I'm debating about what would be a better of use of time between reading different blog posts in HN and other tech blogs/news vs. reading books. Some tech blogs or research paper offers a lot of value and help me come up with new ideas and stay up to date. However, reading a book is also very helpful in understanding a particular topic in details.
Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
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Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#2Well that Depends on the books and depends on the articles.
What books are you looking at and what blogs?
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#3Depends on what your goals are of course. Entertainment, staying current etc. But here's a rough heuristic: if the book has survived for a while, say a few years, decades, or centuries, it's a good book. With limited time choose something of quality rather than sorting through the noise. Or take the opposite advice if you have different and just as valid goals.
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#4Reading the best books on a topic is infinitely better than any time spent on this site. There is nothing to learn here anymore, it's just news.
For example you'll never hear the words "Concurrent hashmap" or "denormalization strategy" on this site, but you will in an interview.
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#5I cannot speak to your context well enough. If I only get to choose one, I choose HN (or even carefully curated Plebbit). While there are radical dark patterns in the attention economy with which to concern ourselves (and I'm happy to talk shit about the nature and states of discourse available to people), there are also many salient voices to hear within a recent and brief timeframe that aren't usually as easy to find elsewhere (at least not with as much signal-to-noise ratio).
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#6Pick books.
signal to noise ratio here has gotten worse; not as worth anymore.
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#7[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#8Books. The older the better, so they've passed the great filter of time.
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#9HN is ok for passive discovery. But like others have said, it has a low SnR.
Textbooks and research papers are fantastic. It's important to actively read and even do problems when it's really vital locking down knowledge.
Re: Ask HN: Hour of reading articles in HN vs. 1 hour of reading books?
#10Reading the best books on a topic is infinitely better than any time spent on this site. There is nothing to learn here anymore, it's just news. For example you'll never hear the words "Concurrent hashmap" or "denormalization strategy" on this site, but you will in an interview.
Ironically, this HN comment is probably the only place where I'd have heard these terms, or that I need to know them for an interview :)