Ask HN: Are books worth it? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#251

Post by ericskiff » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:13 PM UTC

I was like you. I spent my first 10 years after college reading essentially 0 books, instead filling my reading/idle time with news, podcasts, and other pursuits.

When I started my company, my co-founder was reading books at a heavy clip, and was suddenly coming in with great ideas to discuss, new perspectives on things, and a whole world of different opinions based on what he was reading.

I vowed to keep up with the awesome pace he was setting, got over my "audiobooks aren't real reading" stigma, and have since torn through over 100 books on 2x.

I have learned SO many amazing things about business, history, my own philosophy, and how to interact with other people through reading. Reading has enriched every possible portion of my life.

I typically read 3 business or self-enrichment books for every 1 fiction book I allow myself, and I find that's a great balance.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#252

Post by punnerud » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:17 PM UTC

The problem is not what you know you don’t know, but the things you don’t know that you don’t know.

The solution I have found to this problem is to discuss with other people or read books. Internet almost works as a echo-chamber some times.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#253

Post by calewis » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:18 PM UTC

I also struggled with books. Despite being an avid WW2 and science fiction fan I avoided lengthy texts and just got my information online. As has been said many times over that information is often, although not always, low quality. For me I never connected my dyslexia with my inability to read (obvious I know) then I discovered audio books and my world changed.

I’d recommend also trying audio books. The format is not for everyone, but quality stories, be they fiction or non-fiction expand the mind.

Someone here recommended the Count of monte cristo as an amazing read, and I'm currently half way though, its thrilling! Thank you to that person btw.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#254

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:24 PM UTC

>Growing up with the Internet, I always assumed that everything could be found for free online. I spend most of my day reading online articles/conversations, watching videos, and listening to podcasts. I have thousands of non-fiction (mostly self-improvement) books in my reading list on GoodReads, but almost never bother to read any. I assume that the best part of the best books will surface in daily conversations, YouTube videos, CliffsNotes, podcasts, Reddit posts/comments, blog articles, etc.

Why read books when you can have a shallow understanding of everything through internet posts?

Why learn anything from millennia of human experience or get to see the perspective of others through literature when you can watch YouTube?

Why try to get the subtler side of things, when you can read a PowerPoint / cliff notes style "good parts"?

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#255

Post by slx26 » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:27 PM UTC

I find this thread interesting, but I believe many commenters are rationalizing why books are good by focusing too much on arguments around information quality, or trying to draw some differences between the motivations for paper vs digital writing, ... but I don't see it that clearly. I'm personally much more curious about others like:

- how much influence does it have the fact that you have to actually sit down, focus on something, sit somewhere comfortable, or not so comfortable but ready to work on a material... or the fact that it's a book, that it's long, probably dense to read, much more dense to write, that there's some sacrifice there, so you face the material in a completely different way you would face a random post or youtube video? we also definitely value very differently the things we pay for than those that are free. if you paid for it, you might want to rationalize it was worth it, and that might actually lead you to try to get something more from it that you would generally get if it was free and you didn't care. if you paid for it there's also a higher chance you were looking for it consciously, etc.

I think it would be interesting to measure those and others by collecting writing from different sources and presenting it on different formats. while I agree that on average the quality and the signal provided by a book is higher than that of a random video or blog post, I feel in many cases we are biased to give books too much credibility, and we really underestimate a lot of online content. there are many other factors, but I think we should open the perspective a bit more if we really want to discover why books are so good

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#256

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:27 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #153

smacktoward wrote: post #5

> I have thousands of non-fiction (mostly self-improvement) books in my reading list “An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its ‘self-help’ section: ‘For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.’” — Roger Ebert ( https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/larger-than-life-1996 )

The people in the self-help section need something else . Those things (philosophy, literature, history and science) are the luxury of folks who aren't struggling with e.g. depression, abuse, drugs & alcohol, co-dependency, etc. It's a little like, "Have you tried not having a broken leg?" Honestly, you're lucky if the only personal problems you have can be solved by philosophy, literature, history and science. (I ha…

>The people in the self-help section need something else. Those things (philosophy, literature, history and science) are the luxury of folks who aren't struggling with e.g. depression, abuse, drugs & alcohol, co-dependency, etc.

