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Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

theparisreview.org

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Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#141

Post by criddell »

whatusername wrote: post #113
criddell wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think fiction can be shrunk down, but I think lots of non-fiction books can. I'm thinking specifically of some books that I've read in the past couple of years that include: * Deep Work * Influence * Thinking Fast and Slow * Predictably Irrational * Getting Things Done * How to Win Friends and Influence People I think all of these books suffer from the common pattern of present an idea then a bunch of example…

I agree completely about non-fiction books. There are certainly some fiction books that could use some shrinking down (For Exhibit A: Crossroads of Twilight -- book 10 of the Wheel of Time)

Now that you mention it, when I was reading Snow Crash I started skipping all the parts about ancient Sumerian language. All that he needed to do was establish that it worked as some kind of low-level system of the brain that could be tinkered with. Instead it felt like he spent 4 months researching ancient Sumer and by God he was going to not let that work go to waste.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#142

Post by criddell »

2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #129
criddell wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think fiction can be shrunk down, but I think lots of non-fiction books can. I'm thinking specifically of some books that I've read in the past couple of years that include: * Deep Work * Influence * Thinking Fast and Slow * Predictably Irrational * Getting Things Done * How to Win Friends and Influence People I think all of these books suffer from the common pattern of present an idea then a bunch of example…

Agreed in principle, and clearly there's no binary rule as every book will have its own level of "padding" / laboring the point, but I think the (O)OPs comment about "internalizing" is interesting, and personally I don't think a "tl;dr" of the books above wouldn't have had the same effect on me.

I agree that there's no binary rule. I read Sapiens and while it was a very long book, I don't think it could have been shorter.

BTW, laboring the point is precisely the phrase I was looking for but couldn't recall.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#143

Post by goldfeld »

chki wrote: post #51
everythingswan wrote: post #10

I've come to love books intensely. Not only because I enjoy learning--before I read books, I found blogs to be great educators. I love books because they create time and space to be alone with a thought. It gives me time to consider things that I normally have no space for. I remember Seth Godin saying once that every business book can be summarized in just a few pages but the book itself is a story. I think it goes…

I've recently been shown a lot of ads for a service called "blinkist" where the idea is to provide short summaries of non-fiction books and I think your comment captures why that is a very bad idea. Reading and capturing an idea takes time; it can't be properly substituted by a few minutes of "listening to crucial insights from leading thinkers while you’re on the go." Their business model is in a way the complete op…

Where non-fiction books have a bad signal-to-noise ratio but still provide interesting insights begetting a summary, the best service can be done by a new motivated writer: trying to merely summarize a book squashes the "space" in which insight can deeply take place, as opposed to digesting the message and crafting a new message, an amalgam of ideas from another and another almost harmless business book, into something new, more dense and hopefully superseding. It's a natural evolution of the world's knowledge and books perfectly encapsulate the writer and reader's span and frame of mind leading to good analytical learning.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#144

Post by IanSanders »

geolgau wrote: post #126
CharlesMerriam2 wrote: post #75

As I read this story, some moving advertisements start along the top and sides. After ten seconds, a floating bar covers the text. After a few more, a modal dialog. Then the 'share me now' buttons, obscuring the text. Then I leave. Too few websites offer an experience for someone to read the content, and so we will see "Reading Online Content in the Age of Constant Distraction" in HackerNews.

How can you live in 2019 without an ad blocker? I'm on that page and never got any ads/intrusions.

Maybe they are using an iphone or something. Adblockers don't resolve the root of the problem!

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#145

Post by tgarv »

leppr wrote: post #40
tgarv wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, I didn't know that was a thing but that describes me perfectly. I can sort of picture faces to some extent, but trying to visualize a house or a scene is almost impossible to me. I find it frustrating when trying to think of a "memory palace" because I can't even think about what the front door of the palace would look like, let along intricate places for things within it.

Your "memory palace" could simply be a row of doors where different sounds come from each one. Or a jungle where you have to crawl and climb over obstacles to move around. Imagination isn't just visual. Just because you can't "picture" something in your head doesn't mean you have no imagination.

That's really interesting! I'm probably just using my lack of visual imagination as a cop out. Do you have any examples of resources for constructing such a "memory palace"?

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#146

Post by goldfeld »

rgifford wrote: post #81
krishna2 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you.

