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Ask HN: Are books worth it?

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Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#351

Post by hermitdev »

ipython wrote: post #123
oneplane wrote: post #85

Online content is often low-quality, highly commercial in nature and very ephemeral. Books, the real kind, when they are good can stay with you for a very long time. A well-written story, be it fiction or non-fiction can have a long lastig impact and even an emotional connection that I have personally never experienced with anything 'online'. If you don't read books, you are missing out. Even only 1 or 2 books a year…

+1 all the way. Online content is optimized not for quality but rather for clicks and interaction. As someone who grew up during the 90s the hope was that better quality would lead to more clicks. Clearly that’s not the case. As a technical author myself, I can speak to the effort required to create a book versus a blog post. A book requires you to think holistically about a topic- building a comprehensive outline of…

Stevens's books are timeless. Yeah, they're labelled as "Unix", but they're really more about Posix to the most extent. Still very relevant today.

My own copies are +20 years old, but useful enough that they have the least dust on my bookshelf (and I predominantly work on Windows).

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#352

Post by awb »

oneplane wrote: post #85

Online content is often low-quality, highly commercial in nature and very ephemeral. Books, the real kind, when they are good can stay with you for a very long time. A well-written story, be it fiction or non-fiction can have a long lastig impact and even an emotional connection that I have personally never experienced with anything 'online'. If you don't read books, you are missing out. Even only 1 or 2 books a year…

> Online content is often low-quality, highly commercial in nature and very ephemeral. Books, the real kind, when they are good can stay with you for a very long time.

You're comparing bad online content with good books. There are good and bad versions of each.

Some of the most helpful, actionable content I've read in my life has been online.

The benefit of online content is that it can be dynamic, interactive and updated. There are downsides too of course.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#353

Post by keithnz »

I read much less than I used to, but these days I tend to consume a non fiction book at least every 2-4 weeks (sometimes more), either by reading or by audio book (the library here is fantastic for this).

I would say you are missing out, given you read slow, I suggest an audio book ( which you can playback faster than normal speed ). BUT make notes.

NO... none of that "that sounds like a good idea, but can't be bothered".... MAKE NOTES. Or at the very least write a detailed review of the book. Put it on goodreads or something like that.

this will vastly increase your retention AND get your brain to do its own analysis on the material.

For non fiction, which I mostly prioritize, occasionally I'll read a fiction book, I suggest read widely over these subjects: History, Tech, philosophy, autobiographies, science, social sciences, economics. Some of which may sound dry, but there are many well written and interesting books on those subjects. Those areas provide a series of mental hooks that all kinds of other information hangs on (also in the world of fiction you can see authors inspiration from those topics as well )

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#354

Post by kragen »

Yes, books are worth it, and you are missing out. It's fine to read them online, but Reddit comments, daily conversations, Cliff's Notes, etc., are not an adequate substitute, and neither are books filled with fluff, anecdotes, and trivialities. Bullet-point-style summaries give you the illusion of understanding, and maybe a preview of what you could learn, but actual learning is something else.

Learning is when you become able to do things you didn't know how to do before. Books, especially textbooks, are a useful resource for learning. But just reading a book, even a good one, will not cause you to learn by itself. You still have to spend effort on practicing the skills the book discusses.

Most of the information from books is freely available online on Library Genesis. But be careful; some books on Library Genesis are there without a license from their copyright holders, which makes it illegal in some jurisdictions to download them.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#355

Post by nxpnsv »

If you have the patience for podcasts you have the patience for audiobooks. A substantial difference between the two is the typical amount of effort in creating what you’re hearing.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#356

Post by dragonwriter »

carapace wrote: post #153
smacktoward wrote: post #5

> I have thousands of non-fiction (mostly self-improvement) books in my reading list “An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its ‘self-help’ section: ‘For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.’” — Roger Ebert ( https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/larger-than-life-1996 )

The people in the self-help section need something else . Those things (philosophy, literature, history and science) are the luxury of folks who aren't struggling with e.g. depression, abuse, drugs & alcohol, co-dependency, etc. It's a little like, "Have you tried not having a broken leg?" Honestly, you're lucky if the only personal problems you have can be solved by philosophy, literature, history and science. (I ha…

> The people in the self-help section need something else

The people in the self-help section don't know what they need or they wouldn't be looking for someone to tell them what they need.

