Read Fewer Books • Hacker News Board

Re: Read Fewer Books

#71

Post by dominotw » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #23

TheUndead96 wrote: post #7

The School of Life infuriates me for many reasons, but I will restrain myself and talk just about this specific post. Perhaps the small libraries of historic figures has more to do with the availability of books than it does their minimalism. I agree that people should not be reading every new self-help or business book that gets published. The majority of new books are bad. History acts as a great filter, which is w…

> the religion-shaped hole in western morality Religion and morality aren't distinct concepts. What's lost in the west is the stability of having an orthodoxy.

meta comment: If a comment generates good discussion then why should it be downvoted.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#72

Post by leafboi » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:19 PM UTC

The thing with reading is that the main point is often buried beneath realms of text. A movie can deliver the same concept in two hours when a book typically takes several days.

Another thing with reading is that there's no logical reason why the content you're reading is better than television. If TV can have crap so can books.

I have found that reading builds biases better than television. The reason is that reading takes much more effort than television and oftentimes the more effort you spend on something the more bias towards it you develop.

I've found that in general if you want to have a larger breadth of knowledge... youtube videos are actually awesome at distilling concepts and getting to the main point.

I'm saying this as someone who use to and still actively reads books.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#73

Post by Cro_on » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

rgoulter wrote: post #18

arvinsim wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sport is not so much a modern relaxation as a new religion; and is more serious and unsmiling even than most new religions. - G. K. Chesterton

"Sports is to war as pornography is to sex." — Jonathan Haidt

Except that the universal adoption of sports would result in a net positive. The same cannot be said for pornography.

Also it makes just as much sense like this: 'sports is to sex as pornography is to war.'

Re: Read Fewer Books

#74

Post by justforyou » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

martin_a wrote: post #8

All those "Oh, I have read sooooo many books this year!"-thing is just another elitist posture. It's pretty much like the minimalists who run around and tell people that they only own a MBP and an iPhone XPro+ (or whatever the maxed out version is) and two potted plants. Most people will not have enough disposable income to buy a full-fletched MBP and that iPhone. You need to be rich (kind of) to be able to have a mi…

Incoming pedantry...

Full-fledged, unless the Macbook Pro is adorned with feathers for better flight.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#75

Post by paganel » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:23 PM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #70

paganel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not a religion apologists, but his videos and lectures are structured exactly the same way as sermons. He even feigns a false pastor modesty I highly recommend Jacques Ellul's "Les nouveaux possédés." (translated in English as "The New Demons" [1]) an analysis written back in 1973 describing this exact process you're describing, i.e. modern stuff (rock stars among others) trying to fill the hole of the disappe…

> Jacques Ellul doesn't seem to fit gp's "people who have done something" crietia.

This is a cheap shot at Ellul, as he has been proved more right than wrong even though he was writing about technology and our technological society since the 1960s-1970s (a very difficult thing to achieve, being right on technology, that is). As such, I personally think that he has “done” a lot more compared to other people, witness how even FB multi-millionaires have started following him and his ideas (knowingly or unknowingly).

Re: Read Fewer Books

#76

Post by idolaspecus » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #33

arvinsim wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sport is not so much a modern relaxation as a new religion; and is more serious and unsmiling even than most new religions. - G. K. Chesterton

Not sure it is that new - Constantinople had feuding groups who supported different chariot racing teams. As a Scot I can't help be amused that the greatest rivalry was between the Blues and Greens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Firm

I can’t help but take this chance to recommend Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium. It’s an absolute masterpiece of a novel set in Byzantium just after the Nika Riots; the chariot races and Blue/Green dynamic play a big role in the plot.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104097.Sailing_to_Sarant...

