The Collector's Fallacy
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The Collector's Fallacy
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Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#2I think the author neglects one point: Deciding what to keep and what to throw away is a really difficult problem. Why is that so? Because to do it 100% correctly, you would have to know the future. Because only then you can know for certain what is worth keeping. You don't know the future so you will err. Now, in times where data storage is almost free, it makes sense to keep an ever growing but well-ordered set of files or bookmarks. It has saved me lots of time, just searching my bookmarks "I remember this article I once skimmed, and it contains exactly what I need" or even "I remember this book I downloaded, I'm sure the answer is in there".
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#3I think the author neglects one point: Deciding what to keep and what to throw away is a really difficult problem. Why is that so? Because to do it 100% correctly, you would have to know the future . Because only then you can know for certain what is worth keeping. You don't know the future so you will err. Now, in times where data storage is almost free, it makes sense to keep an ever growing but well-ordered set of…
That's essentially what my bookmarks are. An index of self-curated articles, tutorials, tools, books, etc. of things I'm generally interested in. Before I put something in my bookmarks I do a quick skim and decide if has value, even if it's not relevant right now. So that in the future instead of a Google search, where I'd have to browse through a pile of results to identify the gold nuggets, I can instead search through my bookmarks knowing that whatever pops up is going to be immediately useful because I've already screened for it.
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#4I think the author neglects one point: Deciding what to keep and what to throw away is a really difficult problem. Why is that so? Because to do it 100% correctly, you would have to know the future . Because only then you can know for certain what is worth keeping. You don't know the future so you will err. Now, in times where data storage is almost free, it makes sense to keep an ever growing but well-ordered set of…
That's essentially what my bookmarks are. An index of self-curated articles, tutorials, tools, books, etc. of things I'm generally interested in. Before I put something in my bookmarks I do a quick skim and decide if has value, even if it's not relevant right now. So that in the future instead of a Google search, where I'd have to browse through a pile of results to identify the gold nuggets, I can instead search thr…
What you are doing is essentially using your computer as a memex (as described in "as we may think"), like it is intended.
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#5>Put simply, Eco is telling us to finish what is on our plates before we get up for more. Make sure you master what you have before moving on.
Everybody has their own angle on how to handle information overload. That said, I'll offer a different mental model of managing the never-ending reading list. The "reading list" includes the 50+ open webbrowser tabs of "stuff to read later", the digital magazines on iPad, the printouts of pdf files (tech whitepapers), and of course, a pile of traditional books.
For me, finishing what you already collected before starting on new ones is not optimal. I don't think of a reading TODO as "food" such that you should eat the old food before the new food. (The old food will expire so it makes sense to consume that first.)
Instead, I think of reading as a Priority Queue[1]. I let go of the idea that the various reading piles must be finished in the order I added them to the list. Many times, a more interesting article or book will go to the top of the queue pushing back a bunch of stuff I added weeks or months ago. The priority queue is in a perpetual state of being unfinished and constantly adjusted. That's ok. It's the same idea as a priority queue for leisure traveling. Even if I owned a $75 million Gulfstream private jet, I still couldn't travel to all the places I wanted to in my lifetime. There is no sense of being "done" with my "travel destinations collecting" and I apply that perspective to reading.
The above doesn't apply to work email inboxes. I do get anxious if there are unread items there.
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#6[deleted]
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#7As someone with significant attention problems, apps like Instapaper and later Pocket were a LIFESAVER and probably saved my career from mediocrity.
My brain craves constant stimulation and distraction. Do 30 mins of coding? Okay you've earned 5 mins of hacker news. The problem is those 5 minutes are never 5 minutes when you come across a bunch of really interesting articles that your brain is dying to consume instead of getting back to work.
In the old days, I'd use del.icio.us, but that got out of hand. So, more often than not, I simply would take the time to read the posts, and my 5 minute breaks would become 20 minutes. I was a young hotshot developer and I could still manage to get my work done in half the day - truly. But I didn't grow.
So, first, I got older (and slower). Second, web articles got longer. And my model no longer was sustainable.
Now, what do I do? I just skim the article, note if it's something i should read, and add it to my pocket.
Do I then get the collector's fallacy side effect? Absolutely. But it's the lesser of two evils.
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#8Me buying books ensures books are going to be written. Even if I don't read them, I've still supported the art.
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#9>Put simply, Eco is telling us to finish what is on our plates before we get up for more. Make sure you master what you have before moving on. Everybody has their own angle on how to handle information overload. That said, I'll offer a different mental model of managing the never-ending reading list. The "reading list" includes the 50+ open webbrowser tabs of "stuff to read later", the digital magazines on iPad, the…
>I don't think of a reading TODO as "food" such that you should eat the old food before the new food. (The old food will expire so it makes sense to consume that first.)
Based on this explanation, maybe you should. News and information often decrease in usefulness and relevance the longer you wait to digest it.
Re: The Collector's Fallacy
#10As someone with significant attention problems, apps like Instapaper and later Pocket were a LIFESAVER and probably saved my career from mediocrity. My brain craves constant stimulation and distraction. Do 30 mins of coding? Okay you've earned 5 mins of hacker news. The problem is those 5 minutes are never 5 minutes when you come across a bunch of really interesting articles that your brain is dying to consume instea…
I like pocket too, but I think it suffers from the same issues as what the article is describing.
Well, Pocket is not at fault, it's more me and how I use it, but I've got a growing list of links that I've either read and enjoyed, or just saved and not got round to reading yet.
I tend to read my pocket articles on the train via my phone, and sometimes forget what I have and haven't read, or what the article was even about.