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Why books don't work (2019)

andymatuschak.org

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Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#61

Post by snarf21 »

sandwall wrote: post #46
reubens wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. I found Thinking, Fast and Slow painfully biased

Interesting, can you add some depth to that statement? I enjoyed the book, and found it useful in illustrating many cognitive biases. I've gone on to read more of his work and agree the data is from, "WEIRD societies: Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic." (i.e. a lot of small study groups from ivy league schools) -- but nevertheless found the book enjoyable and useful

I really enjoyed it to but agree with GP that it falls down. Initially, he sets up a system around our pattern matching, biasing, etc. but as the book progresses I felt it got more and more hand wavy. Lots of the examples didn't really fit the plot of his system but he implies that the system still holds. Also, lots of the studies like the marshmallow test have failed to stand up. We take a single study of proof when it is usually no more than an indication. The conclusions are really just a data point. Perform the same test 100 times with different scientists and participants and look at the data again. Instead we take one test and cut the data to fit and then publish.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#62

Post by kenjackson »

Textbooks with pretty well. I’ve learned almost all my math and science from textbooks. The concepts build on and reinforce each other.

I imagine this is harder to do for the class of books he mentions which don’t really get built on or reinforced except when you try to recall them to a friend.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#63

Post by YinglingLight »

haakonhr wrote: post #11

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”

While all retainment is a fraction of the source material, long form (books, essays) offer a level of understanding. Reddit, and HN in some facets, is nothing but trivia porn. You cannot recall the interesting 'factoids' encountered merely the day before.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#64

Post by carlmr »

ramraj07 wrote: post #26

Brilliant article,but I'll give a simpler factor as well - people read too many damn books! Not reading too much per se but just too many books! That combined with the fact that most books are bloated crap (because the author is incentivized to make a book out of what should be a New Yorker article at best), means that most people can't even see the point because they've been ricocheted around a concept by a single o…

I can only second your reading list's #2 and #4, they both left a lasting impression on me.

I did read the Feynman one in 4 days though, you can really breeze through it, and because of its entertainment value the ideas really do stick. The Steve Jobs biography took me a lot longer, I really enjoyed it, but it was more something where I picked it up every once in a while over the course of 2-3 months.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#65

Post by rajandatta »

Schiendelman wrote: post #48
kleinsch wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most popular nonfiction could really be boiled down to a blog post or two, but it’s hard to justify $15 for a 2-3 page pamphlet.

Now that’s interesting. We used to have the concept of Cliff’s Notes, right? For all these elongated pamphlets we could read, could we instead get a collection of related pamphlet-length core theses? Is there a model to that?

Platforms and Apps like Blinkist offer this. Curated summaries in about 10% of the original length.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#66

Post by hacknat »

The very premise of this article shows how demented Western culture has become. The attitude of, “I invested 15-20 hours reading this book and, boohoo, I’m not a subject matter expert on the book’s topic” is absolutely insane. It takes a decade of serious work to really get a strong handle on a topic. Books aren’t supposed to teach you something to know, they’re meant to teach you how much you don’t know. Hopefully from that impetus one can go into the world and gain skill.

I have been a Software Engineer for over a decade now and I do seriously difficult network and kernel work right now. There has never been another point in my career where I have been so incredibly aware of how much I don’t know about what I work on. If you’re doing your career right you should feel your ignorance more and more. Books offer us something incredibly valuable, the feeling of ignorance. I can’t think of anything our culture could use more of right now than humility.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#67

Post by ginko »

hacknat wrote: post #66

The very premise of this article shows how demented Western culture has become. The attitude of, “I invested 15-20 hours reading this book and, boohoo, I’m not a subject matter expert on the book’s topic” is absolutely insane. It takes a decade of serious work to really get a strong handle on a topic. Books aren’t supposed to teach you something to know, they’re meant to teach you how much you don’t know. Hopefully f…

What does this have to do with "Western" culture?

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#68

Post by e_tm_ »

"... one implied assumption at the foundation: people absorb knowledge by reading sentences....as we’ll see, it’s quite mistaken."

Delicious irony. Tell me about this in your text-only blog post.

Re: Why books don't work (2019)

#70

Post by NewOrderNow »

This comes off as a dogmatic person who is trying to get at external factor of his life to help them move forward instead of looking inward.

I fear this kind of mentality because when you don't want to solve your own problems, you will get external forces to fix your problems. Like, say, the government, in the form of passing too many laws.

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