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The Dangerous Effects of Reading

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Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#61

Post by obtu »

scanr wrote: post #41
nlawalker wrote: post #11

I definitely agree about the "filtering crap from gold" bit. Once you reach a certain level of skill it can become a hindrance: you develop an extremely low tolerance for anything that doesn't catch you as interesting within a few seconds, and you start speed-reading absolutely everything. This is good in that you aren't wasting time consuming something that's not really useful, but it's bad in that you end up contin…

One of the most positive changes I made to my programming / design was to start taking notes that looked like a stream of consciousness conversation with myself. I was doing a fair bit of pair programming and I found that talking to my pair about whatever issue we were facing was helping me clarify the design in my head. When I started working on a few solo projects, I found that taking notes worked almost as well, d…

The other side of that conversation can also be a rubber duck ;)

http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.... https://pay.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/83i5n/the_rubb... http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#62

Post by obtu »

mcantor wrote: post #50

In my experience, speed of filtering ("is this thing I'm reading cool enough to continue reading?") and fear of being filtered ("is this thing I'm creating cool enough for other people to read?") are 100% orthogonal. They are simply not related even a tiny bit, which makes this post seem kind of hilariously inane.

For extroverts maybe? I could totally identify with that part of the post and the _why quote. Impostor syndrome is another example of better-tuned filters getting in the way.

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#63

Post by tom_b »

bmelton wrote: post #60
narrator wrote: post #48

Often reading is just distraction. There's often very little actionable information there. It's just taking your mind off your real problems. It's basically all entertainment. I go home and I watch Khan Academy videos now. I read Wikipedia. I read some Hacker News mainly to distract myself from work. I pretend that it's useful, and it sometimes is, but sometimes I wonder if I'm engaging in repetitive naval gazing and…

I'll just set up every straw man and let you tear 'em down, I guess. Reading isn't always just distraction, in the same way that the internet isn't and, as you've said, you use the internet for Wikipedia, Khan Academy videos, etc. I just bought Ron Paul's "End the Fed" book (it's on sale in hardcover at Amazon), which I feel will give me a more informed position in politics. You'll have to pardon my belief that polit…

The Higbee memory book is fun. I used it to help my kid memorize some things before kindergarten (spell a complicated last name, sing daddy's phone number, where I live, etc).

I am planning to refresh my data structures and algorithms background with an eye on using some of the techniques in this book to memorize them.

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#64

Post by bmelton »

tom_b wrote: post #63
bmelton wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll just set up every straw man and let you tear 'em down, I guess. Reading isn't always just distraction, in the same way that the internet isn't and, as you've said, you use the internet for Wikipedia, Khan Academy videos, etc. I just bought Ron Paul's "End the Fed" book (it's on sale in hardcover at Amazon), which I feel will give me a more informed position in politics. You'll have to pardon my belief that polit…

The Higbee memory book is fun. I used it to help my kid memorize some things before kindergarten (spell a complicated last name, sing daddy's phone number, where I live, etc). I am planning to refresh my data structures and algorithms background with an eye on using some of the techniques in this book to memorize them.

I got started with the idea of mnemonics by reading Jonathan Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein[1]", which is an exceptionally good read.

============* Potential Spoiler Alert* ===================== It isn't a 'how-to' book per se, as it mostly tells the story of how the author went from being a journalist who covered the World Memory Championship tournament and within a year of training, became the US Memory Champ.

Regardless, it's a really fun read, and Foer is a really good writer. It does have some 'how-to' moments in it, and the little I've learned has been 100% effective, but I needed something to deal with more complicated data structures -- I could easily memorize the periodic table now, in order, but I don't know how I would store associated data, like atomic weights, symbols, melting point, boiling point, etc. That's why I got the Higbee book.

Glad to hear an endorsement on it. The one deficiency I have with Moonwalking is that it doesn't go on to recommend a book or technique that would work. I debated over a few of the books mentioned in Moonwalking, and ultimately decided to go with the (not mentioned) Higbee book based on an external review.

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#65

Post by obtu »

commnderkeen08 wrote: post #43

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned Clay Johnson's new book, "The Information Diet." Pretty interesting read that goes with everything in this article. Side effect to overconsumption is increased personalization of information which makes us more ignornant to new/foreign ideas. Also, I feel so ashamed listening to podcasts on my way to work now.

You probably wouldn't be creating anything on your commute. And podcasts aren't easily skimmed, they should give you enough headspace for reflection.

