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What is scary about it? The monsters that will hunt you down once you click on "View PDF"?
by auggierose 2y ago
What is scary about it? The monsters that will hunt you down once you click on "View PDF"?
- jusssi 2y agoPDFs are a crappy experience on most devices that are not made of paper.
- auggierose 2y agoCrappy ≠ scary. Also, crappy only applies if you insist on using the wrong device for viewing them (pro tip: don't use a phone). Otherwise, the experience is superior.
- jusssi 2y agoNah, on landscape displays too. I often find myself scrolling back up to get to the start of the right column of text.
- auggierose 2y agoYou will need a display that can show the full page comfortably, that is true, but a 27inch monitor or a large iPad will do. I'd prefer something more flexibel than PDF as well, but all alternatives compromise on quality and/or ease of use. There seems to be no market for good looking digital documents other than PDF.
- Alifatisk 2y agoI think it's because I am not used to reading academic papers, so I don't know how to read the paper or where to get started. Do I start from top to bottom? Those papers get quite big so I don't think that's the right approach, they also tend to get very meaty with the keywords so I end up reading the same sentence multiple times because I have to lookup every word or try to grasp the concept they are explaining. Maybe I should start with the abstract first? I don't know.
- auggierose 2y agoTop to bottom is usually the best way to go, especially read first abstract & introduction, but don't be afraid to skip sections if they seem unclear or you just don't understand what they are trying to tell you. These days, you could put the paper into NotebookLM, and generate a podcast, that will generate something friendly, but might be partially wrong or skip over essential stuff.