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Letting go of the idea of keeping up

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Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#11

Post by justinclift »

spxneo wrote: post #4

not just books but almost everything. there is a lot of anxiety seeing others put out stuff when you are barely stringing along. dont beat yourself up, focus on beating yourself.

> dont beat yourself up, focus on beating yourself.

Maybe "use your time well" is a better thought?

Focusing on beating X just makes it a metric, and can be destructive when you'd be better off switching to some completely different activity instead.

When it's a metric, you can be tied to keep meeting it (or even just attempted to) well past it's usefulness.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#12

Post by roywiggins »

causality0 wrote: post #7

Every time Goodreads comes up on HN it sounds like a cross between Facebook and drug addiction. I am very glad that I care about as much about other peoples' opinions on the books I read as I do their opinions on my wanking technique.

One thing it's good for is when you read a book, hate it, and can find someone on Goodreads with a review that gripes about the exact same stuff you hated about it. Especially if the book in question is highly praised or award-winning. Do I need someone else to validate my hate-read of a book? No, but it scratches an itch.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#13

Post by xzel »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #3

Goodreads statistics don't add pressure. They take it off. This article assumes that reading is a chore. If I notice that I'm falling behind it's because I'm not taking enough me time. It's so easy to get wrapped up in work, research, deadlines, grants, students, etc. Then you burn out. Reading stats are a way to keep that at bay. And even better it's cumulative and I can't cheat. If I've been really busy this month,…

Beautifully put. Many metrics suffer from the glass half full vs half empty, perspective! They're just numbers at the end of the day. The important part is how you let them inform you. It is so easy to have the number goes up === good mentality, but many metrics hide the subjective and or collective truth. People need to take metrics in aggregate. Not everything is a race, not every number is important and many metrics are poor indicators for what you really want to measure.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#14

Post by geuis »

I'm in a weird position. Can anyone provide a summary of this article?

I have all the time in the world to read things that are interesting (to me) and really absorb the content. But I've increasingly been noticing a "recipe article" trend with blog posts. People throw 100 words in when 10 will do. This article is an example.

I've even gotten to the point with certain important blog posts where I copy paste the content to chatgpt with a simple prompt to summarize the main points.

I'm not happy that I have to do this, but people have seemingly forgotten the art of getting to the f'ing point.

Your audience has an attention slightly shorter than this comment. Unless you catch their attention, none of your nuance is going to matter.

Generally I've found just skimming the first line of each paragraph works well, but even that is getting harder to find.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#15

Post by [deleted] »

geuis wrote: post #14

I'm in a weird position. Can anyone provide a summary of this article? I have all the time in the world to read things that are interesting (to me) and really absorb the content. But I've increasingly been noticing a "recipe article" trend with blog posts. People throw 100 words in when 10 will do. This article is an example. I've even gotten to the point with certain important blog posts where I copy paste the conte…

[deleted]

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#16

Post by bigiain »

spxneo wrote: post #6
steviem wrote: post #2

I read around 150 books a year. Most of it is what I like to call "shitlit", or alternatively inconsequential literature. This does not mean I am better or worse than anyone, just that my default state is reading. Friends eventually read books when recommended them and we talk about then. Reading shouldnt be a target, it should be for enjoyment. I enjoy shitlit, but others may not.

if you read 150 books a year you are well ahead of the crowd. However it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life. If you enjoy reading keep doing it. I would love to be able to read 150 books or let alone make the time for it.

"it would be tough to apply all 150 books contents to real life."

Why the hell would anybody want to do that?

Do you feel some need to "apply every meal you eat to real life"? or to "apply every movie you watch"? Or every concert you hear, or every ballet you see?

(I usually read books as a way to avoid "real life" for a while...)

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#17

Post by grugagag »

geuis wrote: post #14

I'm in a weird position. Can anyone provide a summary of this article? I have all the time in the world to read things that are interesting (to me) and really absorb the content. But I've increasingly been noticing a "recipe article" trend with blog posts. People throw 100 words in when 10 will do. This article is an example. I've even gotten to the point with certain important blog posts where I copy paste the conte…

It’s understandable and may work for you but I have the feeling it’s a bad habit. But again, if it works for you all the better.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#18

Post by msy »

geuis wrote: post #14

I'm in a weird position. Can anyone provide a summary of this article? I have all the time in the world to read things that are interesting (to me) and really absorb the content. But I've increasingly been noticing a "recipe article" trend with blog posts. People throw 100 words in when 10 will do. This article is an example. I've even gotten to the point with certain important blog posts where I copy paste the conte…

Ironically it’s because increasingly it’s 100 words generated by an LLM from a 10 word prompt. We’ve effectively found a way to keep entire datacenters humming to do nothing more than obfuscate signal in very expensive noise and the lossily try and extract it again.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#19

Post by bicx »

geuis wrote: post #14

I'm in a weird position. Can anyone provide a summary of this article? I have all the time in the world to read things that are interesting (to me) and really absorb the content. But I've increasingly been noticing a "recipe article" trend with blog posts. People throw 100 words in when 10 will do. This article is an example. I've even gotten to the point with certain important blog posts where I copy paste the conte…

I often use the old trick of skipping to the end to see if there is a coherent conclusion, and if I think the conclusion is interesting, I’ll go back and pick my way through the body of the article.

I agree with your points though in general. I think this is even worse with many non-fiction books. So much fluff when the main points could be summarized in 10 pages.

Re: Letting go of the idea of keeping up

#20

Post by theK »

steviem wrote: post #2

I read around 150 books a year. Most of it is what I like to call "shitlit", or alternatively inconsequential literature. This does not mean I am better or worse than anyone, just that my default state is reading. Friends eventually read books when recommended them and we talk about then. Reading shouldnt be a target, it should be for enjoyment. I enjoy shitlit, but others may not.

How does this work? Is it a book every two days? Or three books on the weekend? How long is your commute and how do you keep off YouTube/Netflix in the evening?
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