Comment by kashyapc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kashyapc | Hacker News Reader

I realize, the site's aim is to help you escape the "echo chamber". But I've recently been mulling over this other idea from Seneca (writing 2000 years ago!) on limiting the number of books you read, hard as it is, for an avid reader:

[...] Be careful, though, about your reading in many authors and every type of book. It may be that there is something wayward and unstable in it. You must stay with a limited number of writers and be fed by them if you mean to derive anything that will dwell reliably with you. One who is everywhere is nowhere. Those who travel all the time find that they have many places to stay, but no friendships. The same thing happens to those who do not become intimate with any one author, but let everything rush right through them. Food does not benefit or become part of the body when it is eaten and immediately expelled. Nothing impedes healing as much as frequent change of medications. A wound does not close up when one is always trying out different dressings on it; a seedling that is transplanted repeatedly will never grow strong. [...]

"But I want to read different books at different times," you say. The person of delicate digestion nibbles at this and that; when the diet is too varied, though, food does not nourish but only upsets the stomach. [...]

  — Letter 2 ("A beneficial reading program"); translation by Long and Graver

If you want to follow the spirit of the advice, you should certainly cut down on internet forums before you cut down on books.

Good news—I'm jubiliated to report that I haven't used any "traditional" social media in nearly eight years. Astonishing as it is, HN is the only internet forum that I occasionally frequent, for its palatable signal-to-noise ratio; please don't rob me of it. :-) Most of my leisure time, when I'm not out and about walking in nature or seeing real humans, is dedicated to offline (i.e. dead wood books) reading.

On a similar note in Seneca's letter to Serenus (On the Tranquillity of Mind):

"Even in our studies, where expenditure is most worth while, its justification depends on its moderation. What is the point of having countless books and libraries whose titles the owner could scarcely read through in his whole lifetime? The mass of books burdens the student without instructing him, and it is far better to devote yourself to a few authors than to get lost among many."

I think it can be very valuable to go down the rabbit hole sometimes and study the author and read their less popular works. But of course, after a while you will get diminishing returns.

Yes! On the Tranquility of Mind is a marvellous essay. Also it is the only essay of Seneca's that has an interlocutor, a certain Serenus, who begins the essay with an excellent description of conflicting mental states he's experiencing. As a teaser for those lurking, here's a fragment of what he writes to Seneca:

"[...] I am aware that these mental disturbances I suffer from are not dangerous and bring no threat of a storm; to express to you in a true analogy the source of my complaint, it is not a storm I labour under but seasickness: relieve me, then, of this malady, whatever it be, and hurry to aid one who struggles with land in his sight. [...]"

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Seneca's response to it is equally astounding. (The above quote is from "Dialogues and Essays", Oxford World's Classics; translation by John Davie.)

One of my personal highlights this year: I've spent six contiguous months reading all of 124 letters of Seneca (the University of Chicago Press edition is the way to go) and several of his dialogues and essays. It's amazing how many of his letters try to shape our reading habits.

This is directional advice. Some read too diverse, scattered stuff, and some read just the same thing and lock themselves into confirmation bias and echo chambers.

The first need to focus more, the second need to focus less.

I could write a wide paragraph on how one needs to consume more than one kind of thing, how it's healthy to to challenge oneself, like the unknowable forces in the wild nature, etc etc. Something majestic and grandiose like that.

Point is, wise advice is directional, and you cannot know from it which side you are on. It doesn't give you a target, it gives you a direction. Which may not apply to you.

I read that more as advice on focusing your reading. Maybe instead of reading all books on astrophysics, cooking, and interpersonal communications you read a few books on one of the subjects. I don’t think it’s in conflict with breaking your bubble with this site.

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