> Those things (philosophy, literature, history and science) are the luxury of folks who aren't struggling with e.g. depression, abuse, drugs & alcohol, co-dependency, etc.

Excluding paid testimonials, one can find at least as many anecdotes of people with those problems saying they were resolved by their own consumption of works in those sections (particularly philosophy and literature) as self-help works, and a lot more who resolved their issues with direct support by someone relying mostly on science works.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#357

Post by lasagnaphil »

pubby wrote: post #11

I have noticed in the past 10 years online content has become very click-baited and regurgitated. Sites are designed to steal your attention with information coming as a secondary concern. Books, for the most part, avoid these issues. On average they are of higher-quality, contain more research, and are better for developing your focus. So read books! With that said, I also think people use the amount of books they r…

I’ve also noticed that even books are much more click-baity and regurgitated now, seeing the high influx of self-help books, dodgy entrepreneurship books, and “here’s your watered down philosophy/humanities books so you have things to talk about in dinners with other people”. In overall it’s becoming harder and harder to find good books in bookstores.

My take on this is: although books have inherent advantages compared to other mediums, most of them (that you can easily find) are pretty bad, just like the Internet. You’ve got to do your own adventure finding the rare and good stuff that people usually don’t talk about.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#358

Post by keiferski »

peteforde wrote: post #334
deyouz wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you (or someone else) recommend me some great books about philosophy, history and science? I feel like I haven't read many books from these sections and I'd like to start doing that. Thank you!

Yes! Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Astrophysics For People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson bonus round: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Shoedog by Phil Knight The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani

These are all pseudo, pop-science books. I would recommend reading the works of actual scientists and philosophers directly, or textbooks.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#359

Post by goto11 »

carapace wrote: post #205
goto11 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard of anybody getting cured of depression by a self-help book. Congratulations with your amazing recovery, but it seems it wasn't due to a self-help book either.

Check out my answers to the other sibling comments. Would you settle for quit smoking by a self-help book? ;-D Here's something that blew me away... My sister just quit smoking. From ten cigarettes a day to zero. We (her family and friends) are all so overjoyed. How did she do it? https://www.allencarr.com/ She read that book. That's all. When she was done, she was no longer smoking. Within a few days her sense of sm…

It is not uncommon for people to just make a decision to stop smoking. It is indeed possible to not light a cigarette if the motivation is there. That is completely different than "trying not to have a broken leg".

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#360

Post by DanBC »

johnchristopher wrote: post #261
carapace wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out my answers to the other sibling comments. Would you settle for quit smoking by a self-help book? ;-D Here's something that blew me away... My sister just quit smoking. From ten cigarettes a day to zero. We (her family and friends) are all so overjoyed. How did she do it? https://www.allencarr.com/ She read that book. That's all. When she was done, she was no longer smoking. Within a few days her sense of sm…

I had a friend who also read that book. I don't know if he picked up smoking again but I remember him telling that the book basically hammers it into you that smoking is bad for 150 pages and that you just have to give up smoking because it's so annoying to read about how bad it is.

The core idea of the book is that you're not giving up smoking. You're just deciding not to smoke this cigarette. You can still smoke if you want to. You just don't want to because $HUGE_LIST_OF_BAD_STUFF.

I don't know if that's an evidence based approach, but some people find it useful.

My dad, who was smoking at least 40 a day (and really smoking -- down to the filter, deep inhalations, carried on when he knew it was doing him harm) read it and cut down for a week or so, but then started smoking cigars (in the same way as he smoked cigs), and then switched back to cigarettes.

I think the current evidence strongly recommended a combination of psychological work and nicotine replacement. https://cks.nice.org.uk/smoking-cessation

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