> I liked the way Ray Bradbury writes about this in Fahrenheit 451. When you read books, you have time to think about it, re-read it and question it. Whereas while watching video, things move so fast that the decision is made up for you. You can literally watch a video at any pace you want. I don't get romanticism around books and I can't help but eye roll when someone a) gushes about reading or b) waxes poetic about…

Maybe you just represent (echo) the hubris of the new century? The past doesn't need any more romanticising or contemporary poetry than it needs new Mozarts, Shakespeares, Balzacs and Einsteins, whereas the twenty-first century is in dire search of true genius, for all the torrent of information being churned and churned. The ratio of intelligent study decays as the numbers of daily YouTube views sharply rise. It astounds me that people really believe progress is being made on the habits of deep intellectual work with new gadgets.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#147

Post by the_af »

procinct wrote: post #71
the_af wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood audiobooks to begin with. To me, reading is an intimate, personal thing. Listening to some narrator is more like being the spectator in some piece of performance art. When I read, I want to be left alone with my thoughts. I don't hear a voice when reading (like some people do, apparently) and I definitely don't want to hear some guy or gal actually speaking the words! More importantly, I want to re…

It’s very interesting to me that you read without hearing a voice in your head reading each word. I tried to read your comment without requiring the voice in my head but I wasn’t able to do so. Can you elaborate a little more on what reading is like for you with no voice in your head?

I do not speed read, unlike what the other comment mentions. Your assumption is correct: this is my standard mode of reading. I'm actually not a very fast reader (though I used to be when I was a teenager!), and I like to re-read paragraphs and sometimes even go back a few pages and re-read something I liked. This is also why e-readers, as convenient as they otherwise are, are not my preferred medium when reading novels: they make it uncomfortable to go back and forth. A printed book actually has the best UI for me :)

I can't explain what it feels like to read like this. I don't hear a voice except when my attention is drawn to this, like right now: I'm definitely hearing my voice when I type this, but that's because I'm thinking about it. As soon as I forget this discussion, I'll go back to silent reading mode.

Also keep in mind that right now I'm hearing my own voice, not some narrator's. I'd find it extremely distracting if it was someone else's voice, e.g. if it was a woman's voice if the writer was a woman.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#148

Post by the_af »

all2 wrote: post #72
the_af wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood audiobooks to begin with. To me, reading is an intimate, personal thing. Listening to some narrator is more like being the spectator in some piece of performance art. When I read, I want to be left alone with my thoughts. I don't hear a voice when reading (like some people do, apparently) and I definitely don't want to hear some guy or gal actually speaking the words! More importantly, I want to re…

> Listening to some narrator is more like being the spectator in some piece of performance art. This is exactly why I read my books, but also listen to podcasts. When I need my imagination to run I need rest, time, and quietude. When I want to listen to an interview, I do that (riding my bike to school, for example).

Good point. Do note I was speaking about reading books for pleasure. I definitely need peace and quiet. However, this doesn't apply for articles or blog posts, I can read those anywhere, on any format. I can definitely see myself listening to a podcast (though in that case, my problem is that I'm impatient and want to fast forward it). I guess my imagination is not as engaged for them!

I would never, ever, enjoy listening to a novel in audio format.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#149

Post by the_af »

procinct wrote: post #85
kccqzy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed reading is basically reading without hearing a voice (subvocalization). I can do it but personally find it more draining and less enjoyable than regular reading. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization#Comparison_to_...

That's a really interesting link, thanks for that. The parent comment made it sound as if this was their normal method of reading which is pretty fascinating. I wonder how common it is.

It is indeed my normal method of reading, and I don't speed read.

PS: note that as I mentioned in another comment, now that my attention has been drawn to it, I am indeed "listening" to my thoughts as I type this. Maybe this is going all the time and I simply don't notice it normally. What I definitely do not hear is some kind of narrator voice reading carefully enunciated words to me (as an audiobook would be). That would be distracting to me.

Re: Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

#150

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

burtonator wrote: post #28

I'm actually working on an app specifically to address this problem. https://getpolarized.io/ It builds on the idea of 'bookmarks' and we have a new take on them called 'pagemarks' which is basically a box that spans multiple pages. This way you can keep track of the parts of the book you've read and jump around. I like reading multiple textbooks, articles, etc and go back and forth often. This allows me to easily su…

> ...a new take on them called 'pagemarks' which is basically a box that spans multiple pages.

Not wanting to belittle what you've done as it sounds like a really useful product, but this sounds like exactly the same way I use "highlights" on the Kindle.

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