How to gain more from your reading • Hacker News Board

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#91

Post by bsd44 » Fri, Jul 23, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

I read about 6-8 books at any time and I'm having a problem forcing myself to focus on one book. I'm also enrolled in about 5 different online courses trying to learn everything. I hardly get anything done.

I used to be able to "multitask" when I was in my early 20s and I got a lot of stuff done which resulted in my fast career progression and overall I noticed my knowledge about everything grew. The more I learned the easier it became to learn new things since pretty much everything is derived from something else, the concepts are quite similar. It doesn't take much to connect the dots.

But the "multitasking" had its peak and gradually became worse when I entered my 30s and now I'm 36 and I have to struggle to finish a book (or a course) and I hate myself for it. Whatever progress I make in one sitting that's more or less it. Every time I start reading a book, I immediately think about another book I could read. I have more kindle books, paper books and audiobooks than I will ever have time to finish and yet I can't stop myself from buying more.

It's a real struggle focusing on one thing and finishing it. I know some people prefer the freedom of doing multiple things at once but I think it's a trap and that freedom will eventually come at a price of attention disorder. The more things you do, the more things you want to do and with everything being immediately available these days, it's not that hard to get trapped in a vicious circle.

Perhaps my fault is that I used to read to complete an achievement and I did it for a very long time and somewhere along the way I forgot to read for pleasure; much like I listen to music or look at paintings.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#92

Post by bsd44 » Fri, Jul 23, 2021, 6:50 PM UTC

mrjivraj wrote: post #6

I sometimes fall into the trap of bookmarking interesting content but failing to go back to read it, especially long form content, although I find such content to be the best for learning about interesting things. There were a few articles I kept coming back to but couldn't get through because of distractions, so yesterday I decided to print out the articles I wanted to read. 30 mins later, I had gone through 3 three…

That's a good tip! I will definitely try that.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#93

Post by sixstringtheory » Fri, Jul 23, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

thibran wrote: post #62

sixstringtheory wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a one-book-at-a-time person for the longest time, and in the last two years relaxed what I realized was an arbitrary rule and allowed myself to read any of a number of books (because I buy them faster than I can read them anyways) depending on my mood. I currently have at least one going in each of these areas: - technical - design - autobiography - classic fiction - short nonfiction anthology - history Progres…

By the way, this is also a much better learning strategy. Switching topics means to recall the information before continuing, which is very much desirable.

One of the books I’m reading is Swann’s Way, which is basically stream-of-consciousness in structure, and there’s an appendix with a synopsis that references page numbers. I usually read the latest paragraph of that to bring me back up to speed before diving into the text. Super useful tool that I wish came with every book… I see things like Sparknotes in a whole new light now. But manual recall is definitely a good exercise!

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#94

Post by mrjivraj » Sat, Jul 24, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC

caddemon wrote: post #76

mrjivraj wrote: post #6

I sometimes fall into the trap of bookmarking interesting content but failing to go back to read it, especially long form content, although I find such content to be the best for learning about interesting things. There were a few articles I kept coming back to but couldn't get through because of distractions, so yesterday I decided to print out the articles I wanted to read. 30 mins later, I had gone through 3 three…

For those that want to do something like this regularly you might consider the ReMarkable tablet, which has a Chrome extension for sending website print outs to the device. It is essentially just high tech paper, so very little potential for distraction. I've not used the web extension much but the tablet more generally has helped me a lot with productivity in reading academic papers and note taking.

Wow, that actually looks pretty cool.

I wish they had physical distribution so that I can go try it out...doesn't seem like they do. But they do have a 30 day return trial.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#95

Post by dorchadas » Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 11:59 PM UTC

roudaki wrote: post #73

Great article. I agree with rereading. When I got into hardware part of networking which I am allergic to it took months of rereading until something clicked BTW. I was surprised how sensitive this topic is at reddit. They are calling anything and everything gatekeeping. So even telling people how to retain more knowledge will get them to start screaming how you are putting pressure on people and killing the joy of r…

> BTW. I was surprised how sensitive this topic is at reddit. They are calling anything and everything gatekeeping. So even telling people how to retain more knowledge will get them to start screaming how you are putting pressure on people and killing the joy of reading. You get 10 downvotes instantly.

This is why I now spend more time on /r/bookscirclejerk than r/books. The latter wants to discuss anything except reading books.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#96

Post by Breza » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

PebblesRox wrote: post #80

oh_sigh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't understand this. I actually read 5 to 10 books at a time. Many "classics" that we have these days were actually published as periodicals/in serial form. So when War and Peace was first published, no one sat down and just read 1500 pages. New chapters were released once a month or so over the period of 2+ years. So if that's how War and Peace was originally read, why shouldn't I read it the same way?

It would be neat to be able to subscribe to a monthly email that sends a chapter at a time.

That would be a fun project to create for public domain works. And not especially difficult.

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#97

Post by Breza » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

electrondood wrote: post #74

sixstringtheory wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a one-book-at-a-time person for the longest time, and in the last two years relaxed what I realized was an arbitrary rule and allowed myself to read any of a number of books (because I buy them faster than I can read them anyways) depending on my mood. I currently have at least one going in each of these areas: - technical - design - autobiography - classic fiction - short nonfiction anthology - history Progres…

I read promiscuously. I want the ideas from disparate topics to have sex and produce novel offspring in my mind.

That's such a good way of describing it!

Re: How to gain more from your reading

#98

Post by Breza » Wed, Jul 28, 2021, 4:11 PM UTC

sixstringtheory wrote: post #44

wombatmobile wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you read one book at a time? Have you tried more than that and found it unsatisfactory? I usually have two books on the go. I leave them in different places. That’s key. I am a different person in each place, and I can keep my associations separate and distinct for each book. Given enough places, I’m confident I could read more than two books in parallel.

I was a one-book-at-a-time person for the longest time, and in the last two years relaxed what I realized was an arbitrary rule and allowed myself to read any of a number of books (because I buy them faster than I can read them anyways) depending on my mood. I currently have at least one going in each of these areas: - technical - design - autobiography - classic fiction - short nonfiction anthology - history Progres…

I have a similar approach. I'll read a math textbook and a novel. Helps keep me motivated to read more rather than thinking "Ugh, I need to read that textbook now."