Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

kasurian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 290 posts

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#81

Post by bayindirh »

nicbou wrote: post #76
bayindirh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are all different, and that's OK. Listening stuff while driving is impossible for me, but I can tune out pretty well while reading something. I finished my Ph.D. in a Starbucks and thanked them to have me till closing for quite some time in my manuscript, too!

Interesting! I guess it depends on the kind of driving. Once you hit the Autobahn it's pretty easy on the brain. Riding a motorcycle in a big city is a different experience. I love working from cafés. That mention in your manuscript is a lovely touch.

> I love working from cafés.

Me too. The different atmosphere acts like a catalyst if I like the place and work comfortable.

> That mention in your manuscript is a lovely touch.

Thanks.

I drive a car, but city traffic is much more demanding than the Autobahn. Even then, I lately prefer to listen to the machine, and let my brain to do its background processing.

I somehow learnt to sit comfortable by myself and let what lies beneath to surface. It serves me much better than constantly consuming something.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#82

Post by jampekka »

sergioisidoro wrote: post #34

I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…

The reading pedestal also often ignores that reading, and even writing, is not enough. In the posted piece the steps of "research" are, apart from haphazardly watching birds and architecture, all reading or writing.

I see problems arising from this in academia quite commonly. The discussions based only on reading and writing (and discussions) tend to get detached from reality, often to the point of inability to point out any real world examples where the discussion actually applies to.

Also many who lament lack of reading can be quite proudly "not technical persons", "not mathematical thinkers" or "not good with my hands", with kind of implication that these are not of much significance for intellectual development.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#83

Post by Insanity »

rottc0dd wrote: post #54
sergioisidoro wrote: post #34

I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…

This is a personal take. I agree if you are actively participating and grappling with the material in your mind. One reason I like reading is that, if I don't understand I cannot move on to next step. So, it forces me to actively participate, argue and understand the text. In audio and visual medium, it is somewhat easier to trick myself into following the flow without actually understanding. I heard, that is why Fey…

Similar to other commenters I disagree. You can definitely read without parsing and just “move on”.

Or accept a superficial understanding and fail to see the deeper point. Philosophy might be a good domain to see this happen with - read the words but don’t parse the meaning.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#84

Post by awongh »

I read a fair amount and I actually do research as leisure all the time, but I can’t stand these elitist and unoriginal think pieces about how much better and cooler this person’s habits are than yours.

>> for the leisurely researcher, self-study must include the discipline’s foundational texts

I feel like this person has some kind of dark academia aesthetic fetish that they need to hold onto to feel superior to everyone else.

I actually deeply agree with the advice in the OP around curiosity but personally I end up implementing it in a totally different way than they do.

Lately I’ve found that LLMs are an amazing tool for this free-floating “research”- for example “Summarize the top three theories about why suburbs exist and who said them”. The LLM as open ended semantic search engine / research tool is an amazing way to figure out the topology of a subject you want to dive deeper into.

I usually work my way down a content ladder from there to podcasts, wikipedia and finally to books.

The idea that somehow civilization is ending because of our media consumption habits and that “reading source material” will save us comes off as more an aesthetic fantasy than a real-world complaint about today’s culture.

I was around before the internet and I’m so thankful that so much more information is accessible now than it was when there were only books.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#85

Post by awongh »

sergioisidoro wrote: post #34

I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…

It feels like a healthy variety of media types and engagement types is the best way to engage with a subject. Internet, audio/podcasts, video, and also active writing on the topic.

Balance them all out depending on your preferences.

btw, the common idea that people have “learning styles” seems to have been debunked, but I do feel that there are so many ways to approach a topic that it’s helpful to understand them through different media

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#86

Post by spoiler »

thfuran wrote: post #75
rottc0dd wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a personal take. I agree if you are actively participating and grappling with the material in your mind. One reason I like reading is that, if I don't understand I cannot move on to next step. So, it forces me to actively participate, argue and understand the text. In audio and visual medium, it is somewhat easier to trick myself into following the flow without actually understanding. I heard, that is why Fey…

>One reason I like reading is that, if I don't understand I cannot move on to next step Yes, you can. You can even skim—or entirely skip—whole sections.

But with reading it's more of an active or deliberate choice. With listening or watching it "just happens" naturally as the medium progresses.

I'm also a slow learner (and reader) so I think reading also suits me better because I allows me to control the pace better.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#87

Post by jihadjihad »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #35
sergioisidoro wrote: post #34

I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…

I always love this conversation: Snob: "Listening to an audio book doesn't count as reading the book!" Everyone else in the world: "k"

The snob's take is bad, but there is a point of agreement I have with one aspect of audiobooks: it's impossible to remember details about things that fall outside your native language, if you haven't already studied them. For example, I listened to a nonfiction audiobook about Xi Jinping. I could tell you the broad strokes of the people in his orbit from the late 1970s on, but I have no idea how to spell or even Google them effectively, because I never read them--I only heard them.

The same goes for foreign concepts/places/etc., for me at least there is no substitute for reading when it comes to retention and recall of material.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#88

Post by awongh »

rottc0dd wrote: post #54
sergioisidoro wrote: post #34

I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…

This is a personal take. I agree if you are actively participating and grappling with the material in your mind. One reason I like reading is that, if I don't understand I cannot move on to next step. So, it forces me to actively participate, argue and understand the text. In audio and visual medium, it is somewhat easier to trick myself into following the flow without actually understanding. I heard, that is why Fey…

There’s also the meta element of understanding how each medium affects the way you engage with the topic, which I think can be helpful in understanding when you might want to switch and why.

That is, assuming you probably want to have more than one media type in order to round out your understanding.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#89

Post by NalNezumi »

rottc0dd wrote: post #54
sergioisidoro wrote: post #34

I think reading is an essential skill, but we also need to get reading out of the pedestal. Because a lot of the time these arguments come across as some sort of literary elitism. Like if you're not ingesting information through reading, it doesn't count. This month I spent many hours listening to lectures on youtube about geopolitics on the Asian continent from the naval war college. Sure I could have read it, but n…

This is a personal take. I agree if you are actively participating and grappling with the material in your mind. One reason I like reading is that, if I don't understand I cannot move on to next step. So, it forces me to actively participate, argue and understand the text. In audio and visual medium, it is somewhat easier to trick myself into following the flow without actually understanding. I heard, that is why Fey…

I think your personal take is more so that you require "interaction" in the learning process; which is extremely common and universally accepted as best way to learn stuff.

>If I don't understand I cannot move on to next step

Everytime you encounter new hard concept, you really have to actively think/interact with that information to make it yours. This is often lacking in the "lecture" style teaching. One key benefit of reading is that you can do it at your pace.

I think for audio/verbal medium, you would probably have a completely different experience if you were talking to Feynman. He have a lecture for you, and everytime you get stuck, you can interrupt him and ask follow up question or ask further. This is probably why Private tuition is so valuable (and very very often used in East Asian nation); whichever fence of preference you fall to, a someone dedicated to teaching you is an extreme advantage.

Post reply on HN