5 ms·

Regardless of what it is, you’re wasting your time with all your reading if you don’t use it to drive action. Wow, I could not disagree more. The implication

by jmduke 13y ago

Regardless of what it is, you’re wasting your time with all your reading if you don’t use it to drive action. Wow, I could not disagree more. The implication here is that the subset of 'things worth reading' are things that show up on your RSS reader. I'm absolutely positive that the vast majority of the things you read on the internet are inferior compared to other things you could be doing with your time; its important to keep abreast of trends and current events, but the advent of Read-it-Later services has, I think fetishized the blog post. Pick up some Steinbeck or Vonnegut or something. Trust me, it'll help you a lot more than a self-help blog post or Six Ways To Engage Your Customers.

bennyg 13y ago
Plus, knowledge in other domains is great for creativity. You never know what you'll use, or tie together, so random knowledge is inherently good to have. I also disagree with what you quoted.
dsjoerg 13y ago
"Trust me" is shorthand for "Without any supporting argument whatsoever, please believe". When you are tempted to write "trust me", please reconsider and think of why your readers should believe what you're saying. So in this specific case: why do you think people should be reading "Steinbeck or Vonnegut or something"? I don't particularly disagree with your advice, but I'm also not inclined to follow it without so much as a shred of a given reason.
- zzzmarcus 13y ago
  Pot, kettle.
- TillE 13y ago
  Why exactly do you expect some random person on the internet to patiently explain the value of literature to you?
  - dsjoerg 13y ago
    Trust me, backing up your assertions is important.
- foobarbazqux 13y ago
  "Trust me" is also shorthand for "I have reflected deeply on this, and based on my personal experience, and our shared humanity..." It's obviously not foolproof to make predictions about another person's experience based on your own life, but this is perhaps a more charitable interpretation of what GP meant by "trust me".
  - dsjoerg 13y ago
    Fair enough. I was annoyed because I have found those particular authors hard to connect with, and now some random dude wants me to trust him that they're good for no stated reason. But yes, the principle of charity should always apply and yours is the correctly charitable one.
oblique63 13y ago
> Pick up some Steinbeck or Vonnegut or something. Trust me, it'll help you a lot more than a self-help blog post or Six Ways To Engage Your Customers This is a false dichotomy, both are helpful. However, there something to be said about stepping outside the 'filter bubble', and acquiring varied skills/interests/viewpoints is always helpful. Why? Because it is in learning novel things that the brain actually gets stimulated and reshapes itself to become more optimal (thanks to a little thing called neuro-plasticity). Right now, due to our inefficient learning processes and media bombardment, we all get so overstimulated that we feel like deer in headlights with poor time management skills, and we end up unusually paranoid about what we consume. There is something to be said about what could be ‘worthwhile’ to read for some people, but we seem to over complicate the algorithm by which we calculate this as if it were some kind of fragile balance between 'good and evil' that we need to actively maintain. It’s really quite simple: if you’re interested in something, read up on it! Simple as that. Furthermore, if some tangent sparks your curiosity along the way, follow up on that as well. The sheer fact that you’re even remotely interested in the thing you’re reading about will ensure some level of efficient learning, so go and indulge. Due to the way memory works (recognition in particular, or ‘pattern matching’ memory), the brain has the capacity to operate like a fairly sophisticated machine learning algorithm, so keep feeding it data and don’t worry so much about what you’re gonna get out of it, cause your brain is gonna sort that all out later anyway.
jt2190 13y ago
Here's the sentence you quoted back in context: > Too often we read something, share it and talk about it, > but fail to retain its meaning. Maybe you retweeted > something about taking care of employees, but then you > failed to show interest and compassion for an employee > that came into work visibly upset. Maybe you just shared > an article about the importance of open communication, > but then disregarded comments from someone who tried to > bring up a problem with you. Regardless of what it is, > you’re wasting your time with all your reading if you > don’t use it to drive action. At no point does the author try to make a distiction between the quality of works published online from those published in books. His argument is equally valid with Vonnegut and Steinbeck as it is with HN stories.
ctdonath 13y ago
"Strange how much human progress and accomplishment comes from contemplation of the irrelevant." - Scott Kim

by jmduke 13y ago

bennyg 13y ago

Plus, knowledge in other domains is great for creativity. You never know what you'll use, or tie together, so random knowledge is inherently good to have. I also disagree with what you quoted.

dsjoerg 13y ago

"Trust me" is shorthand for "Without any supporting argument whatsoever, please believe". When you are tempted to write "trust me", please reconsider and think of why your readers should believe what you're saying. So in this specific case: why do you think people should be reading "Steinbeck or Vonnegut or something"? I don't particularly disagree with your advice, but I'm also not inclined to follow it without so much as a shred of a given reason.

zzzmarcus 13y ago
Pot, kettle.
TillE 13y ago
Why exactly do you expect some random person on the internet to patiently explain the value of literature to you?
- dsjoerg 13y ago
  Trust me, backing up your assertions is important.
foobarbazqux 13y ago
"Trust me" is also shorthand for "I have reflected deeply on this, and based on my personal experience, and our shared humanity..." It's obviously not foolproof to make predictions about another person's experience based on your own life, but this is perhaps a more charitable interpretation of what GP meant by "trust me".
- dsjoerg 13y ago
  Fair enough. I was annoyed because I have found those particular authors hard to connect with, and now some random dude wants me to trust him that they're good for no stated reason. But yes, the principle of charity should always apply and yours is the correctly charitable one.

oblique63 13y ago

> Pick up some Steinbeck or Vonnegut or something. Trust me, it'll help you a lot more than a self-help blog post or Six Ways To Engage Your Customers This is a false dichotomy, both are helpful. However, there something to be said about stepping outside the 'filter bubble', and acquiring varied skills/interests/viewpoints is always helpful. Why? Because it is in learning novel things that the brain actually gets stimulated and reshapes itself to become more optimal (thanks to a little thing called neuro-plasticity). Right now, due to our inefficient learning processes and media bombardment, we all get so overstimulated that we feel like deer in headlights with poor time management skills, and we end up unusually paranoid about what we consume. There is something to be said about what could be ‘worthwhile’ to read for some people, but we seem to over complicate the algorithm by which we calculate this as if it were some kind of fragile balance between 'good and evil' that we need to actively maintain. It’s really quite simple: if you’re interested in something, read up on it! Simple as that. Furthermore, if some tangent sparks your curiosity along the way, follow up on that as well. The sheer fact that you’re even remotely interested in the thing you’re reading about will ensure some level of efficient learning, so go and indulge. Due to the way memory works (recognition in particular, or ‘pattern matching’ memory), the brain has the capacity to operate like a fairly sophisticated machine learning algorithm, so keep feeding it data and don’t worry so much about what you’re gonna get out of it, cause your brain is gonna sort that all out later anyway.

jt2190 13y ago

Here's the sentence you quoted back in context: > Too often we read something, share it and talk about it, > but fail to retain its meaning. Maybe you retweeted > something about taking care of employees, but then you > failed to show interest and compassion for an employee > that came into work visibly upset. Maybe you just shared > an article about the importance of open communication, > but then disregarded comments from someone who tried to > bring up a problem with you. Regardless of what it is, > you’re wasting your time with all your reading if you > don’t use it to drive action. At no point does the author try to make a distiction between the quality of works published online from those published in books. His argument is equally valid with Vonnegut and Steinbeck as it is with HN stories.

ctdonath 13y ago

"Strange how much human progress and accomplishment comes from contemplation of the irrelevant." - Scott Kim