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Why can’t we read anymore?

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Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#41

Post by kiba »

Retra wrote: post #26
jasode wrote: post #2

I've read over 500 fiction books and 2000+ non-fiction. I've read many of the big thick classics like Moby Dick, War & Peace, Infinite Jest. I've kept a spreadsheet of all the books I've read somewhat like Art Garfunkel[1] (of Simon & Garfunkel music duo). I've also read Nick Carr's "The Shallows"[2] and other authors about about the web's effect on attention span, distractions, etc. With all that said, I'm not convi…

Whenever I real long-form books, my mind will occasionally wander into other areas, while my eyes keep reading on. I'll have to continually go back and re-read what I feel like I've just read. This isn't just an internet-fueled lack of attention, it's how I've always read, and how I image most people read most of the time. The difference is with a website, you can go investigate your immediate thoughts rather than co…

Typical mind fallacy is thinking that the way your mind operates is automatically how everyone's mind operate.

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#42

Post by plaguuuuuu »

jasode wrote: post #2

I've read over 500 fiction books and 2000+ non-fiction. I've read many of the big thick classics like Moby Dick, War & Peace, Infinite Jest. I've kept a spreadsheet of all the books I've read somewhat like Art Garfunkel[1] (of Simon & Garfunkel music duo). I've also read Nick Carr's "The Shallows"[2] and other authors about about the web's effect on attention span, distractions, etc. With all that said, I'm not convi…

It depends.

People used to read 500 page books on compilers. Would you read an equivalently long blog article on compilers?

With the Internet we've gained the ability to more readily acquire knowledge in little bits at a time, over a lot of areas. But most of us are incapable of reading a really huge article in depth. And thus we get more shallow levels of understanding, but across a wider range of topics. This explains a lot of arguments on the internet.

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#43

Post by Retra »

kiba wrote: post #41
Retra wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I real long-form books, my mind will occasionally wander into other areas, while my eyes keep reading on. I'll have to continually go back and re-read what I feel like I've just read. This isn't just an internet-fueled lack of attention, it's how I've always read, and how I image most people read most of the time. The difference is with a website, you can go investigate your immediate thoughts rather than co…

Typical mind fallacy is thinking that the way your mind operates is automatically how everyone's mind operate.

Well, I'm no freak of nature, either.

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#44

Post by jader201 »

Retra wrote: post #26
jasode wrote: post #2

I've read over 500 fiction books and 2000+ non-fiction. I've read many of the big thick classics like Moby Dick, War & Peace, Infinite Jest. I've kept a spreadsheet of all the books I've read somewhat like Art Garfunkel[1] (of Simon & Garfunkel music duo). I've also read Nick Carr's "The Shallows"[2] and other authors about about the web's effect on attention span, distractions, etc. With all that said, I'm not convi…

Whenever I real long-form books, my mind will occasionally wander into other areas, while my eyes keep reading on. I'll have to continually go back and re-read what I feel like I've just read. This isn't just an internet-fueled lack of attention, it's how I've always read, and how I image most people read most of the time. The difference is with a website, you can go investigate your immediate thoughts rather than co…

"I'll have to continually go back and re-read what I feel like I've just read."

This is me.

"and how I image most people read most of the time."

I wish I knew if this were true. I've always felt that I have some sort of "disorder" or some form of ADHD or something that causes my mind to wander anytime I try to read a book. I'm a terribly slow reader for this reason (at least when it comes to books -- internet articles, for some reason, don't seem to have this same effect on me), and as a result, I've not read too many books at all. I mostly get my information in smaller bursts.

Come to think of it, whenever I see what I consider super long articles posted on HN, and a ton of discussion about how great the article was, I feel terribly inadequate that I can't read said article in less than an hour (or more). Short articles I'm fine with, it's the longer ones -- and books -- that I struggle with.

And it's certainly not the result of any "conditioning" from reading short internet articles all the time -- I've been like this since long before the era of blogs and HN.

Would love it if someone could shed some light on this.