Actually it's the inverse. A healthy dose of philosophy, literature, history and science are what people suffering from "depression, abuse, drugs & alcohol, co-dependency" can use to liberate themselves, understand their situation, and get above it.

The rest (99% of the self help shelves) is snake oil sold by marketeers to the gullible...

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#257

Post by AdrianB1 » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:27 PM UTC

I read probably over 1000 books, many more than once, and I think it was worth it. It helped me build a culture one cannot get from Internet, I read books that stimulated my imagination and also books that gave me information or perspective I never considered (ex: some books about China, Iran, Hong Kong and Russia). I learned so much from the books, much more than what I will be able to experience myself. Now I find myself reading a lot about technology and less fiction, mostly because after you read the top 10-20 books in each area it is hard to find something interesting that you did not already read.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#258

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:29 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #201

Barrin92 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Honestly, you're lucky if the only personal problems you have can be solved by philosophy, literature, history and science. most problems in your life can't be solved by reading a book, period. Self-help or otherwise. The first lie of self-help books is that they're actually 'helping' you in any meaningful sense of the word. Digging yourself out of bad situations takes time and there is very little magic involved, a…

> most problems in your life can't be solved by reading a book, period. How do you know? Not to be rude but why should I trust you more than some author of a "self-help" book? I mean, a religious person might tell you that you can solve all your problems reading Scripture. Heck, I openly maintain that most people could solve most of their problems by reading (and applying) the "Core Transformation Process" book. Do y…

>How do you know? Not to be rude but why should I trust you more than some author of a "self-help" book?

For one, because he doesn't try to sell you anything.

Second, you don't get to "know" because you are hand-fed some hard proofs or figures.

You either know it already (and agree) or can see the point the parent is making, correlate it with your experiences and observations, and recognise it's true -- or, of course, you don't (and e.g. you have a different experience).

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#259

Post by AdrianB1 » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:29 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #79

brenden2 wrote: post #76

Books are just another form of entertainment, and I wouldn't think of them as much more than that. Yes, there may be value in reading some books, and many of them contain interesting facts and opinions, but the truth is that reading lots of books won't raise your IQ anymore than watching TV. It's become fashionable to boast or brag about how many books you read, but this is nothing more than signalling. Nobody really…

I've heard the best predictor of performance on IQ tests is number of books read. In my experience, reading a book forces me to conceptualize the content in a way watching TV and listening to audio does not. It is also faster than watching and listening. I think this has improved my conceptual thinking ability, as well as being able to articulate my thoughts, and expanded the number of concepts I can use in my thinki…

I think reading books correlates with IQ, but it does not increase it; it provides information and stimulate imagination and analytical thinking, but there is no known method to increase IQ.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#260

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 11:30 PM UTC

dmos62 wrote: post #245

Barrin92 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Honestly, you're lucky if the only personal problems you have can be solved by philosophy, literature, history and science. most problems in your life can't be solved by reading a book, period. Self-help or otherwise. The first lie of self-help books is that they're actually 'helping' you in any meaningful sense of the word. Digging yourself out of bad situations takes time and there is very little magic involved, a…

Your last sentence is distasteful on so many levels. If you think a person is lying or can't be trusted to use the term "crippling depression" accurately, just say so. To paraphrase a sibling comment, you sound like a self-help guru yourself, albeit a spiteful one. You deride others' solutions and offer up your own: hard magic-less work. Hard work is as much of a racket as easy magic.

>Hard work is as much of a racket as easy magic.

Really? Perhaps you need to think long and hard about what you wrote above.

We got to the moon and in 2020 style civilization, from the technology involved to the social issues and personal problems we overcame, with hard work, not with "easy magic".