Interesting, I struggle to read. I always have. But I genuinely enjoyed it. Few years back I told a colleague that by the time I reach the end of paragraph I forget how it started. He told me sounds like a learning difficulty. So I did a test, thinking I was dyslexic. It turns out I have ADHD with particularly bad short term memory. Anyways my question for everyone here, how do you read with ADHD? How do you over com…
I Learned to Read Again
51–60 of 83 posts
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#52Re: I Learned to Read Again
#53It’s very clear that op’s father doesn’t value education first nor does he care to provide that influence to his children.
Such a sad situation.
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#54Is reading morally superior? It seems like greater society (with the apps) is rapidly changing back to an oral culture which seems to be humanity’s default setting. Edit - via the visual boost of short form video
Yes. Because its less information that "Oral" which is just video content.
Text is raw information. Viewing a person speaking is Information + social and context clues. Clues that humans find it very hard to resist. We are social mammals built to fathom our place in the hierarchy by listening to the noises and expressions of other mammals. People will tell you that they love science or philosophy or something, but often what they actually love is the person telling them about it. With monetised content being the norm these days, people are exploiting these side channels while handing out sub par information. And it works. You only need to look at the flat earth movement, almost entirely built on video content, to see the truth in this. People aren't signing up to be flat earthers because the information is valid, they are signing up because they like the people giving them the faulty information.
No we would absolutely be better off going back to reading. Its much healthier.
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#55Paul Graham recently: The people who still read won't just be better informed. They'll be (with a couple exceptions) the only ones who can think well. You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. https://x.com/paulg/status/2075980847228801132
I'd like this to be true, but Socrates immediately comes to mind as a perfect counter example of someone who was opposed to writing and was arguably one of the greatest thinkers ever.
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#56Interesting, I struggle to read. I always have. But I genuinely enjoyed it. Few years back I told a colleague that by the time I reach the end of paragraph I forget how it started. He told me sounds like a learning difficulty. So I did a test, thinking I was dyslexic. It turns out I have ADHD with particularly bad short term memory. Anyways my question for everyone here, how do you read with ADHD? How do you over com…
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#57Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Reading the news from the AP/Reuters and a book on history? I spend lots of time online, primarily on my phone, reading. I don’t watch videos and I don’t use social media aside from browsing the Reddit front page. I try to justify my online escapes because I’m reading a substack, a bit of news, an interesti…
> Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Almost every study that looks at this finds that there is. Between the time for deeper contemplation, cognitive load of sustained attention and greater potential information content of a larger body of text compared with a smaller one, someone who reads books is generally going to more competently underst…
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#58Paul Graham recently: The people who still read won't just be better informed. They'll be (with a couple exceptions) the only ones who can think well. You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. https://x.com/paulg/status/2075980847228801132
> You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. I'd like this to be true, but Socrates immediately comes to mind as a perfect counter example of someone who was opposed to writing and was arguably one of the greatest thinkers ever.
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#59Ironically it was the exact day that the recent Iran war started. But I didn’t find out about it until late at night, when I turned my phone back on.
Re: I Learned to Read Again
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is there value in identifying the difference between reading a longer article like this one and an actual book? Almost every study that looks at this finds that there is. Between the time for deeper contemplation, cognitive load of sustained attention and greater potential information content of a larger body of text compared with a smaller one, someone who reads books is generally going to more competently underst…
I’m not familiar with the research but I will say that conclusion “feels” right to me. Have they found a modern day metric that we should all be hunting in our quest for reading health? A literary equivalent to the daily 10,000 steps? Maybe 10,000 words!
Talking about fiction read for entertainment of course. HN does tend to assume books are only for learning something.