3 ms·

> If you’re finishing every book you start you’re doing something wrong: you’re probably finishing books not worth your time This is how you'll have time to re

> If you’re finishing every book you start you’re doing something wrong: you’re probably finishing books not worth your time This is how you'll have time to read a lot of interesting books: by not finishing all books you started. If you read half of a book and it still didn't gave you good feelings, the last half probably won't. Save your time.

hammyhavoc 3y ago
I started heavily applying this to TV, movies and video games in recent years. How we spend our time is important. The sunk-cost fallacy is a doozy. Wishing you and anyone else who reads this a satisfying and fruitful 2024. Be in excellent health.
edflsafoiewq 3y ago
This may be good advice if you read only to give yourself pleasure, but it isn't very conductive to becoming well-read.
- xboxnolifes 3y ago
  The best books are good all the way through.
wenc 3y ago
I'm an incorrigible book non-completist. I only read to get what I need and I duck out. Now with ChatGPT-4, I can read and comprehend even faster. For dense books in areas I'm unfamiliar with, I ask ChatGPT to, not summarize, but to break things down for me. For me, it's the new efficient way for doing syntopical reading (Mortimer Adler's technique for reading deeply). https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-reading#6h1rJYC6kETAeh4KZApvrp https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-get-the-most-out...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- moneywoes 3y ago
  what do your prompts look like?
  - wenc 3y ago
    I just keep a ChatGPT session alive and ask it questions. I tell what I’m reading, eg, “the Prince by Machiavelli”. And then i ask it things like “what’s the context of the book” or “what other books deal with the topic in chapter x” or “I don’t understanding chapter y, can you break it dow for me?” It’s like talking to a partner who’s read everything in the world.
  - wrsh07 3y ago
    I don't normally ask about the book itself so much as the context of the book (eg more info about this battle in the Napoleonic wars, more info about this historical figure, how much money would £X be worth today?) These kinds of questions (usually more factual rather than about motives etc) can help me connect what I'm reading to other things I've read in a way that I would otherwise need additional books/encyclopedia entries/etc to help cover
- ip26 3y ago
  Wikipedia already summarizes books in two sentences. The point of reading is to experience, absorb, etc.
  - wenc 3y ago
    Check out what I wrote again. I repeat, I do not use GPT to summarize.
- ethanbond 3y ago
  Trying this with books I was familiar with yielded extremely disappointing and off-base results.
  - wenc 3y ago
    I’m curious as to how?
    - ethanbond 3y ago
      It lost all the rhetorical force of the argument, got factual things wrong, and failed to point out important misunderstandings on my part. IMO good books are ones that collide with your priors and compel you to reconfigure your worldview. I can only describe this GPT exercise as allowing me to mold the book around my priors as opposed to helping (or even allowing) the book to really impact them head-on, how the author knew they ought to be attacked. I think it’s really insidious for someone to do this and come out thinking their prior worldview survived collision with the book.
      - wenc 3y ago
        Interesting. Curious if you were using GPT 4 or the free tier? I have a different experience. GPT4 has enhanced my reading by allowing me to correlate it with history, sociology etc. I don’t have the explicit objective of having my priors challenged — I have very complex priors. I seek more new connections that I never made before. GPT4 has been able to do both for me. Take Malthus — I asked it for the historical positions for and against Malthusian hypothesis and asked it to speculate what would happen in a reality where people believed it. It’s a purely intellectual exercise but I was able to see more perspectives than what I could imagine.

hammyhavoc 3y ago

I started heavily applying this to TV, movies and video games in recent years. How we spend our time is important. The sunk-cost fallacy is a doozy. Wishing you and anyone else who reads this a satisfying and fruitful 2024. Be in excellent health.

edflsafoiewq 3y ago

This may be good advice if you read only to give yourself pleasure, but it isn't very conductive to becoming well-read.

xboxnolifes 3y ago
The best books are good all the way through.

wenc 3y ago

I'm an incorrigible book non-completist. I only read to get what I need and I duck out. Now with ChatGPT-4, I can read and comprehend even faster. For dense books in areas I'm unfamiliar with, I ask ChatGPT to, not summarize, but to break things down for me. For me, it's the new efficient way for doing syntopical reading (Mortimer Adler's technique for reading deeply). https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-reading#6h1rJYC6kETAeh4KZApvrp https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-get-the-most-out...

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
moneywoes 3y ago
what do your prompts look like?
- wenc 3y ago
  I just keep a ChatGPT session alive and ask it questions. I tell what I’m reading, eg, “the Prince by Machiavelli”. And then i ask it things like “what’s the context of the book” or “what other books deal with the topic in chapter x” or “I don’t understanding chapter y, can you break it dow for me?” It’s like talking to a partner who’s read everything in the world.
- wrsh07 3y ago
  I don't normally ask about the book itself so much as the context of the book (eg more info about this battle in the Napoleonic wars, more info about this historical figure, how much money would £X be worth today?) These kinds of questions (usually more factual rather than about motives etc) can help me connect what I'm reading to other things I've read in a way that I would otherwise need additional books/encyclopedia entries/etc to help cover
ip26 3y ago
Wikipedia already summarizes books in two sentences. The point of reading is to experience, absorb, etc.
- wenc 3y ago
  Check out what I wrote again. I repeat, I do not use GPT to summarize.
ethanbond 3y ago
Trying this with books I was familiar with yielded extremely disappointing and off-base results.
- wenc 3y ago
  I’m curious as to how?
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    It lost all the rhetorical force of the argument, got factual things wrong, and failed to point out important misunderstandings on my part. IMO good books are ones that collide with your priors and compel you to reconfigure your worldview. I can only describe this GPT exercise as allowing me to mold the book around my priors as opposed to helping (or even allowing) the book to really impact them head-on, how the author knew they ought to be attacked. I think it’s really insidious for someone to do this and come out thinking their prior worldview survived collision with the book.
    - wenc 3y ago
      Interesting. Curious if you were using GPT 4 or the free tier? I have a different experience. GPT4 has enhanced my reading by allowing me to correlate it with history, sociology etc. I don’t have the explicit objective of having my priors challenged — I have very complex priors. I seek more new connections that I never made before. GPT4 has been able to do both for me. Take Malthus — I asked it for the historical positions for and against Malthusian hypothesis and asked it to speculate what would happen in a reality where people believed it. It’s a purely intellectual exercise but I was able to see more perspectives than what I could imagine.