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Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

theparisreview.org

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Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#51

Post by chki »

everythingswan wrote: post #10

I've come to love books intensely. Not only because I enjoy learning--before I read books, I found blogs to be great educators. I love books because they create time and space to be alone with a thought. It gives me time to consider things that I normally have no space for. I remember Seth Godin saying once that every business book can be summarized in just a few pages but the book itself is a story. I think it goes…

I've recently been shown a lot of ads for a service called "blinkist" where the idea is to provide short summaries of non-fiction books and I think your comment captures why that is a very bad idea. Reading and capturing an idea takes time; it can't be properly substituted by a few minutes of "listening to crucial insights from leading thinkers while you’re on the go."

Their business model is in a way the complete opposite of the ideas in the article (although there is admittedly a difference between fiction and non-fiction books):

They show pictures of very busy business people that can't fit a book into their tight schedule; one of their ads said something along the lines of "80% of successful managers read at least 20 books per year" (which is probably just completely mixing up correlation and causation).

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#52

Post by krishna2 »

everythingswan wrote: post #10

I've come to love books intensely. Not only because I enjoy learning--before I read books, I found blogs to be great educators. I love books because they create time and space to be alone with a thought. It gives me time to consider things that I normally have no space for. I remember Seth Godin saying once that every business book can be summarized in just a few pages but the book itself is a story. I think it goes…

I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#53

Post by chiefalchemist »

lbacaj wrote: post #42
chiefalchemist wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's great. That said, I've tried audio (books) and it's just not the same as reading (print). Reading, to me, seems to engage the mind in a deeper way. It is, nearly by its nature, more proactive and participatory. On the other hand, watching and listening is far more passive. You don't work to consume, you just wait for it to come to you. For example, when you read you can pause, re-read, etc. On the othe…

I completely get this. Between family, my full time job, side projects.. I had no choice but to listen to some of these books as Audio books.. I ended up pretty much listening to 25+ audio books this year.. the only way to make the content stick is to: 1) take a ton of notes 2) do exactly as you say, rewind over and over until you can mark it down. These are the next few features I want to add to this thing, taking n…

Could you...hit button, have it rewind some fixed amount of time (10 secs a tap?) and then email / store a text transcript of that segment?

__That__ might be something I'd like to try.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#55

Post by jm__87 »

lbacaj wrote: post #23

I think distractions are just the beginning of our issues, a much bigger factor on how much I can read is Time. As we become adults, with responsibilities Time is incredibly hard to find. Big readers tend to be productive people and as such the more active and busy we are the harder it is to sit down and read. This might sound like a straight forward problem but I find myself bookmarking great articles or writing dow…

Personally, I've found my problem is more "feeling like I don't have time" rather than actually not having time. You can always find things to do to fill each moment, but at least for me, the majority of those things are neither necessary (such as writing this post) nor am I doing them as efficiently as possible. I find through regularly reviewing how I'm spending my time, I'm always finding things to cut out that are a waste of my time or finding ways to be more efficient so that I can focus on the things that are actually important to me. Possibly I am just more distractible than average so I have to keep pulling myself back in to focus, but I don't think so.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#56

Post by chiefalchemist »

lbacaj wrote: post #42
chiefalchemist wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's great. That said, I've tried audio (books) and it's just not the same as reading (print). Reading, to me, seems to engage the mind in a deeper way. It is, nearly by its nature, more proactive and participatory. On the other hand, watching and listening is far more passive. You don't work to consume, you just wait for it to come to you. For example, when you read you can pause, re-read, etc. On the othe…

I completely get this. Between family, my full time job, side projects.. I had no choice but to listen to some of these books as Audio books.. I ended up pretty much listening to 25+ audio books this year.. the only way to make the content stick is to: 1) take a ton of notes 2) do exactly as you say, rewind over and over until you can mark it down. These are the next few features I want to add to this thing, taking n…

Two more things to add...

1) It was recommended to me at one point to listen at a faster playback speed. Evidently, the novelty forces the brain to focus more, and thus have better retention.

2) What about a audio effect for highlighting? Some sort of filter? Or perhaps more bass? Something to say "you liked this bit before"?

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#58

Post by jm__87 »

Swizec wrote: post #29
lbacaj wrote: post #23

I think distractions are just the beginning of our issues, a much bigger factor on how much I can read is Time. As we become adults, with responsibilities Time is incredibly hard to find. Big readers tend to be productive people and as such the more active and busy we are the harder it is to sit down and read. This might sound like a straight forward problem but I find myself bookmarking great articles or writing dow…

> but I find myself bookmarking great articles or writing down great books I heard about only to never really find the Time to go back and read them. Try replacing “can’t find time” with “not a priority”. It means the same in practice and makes for a huge shift in perception and your own personal feekings towards stuff. Especially in the guilt department. You have more important things to do and that’s okay. When you…

Probably a lot of people just get lured in by social media, video games, Netflix, etc and then spend far more time on these things than they would actually like. I doubt many people are consciously prioritizing their web surfing or video game time, but it just turns out that way since these things are designed to be habit forming.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#59

Post by Swizec »

jm__87 wrote: post #58
Swizec wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I find myself bookmarking great articles or writing down great books I heard about only to never really find the Time to go back and read them. Try replacing “can’t find time” with “not a priority”. It means the same in practice and makes for a huge shift in perception and your own personal feekings towards stuff. Especially in the guilt department. You have more important things to do and that’s okay. When you…

Probably a lot of people just get lured in by social media, video games, Netflix, etc and then spend far more time on these things than they would actually like. I doubt many people are consciously prioritizing their web surfing or video game time, but it just turns out that way since these things are designed to be habit forming.

I agree and saying "not a priority" instead of "don't have time" helps with that too.

"Sorry reading books is not a priority"

Wait ... then what is a priority? Social media? Screw that!!

And it prompts you to [try to] do better with your time.

Remember when we used to read books a few pages at a time on the pooper instead of scrolling through twitter or hackernews? Good times.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#60

Post by lbacaj »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #56
lbacaj wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely get this. Between family, my full time job, side projects.. I had no choice but to listen to some of these books as Audio books.. I ended up pretty much listening to 25+ audio books this year.. the only way to make the content stick is to: 1) take a ton of notes 2) do exactly as you say, rewind over and over until you can mark it down. These are the next few features I want to add to this thing, taking n…

Two more things to add... 1) It was recommended to me at one point to listen at a faster playback speed. Evidently, the novelty forces the brain to focus more, and thus have better retention. 2) What about a audio effect for highlighting? Some sort of filter? Or perhaps more bass? Something to say "you liked this bit before"?

I think we are definitely already planning the first one.

The second one is super interesting.. I’ll have to think about it a bit but it’s a great idea for sure.

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