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#45

Post by noir_lord »

jader201 wrote: post #44
Retra wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I real long-form books, my mind will occasionally wander into other areas, while my eyes keep reading on. I'll have to continually go back and re-read what I feel like I've just read. This isn't just an internet-fueled lack of attention, it's how I've always read, and how I image most people read most of the time. The difference is with a website, you can go investigate your immediate thoughts rather than co…

"I'll have to continually go back and re-read what I feel like I've just read." This is me. "and how I image most people read most of the time." I wish I knew if this were true. I've always felt that I have some sort of "disorder" or some form of ADHD or something that causes my mind to wander anytime I try to read a book. I'm a terribly slow reader for this reason (at least when it comes to books -- internet article…

Not for me, when I read I get lost in the book and it gets dark outside, the cats come and sleep on me, the street lights go on and I look up at 10pm and I've read half a novel.

It's a sense of peace I get from few other things in life.

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#46

Post by mattmanser »

pdpi wrote: post #17
jasode wrote: post #2

I've read over 500 fiction books and 2000+ non-fiction. I've read many of the big thick classics like Moby Dick, War & Peace, Infinite Jest. I've kept a spreadsheet of all the books I've read somewhat like Art Garfunkel[1] (of Simon & Garfunkel music duo). I've also read Nick Carr's "The Shallows"[2] and other authors about about the web's effect on attention span, distractions, etc. With all that said, I'm not convi…

> 15 years ago, I read a dozen of C++ books cover-to-cover. Can someone today get similar levels of knowledge jumping around quality blog posts and watching youtube videos? Not saying it's better or worse, but I'm willing to say that the understanding you'll get from blogs is going to be be different than from a long-form book. Books get the benefit of knowing where they left off one chapter, and picking it up on the…

Every single programming book in the world after you've read the first one:

Chapter 1: Simple types (um, could have done this in a page)

Chapter 2: Complex types (this too)

Chapter 3: How you can compile from the command line (even though no-one in their sane mind does this in this language)

Chapter 4: Inheritance (oh god, please stop)

Chapter 5: Conditional statements (no, for the love of god stop)

Chapter 6: Loops (right, I'm skipping some chapters)

Chapter 15: Trangonian Complex Pulsar boofs and why you should use them for everything (even though no-one does and never will because they suck)

Chapter 16: How to make a program (this chapter should have been the entire book)

Chapter 17: How to debug (lots of hand waving and no actual details on how to actually debug the program)

Appendix: Listing every word used in the book in alphabetical order and on which pages each was mentioned.

CD: With a 3 year out of date IDE, possibly abandoned, and if you're really lucky some fairly benign malware

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#47

Post by bsder »

Well, I simply find that concentration takes practice. And we simply don't practice it much anymore.

I also think that we have forgotten that the point of email and text messaging was so that we could be asynchronous, rather than interrupt driven like a phone call.

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#49

Post by nsomaru »

Retra wrote: post #43
kiba wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical mind fallacy is thinking that the way your mind operates is automatically how everyone's mind operate.

Well, I'm no freak of nature, either.

Wouldn't say it's about being 'normal' or a 'freak.'

If you haven't cultivated the habit of reading, it's not effortless (like most things). When things aren't effortless (or close thereto), its easy for an undisciplined mind to wander.

If it's something that you value, you will do it enough that it becomes effortless. Perhaps the author missed that point?

Re: Why can’t we read anymore?

#50

Post by danneu »

tinco wrote: post #35

The author conflates two things that are only half related. This sentence is a big hint to why he's not reading books: > "And it’s exhausting. I was usually asleep halfway through sentence number five." Reading books isn't exhausting, you can read books 16 hours per day. If you fall asleep after reading 5 lines, that means you are dead tired and shouldn't even have opened that book in the first place. And maybe the r…

All my life, within a chapter of text, I'm either falling asleep or lulling at the cusp of it.

Moving my body or locations temporarily wards it off like a snooze button, but the struggle also keeps me from losing myself in a novel. To this day, if you fast-forwarded a video of me reading on my couch, I'd like look a fish flopping out of water to stay awake until the next chapter.

My best solution so far has been to read more in the morning with my coffee before I begin my work, which also happens to be a good time to read in general: it's before the barrage.

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