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#66

Post by krupan »

bmelton wrote: post #64
tom_b wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Higbee memory book is fun. I used it to help my kid memorize some things before kindergarten (spell a complicated last name, sing daddy's phone number, where I live, etc). I am planning to refresh my data structures and algorithms background with an eye on using some of the techniques in this book to memorize them.

I got started with the idea of mnemonics by reading Jonathan Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein[1]", which is an exceptionally good read. ============* Potential Spoiler Alert* ===================== It isn't a 'how-to' book per se, as it mostly tells the story of how the author went from being a journalist who covered the World Memory Championship tournament and within a year of training, became the US Memory Champ. R…

Moonwalking actually has a pretty extensive bibliography. In addition to the memory techniques, the references to Dr. K. Anders Ericsson's work on how to become an expert at anything was really interesting (http://www.coachingmanagement.nl/The%20Making%20of%20an%20Ex..., for example)

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#67

Post by bmelton »

krupan wrote: post #66
bmelton wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got started with the idea of mnemonics by reading Jonathan Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein[1]", which is an exceptionally good read. ============* Potential Spoiler Alert* ===================== It isn't a 'how-to' book per se, as it mostly tells the story of how the author went from being a journalist who covered the World Memory Championship tournament and within a year of training, became the US Memory Champ. R…

Moonwalking actually has a pretty extensive bibliography. In addition to the memory techniques, the references to Dr. K. Anders Ericsson's work on how to become an expert at anything was really interesting ( http://www.coachingmanagement.nl/The%20Making%20of%20an%20Ex... , for example)

Sonofa... I saw the notes and errata at the end, but in skimming through on my Kindle, looking for references, I must have missed it.

Thanks a ton.

The one book that was in there that I really wanted to get was Pridmore's "How to be Clever", but it isn't available on the Kindle. :'(

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#68

Post by georgemcbay »

tomjen3 wrote: post #56
nlawalker wrote: post #11

I definitely agree about the "filtering crap from gold" bit. Once you reach a certain level of skill it can become a hindrance: you develop an extremely low tolerance for anything that doesn't catch you as interesting within a few seconds, and you start speed-reading absolutely everything. This is good in that you aren't wasting time consuming something that's not really useful, but it's bad in that you end up contin…

A tried notes in HS and college but it they never seemed useful -- after all the content is in the book, and most books have a great index/table of content so I can find whatever piece of info I want. My notes, on the other hand don't. And I may have gotten the details wrong or omitted that piece of info.

Notes aren't just for reference. The act of taking notes (even if you never directly reference them again in the future) improves recall and understanding of the material for most people.

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#69

Post by nlawalker »

georgemcbay wrote: post #68
tomjen3 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tried notes in HS and college but it they never seemed useful -- after all the content is in the book, and most books have a great index/table of content so I can find whatever piece of info I want. My notes, on the other hand don't. And I may have gotten the details wrong or omitted that piece of info.

Notes aren't just for reference. The act of taking notes (even if you never directly reference them again in the future) improves recall and understanding of the material for most people.

This was primarily the reason I started taking notes - I really had no plans to use them as references.

However, three factors have changed my outlook on this: 1) full-text indexed search, 2) cloud storage, and 3) low barrier to entry (I have found an organizational style that makes it easy for me to start writing at a moment's notice, without worrying about how to store/organize until later).

Full-text indexing is a huge deal, because I will often remember a certain combination of words or a particular term used in reference to some concept. Cloud storage ensures that I am almost never without my notes.

Add in the fact that if you make it easy enough for yourself to start writing, you will naturally end up with a lot of content about concepts you find difficult, and you'll skip the stuff you know well. The end result is a fully-searchable set of textbooks written specifically for your brain that you can always refer back to.

Sometimes, even if I'm not looking for a particular note, I'll crawl through a few old notes on any random subject in my notebooks and it will give me a new perspective on a problem I'm trying to solve, or remind me of something I wanted to try/research but didn't get around to.

Re: The Dangerous Effects of Reading

#70

Post by thewisedude »

Time in bathroom spent reading on your phone [Side note: how freaking scary would it have been to explain to your great-great-grandfather that people would carry around computers and look at them while in the bathroom or driving - he would have been terrified of this future]

Really? Try telling your ancestors that you have bombs that can destroy entire cities. Or try telling your ancestors[few centuries back] that you could go to moon today, or that you have the whole world's information in your fingertips, they might faint in disbelief! My point being, that our ancestors' reaction is not a reason why we should not be doing something!

But, I do agree with the author that, the availability of tremendous information is forcing us to judge too quickly, and probably will lead us to making bad judgements!

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