Re: Read Fewer Books

#77

Post by lhorie » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

TheUndead96 wrote: post #7

The School of Life infuriates me for many reasons, but I will restrain myself and talk just about this specific post. Perhaps the small libraries of historic figures has more to do with the availability of books than it does their minimalism. I agree that people should not be reading every new self-help or business book that gets published. The majority of new books are bad. History acts as a great filter, which is w…

I feel like focusing on whether we read too little or too much is missing the point. There are things to be gained from a meticulous read and deep discussion of Pride and Prejudice via a book club, but there are also things to be gained from watching shallow educational channels on Youtube. Likewise, there are things to be lost from spending all your time reading every classic just as there are things to be lost from binging Youtube. It's not black and white, but it is a zero-sum game.

IMHO, what matters more is what you're hoping to get out of deep reading and/or shallow infotainment. Maybe reading the Odyssey leads you into lateral shallow entertainment regarding different mythological figures. Maybe a Vsauce video leads you down into deep reading about game theory. Who gets to say which of these activities is "wasted" time?

Re: Read Fewer Books

#78

Post by abnercoimbre » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

Konohamaru wrote: post #20

haffi112 wrote: post #4

A book is a somewhat large time investment. Often it is worth it but often it isn't. The main problem is the sheer amount of books out there. Deciding what to read next is a non-trivial decision problem. Currently I'm basing my decisions on ratings, recommendations from friends and book clubs. It would be nice if sites like Goodreads kept statistics on ratings for second/third/... reading (maybe they do?). Such infor…

> A book is a somewhat large time investment. Often it is worth it but often it isn't. But everyone has time for reddit/hn/facebook. Sometimes for hours at a day. :} I posit that the real problem is that books (especially fiction novels) are engaging but not hypnotic. It's easy to scroll HN because it's literally hypnotic and thus no thinking required. That's why they're called newsFEEDs. You're being spoon-fed news.…

You certainly spoke to me in a blunt and frank manner, just like the username would suggest. Thanks!

Re: Read Fewer Books

#79

Post by billiam » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:39 PM UTC

null_object wrote: post #12

I simply don't recognize the article's analysis of why we read. I read (voraciously) during my 'downtime': in bed before sleeping, sitting on the toilet, during lunchbreaks. Often the times that a lot of people are game-playing/watching youtube/scrolling FB. I'm not aspiring to "know everything" or to appear to be an "intelligent person". I think reading a lot is just a habit. It may be that I'd be better off reading…

I would suggest that what you say is an excellent illustration of something implied by the OP: we're not reading the way that our learned ancestors did, we're processing words. Books mean everything to me, but I can't really quote much if at all from the most recent or even cherished ones. I drive my wife crazy as I add bookshelves to our living room, arguing that I need to have physical books to refer to or I'll forget what I have read entirely. She reads as many books as I do but gets them from the library. But how often do I pick up Herodotus or Knausgaard from the shelf? Not often.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#80

Post by Cro_on » Wed, Sep 09, 2020, 4:42 PM UTC

Zippogriff wrote: post #69

commandlinefan wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I agree that people should not be reading every new self-help or business book that gets published You could spend the remainder of your life trying to read every worthwhile book that has already been written and still not finish them all.

Whatever its faults, most of the works in Bloom's list at the end of The Western Canon are probably very much worthwhile, yet appreciating them could occupy more than a lifetime for anyone whose job is not reading literature, even if other pastimes be largely avoided. And it's mostly limited to fiction, drama, and poetry! It omits almost all math, science (including social science and history), and philosophy that's…

>Reading/hearing/watching anything that's not very good is entirely a choice.

Stimulating, contemporary, convenient. Pick two. It is as much of a choice as home made food over fast food is a choice. But it is not always convenient.

Personally I just cut out the contemporary stuff and there is an abundance of good material. When I find something modern and stimulating, it usually involved a certain amount of luck, a lot of trial and error, or just perseverance scouring wikipedia, magazines, blogs, whatever. Most people don't choose what they're into, it is dictated to them by producers. And there is a widespread fear of b&w / classic definition films, stringed classical instruments and literature.