I'd love it if you shared.

aidenn0 3y ago
The album Days of Future Past by The Moody Blues is that way for me. As far as individual tracks: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (From Pet Sounds) certainly hits differently depending on when you hear it. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac has a similar effect for me.

carlossouza 3y ago

> Third, book recommendation systems based on your reading history can be helpful, but only so much. Book recommendation systems should be a hybrid system with content-based filtering and collaborative filtering systems. Reading history (lagging indicator) + browsing history (leading indicator) would form the basis of a content-based filtering. The collaborative filtering part would ensure the system compares users with same reading patterns. A system like this should address all author's concerns.

nottorp 3y ago
I think that at least once in a while one should read/watch something that is not recommended based on stuff they've read/watched before. Helps keeping the brain fresh.
AlotOfReading 3y ago
There's lots of thornier issues that doesn't solve, like the famous Napoleon Dynamite problem from the Netflix challenge.

karaterobot 3y ago

> First, skipping sections that aren’t good. > Second, dropping books that aren’t good. I agree. This alone will make pretty much anyone read more, learn more, and enjoy it more. Too many people feel this weird sense of responsibility: having opened the book, I must read every word, in order, until the last page, or I have failed at my job. A healthier perspective is that books are there for you to use and throw away as needed, not a sacred burden.

nottorp 3y ago
Yes yes yes. Drop them if they don't click with you. Life's too short. I've even dropped a book by one of my favorite authors once. I just couldn't stand it [Makes note to check what Neal Stephenson wrote after Seveneves].
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balaji1 3y ago

the hardest part of consuming info from books or online, especially online info, is to figure out how to calibrate that info for you. Lets say you are techie in your late 20s earning decently, living in a bubble of a unique society. What is good advise that you can apply as action immediately? That said, there are timeless advice. But those sometimes require a huge will power and straying from norm of today to incorporate.

brailsafe 3y ago

Absolutely agreed. A corollary to these points has been something I've been coming to terms with for the last 2 years or so, which is the idea of not spreading oneself to thin by continually trying things they're unprepared to commit to; while there are practically endless opportunities for inspiration, consumption, expressing creativity, or learning, it's probable that if they're worthwhile, they require a certain amount of immersion, and it's much easier to be excited about something than it is to shift anything else in your life out of the way to truly involve yourself with a new one. New hobbies and skills have a cost beyond their price. You're ready to learn to skateboard when you're 10 years old because fitness doesn't really matter, consequences don't really matter, and there's nothing else really competing for your attention. Same with Baldur's Gate. But you're not necessarily empowered to do either, someone else has to buy you the thing to get started. Later on, you become empowered to buy anything in your budget, but the liar in you pretends that you're actually in a position to learn to do it, even though the value it provides is tenuous at best. So you buy the skateboard because you've spent 10 years of adult life getting fat and increasing your investments, and today is the day to do something you literally need no other commitments on the calendar for, because you saw your buddy still does from time to time, not realizing that the purchase is the most trivial aspect and actually it'll take 5 hrs a week for a year before your core muscles can even keep you upright. The skateboard goes into storage, and you go back to whatever you've always done. By appreciating that any given thing takes a lot of work, you can better prepare yourself for the real practice of doing it, and reduce the likelihood that a new prospect will be a flash in the pan. You'll need at least the ability to allocate the time and money, because you'll need reps, and reps take commitment. Reading the book on Postgres internals is very unlikely to be valuable if you haven't ever heard of a database, have no use for one, or aren't a technical person of any kind, and you don't become one by buying it and putting it on your kindle for that one long flight. That said, it's easy to become too conservative, and you need to figure out when something that you have committed to has declined in significance or is demanding more than it produces in reward, at which time you should start considering what else you might do.