Ask HN: How to Get Addicted to Studying?
I want to move away from binge watching Netflix to binge reading. How?
I hated everything in the middle of this process. Did it on pure willpower.
But since then I somehow can’t spend a week without at least 3km run, and I really like it.
I could easily imagine myself spending same 21 days reading about motivation, looking for tricks how to fool myself into it etc. without any stable outcome.
Sometimes you just need to man up and push yourself.
/s
There is text-to-speech tool build into macOS that you can use in a script to convert any text file to .mp3 audiobook: https://gist.github.com/ivanistheone/de3ccb244224d101bb93320...
I use the script fro certain longer books (usually fiction), but in general just tend to select text and press a keyboard shortcut, see here for how to set this up https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mApa60zJA8rgEm6T6GF0yIem...
Here is a sample if you want to hear what it shouds like: https://minireference.com/static/tmp/constructive_feedback.m... src https://productivityhub.org/2019/04/19/how-to-deliver-constr...
I can recommend speechify. Their voices sound pretty good and the Browser extensions work well. The only thing I hate is how intransparent their pricing is.
They do offer a free trial period. After that, their annual subscription is something like 140$. However, if you don’t decide to upgrade they will spam you with discount codes for 50% off which seems like a better deal.
Some people said they prefer the newer voices (Siri male and Siri female), so you might want to play around to see if you don't find a better one.
I personally enjoy Robert Greene's books. It's an entertaining mix of education and history. My sister had a Big Book of Murder. Macabre, but interesting. There's stuff like The Game, Neil Strauss. There's The Manga Guide to Databases. Educational junk books are a good place to start.
Your eyes become faster than your brain when you read a lot; then you start automatically adjusting your reading rate to what your brain can handle. Videos on contrast have fixed speed, that is low enough to ensure that nobody loses track. Some tools can increase speed, but your optimal speed varies even in same video and you can easily miss things.
In writing you can easily go back if you notice that you missed something, but with video you can only go back to some point and watch again hoping that you went far enough back. IME the thumbnails on timeline are also useless.
I have resolved that videos just aren't worth my time most of the time, so I don't watch them unless I know that they are worth it.
I find that I seek knowledge that I could possibly make use of later, but anything you find interesting can get you started on reading. A book that I keep reading over and over again is the Bible. I have also heard much older people say that they keep finding things they haven't noticed before in spite of having read it dozens of times before.
If you’re reading worthwhile books, I believe you’ll prefer them to Netflix, eventually.
*edit - file alongside other ideals like "eat salad" and "work out"
2. Find equally motivated people to study it with you.
3. Remove all distractions.
4. Preferably get out of the house, although with the pandemic this may be less advisable today.
5. Get into a routine so that everything becomes automatic and you don't even make the conscious choice of studying everyday
That's what worked for me when I was a freshman. I would basically: wake up=>coffee/small breakfast=>shower=>code/study until I'm ready to fall asleep on my chair, 7 days a week, and I wasn't even forcing myself, after 2 weeks or something it was basically automatic, and I was enjoying myself.