4 ms·

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. R

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.

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.