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The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

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21–30 of 290 posts

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#21

I started reading history as a hobby a few years after college when I heard some things from people that just didn’t make sense or didn’t seem true. So I picked up a booked that was well cited, read it while checking the citations after each chapter. Between the Library of Congress and Google, checking original sources has never been easier. It was a really mind blowing exercise. Much more interesting than fiction. W…

Could you please recommend some history books?

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#22

I perused the three posts on this blog, and believe that an LLM was heavily used, because I used one daily, and this is the way its content reads. The leisure the author speaks of may be their own, and the research of which they speak today may be done by a machine. I think the intent is good, and if you as the reader get insight from it, then it is still valid, but I cannot read it, because I don’t feel a thread of…

I feel the same way.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#23

I perused the three posts on this blog, and believe that an LLM was heavily used, because I used one daily, and this is the way its content reads. The leisure the author speaks of may be their own, and the research of which they speak today may be done by a machine. I think the intent is good, and if you as the reader get insight from it, then it is still valid, but I cannot read it, because I don’t feel a thread of…

I see the blogger only has 1 post.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#24
post #4

What a wonderful article! Thanks for sharing! I’ve been thinking a lot about how research — as both leisure and serious inquiry — is making a comeback in unexpected ways. One sign of that resurgence is the huge interest in so-called “personal knowledge management” (PKM) tools like Obsidian, Roam Research, or Notion. People love referencing Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method, because it promises to structure and connect sc…

The best home cooks I know do this meta or syntopical reading. For a new dish, gather a few different recipe sources and then look at all the common elements, and work from there.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#25

I started reading history as a hobby a few years after college when I heard some things from people that just didn’t make sense or didn’t seem true. So I picked up a booked that was well cited, read it while checking the citations after each chapter. Between the Library of Congress and Google, checking original sources has never been easier. It was a really mind blowing exercise. Much more interesting than fiction. W…

Curious, what events are documented in the bible that correspond to actual historical events? Does it have good historical accuracy for the time it was written? (forgive my ignorance, I have never read the bible)

Have you read Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore? I admit I didn't finish it, but what I did read was very interesting. Although I admittedly didn't fact check it.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#26

I perused the three posts on this blog, and believe that an LLM was heavily used, because I used one daily, and this is the way its content reads. The leisure the author speaks of may be their own, and the research of which they speak today may be done by a machine. I think the intent is good, and if you as the reader get insight from it, then it is still valid, but I cannot read it, because I don’t feel a thread of…

I see the blogger only has 1 post.

[deleted]

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#27

I started reading history as a hobby a few years after college when I heard some things from people that just didn’t make sense or didn’t seem true. So I picked up a booked that was well cited, read it while checking the citations after each chapter. Between the Library of Congress and Google, checking original sources has never been easier. It was a really mind blowing exercise. Much more interesting than fiction. W…

Curious, what events are documented in the bible that correspond to actual historical events? Does it have good historical accuracy for the time it was written? (forgive my ignorance, I have never read the bible) Have you read Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore? I admit I didn't finish it, but what I did read was very interesting. Although I admittedly didn't fact check it.

I’d recommend to just start reading it to get a feel for it. It’s not all history, there is poetry, proverbs, lawgiving, etc.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#28
Don't know about you guys, but reading has become more and more of a burden for me.

It is as if -- I have greatly narrowed my interest such that most books are not interesting any more. Even the sci-fi and fantasy books, once I loved, lost their magic.

Nowadays there are only two types of books that excite me: 1) those about software/hardware engineering, such as iWoz(I even bought a few Tom Swift JR books for my son), Showstopper and Soul of the New Machine, and 2) books about existentialism such as Shestov's philosophy books.

I suspect it has something to do with getting older and getting kid(s).

What about you guys?

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#29
post #4

What a wonderful article! Thanks for sharing! I’ve been thinking a lot about how research — as both leisure and serious inquiry — is making a comeback in unexpected ways. One sign of that resurgence is the huge interest in so-called “personal knowledge management” (PKM) tools like Obsidian, Roam Research, or Notion. People love referencing Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method, because it promises to structure and connect sc…

This comment is better than the submitted post.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#30
post #16

One of the underrated downsides of the professionalization of research is how much it sucked the "fun" out of things. It's strange, but research papers in most fields are written very differently from how people actually talk to each other. Professional researchers still communicate informally like normal humans, in ways that are "fun" and show much more of how they came up with ideas and what they are really thinkin…

Adam Mastroianni talks about this a lot. His best example is at:

https://www.experimental-history.com/p/things-could-be-bette...

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