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The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

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Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#111

Post by piva00 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #15
piva00 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite common nowadays to read this type of comment from cowards behind a throwaway. I blame the general discourse in American society, flamed by populists out for a power grab punching down. It's just sad to watch from the outside.

This commenter certainly doesn’t appear to be a native English speaker, what makes you assume they are American?

Not assuming they're American, I'm blaming the discourse in American society which spills over to other societies in the age of information, if you know English it's impossible to not be affected by USA's bullshit on the internet.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#112

Post by rottc0dd »

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.

Edit: Made my points subjective

Harder for me. I thought I can while reading fiction. "Gravity's rainbow" proved that wrong too.

What I mean is, I am more aware of information flow particularly because it is not the natural way of consuming knowledge. Speaking language is in a way part of our evolution. But, written language is a skill you learnt, like driving a bicycle.

This unnatural way, makes me much more aware of my own thinking. While I am reading, even if I understand I stop and muse and breathe in and bask on thoughts it cultivated in me. It has not happened, for me, in other medium.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#113

Post by rottc0dd »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #96
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…

> In audio and visual medium, it is somewhat easier to trick myself into following the flow without actually understanding. That just means exploiting the medium to full potential hasn't been normalized yet. Much like with the books, you can pause video and audio. And, much like with books, you can go through the material once to get the high-level overview, and then play it again to learn more, now that you have bet…

I think, it is much more to do with the fact that audio or visual way of consuming information is so natural that you can sometimes go with the flow.

It helps me to be much more aware of the information being consumed, exactly because reading is an unnatural and learned way of consuming information. You can definitely do the same with audio medium, but books make me aware of where I am in the process much more than former.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#114

Post by magicmicah85 »

markus_zhang wrote: post #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…

Perhaps you have just found your niche. Like the person who reads romantasy or the person who reads history, you like engineering and existentialism (not an uncommon pairing) and you get something out of it.

From the age of 20 to 38, I had a hard time reading books. I grew up reading Tolkien, Dan Simmons, Timothy Zahn, but the internet exploding in speeds and online content replaced my reading habits. So I moved to just read that.

I recently got back into reading books by trying books I used to read. I'm fine with Tolkien, but I couldn't stomach 3 chapters of Heir to the Empire. Star Wars was just boring to me now. And I found that I like mystery/spooky books more than I did before. I can still read Tolkien and Hyperion without a problem and I also like my nonfiction software/hardware stuff too.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#115

Post by noboostforyou »

bee_rider wrote: post #110
DontchaKnowit wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

disagree. You just have to actively listen, and cannot let your mind wander. you can also read and have no idea what you just read if you let your mind wander. Currently learning spanish via a podcast and its very effective, I just have to pause and rewind constantly to make sure I fully understand whats going on

I was pretty clear that I was just describing what works for me, right? So, as the authority on the topic, I declare you incorrect. It is fine if you think I’m not representative or usual, but I’m telling you, I’ve tried listening very hard in many different contexts, it just doesn’t work.

A long time ago I remember taking tests in school that was explicitly about trying to determine how you best learned - audio/visual/hands-on etc

So you're definitely correct - everyone learns best a different way.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#116

Post by mmooss »

awongh wrote: post #84

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 ever…

> can’t stand these elitist and unoriginal think pieces about how much better and cooler

Aren't you saying the same thing, putting them down? You could both be curious about each other.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#117

Post by LastTrain »

JadeNB wrote: post #43
LastTrain wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve been siding with Russia since 1776?

> You’ve been siding with Russia since 1776? Huh? In most senses of "siding with," I don't think that this statement has really been true for this broad a sweep of US history.

To say I misread your original comment would be an understatement, my apologies.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#119

Post by markus_zhang »

magicmicah85 wrote: post #114
markus_zhang wrote: post #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…

Perhaps you have just found your niche. Like the person who reads romantasy or the person who reads history, you like engineering and existentialism (not an uncommon pairing) and you get something out of it. From the age of 20 to 38, I had a hard time reading books. I grew up reading Tolkien, Dan Simmons, Timothy Zahn, but the internet exploding in speeds and online content replaced my reading habits. So I moved to j…

Yeah you could be right. I'm actually in a similar boat. I used to read a lot of fictions before 25-ish but then I got hooked by the Internet so I rarely read any books since then. I used to enjoy Tolkien and D&D novels a LOT but recently I found them to be meh.

Re: The Lost Art of Research as Leisure

#120

Post by ozim »

awongh wrote: post #84

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 ever…

Agree, OP is points to Thoreau, Sagan, Galileo - most people on the planet earth are not like that and those guys were heavily privileged.

Doing personal fancy research was not available before as it is now. Even though one still has to be rather privileged to have time to dig through obscure details that don’t make him money.

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