The Dangerous Effects of Reading
blog.davidtate.org
blog.davidtate.org
A while ago, when I was reading for the purpose of focused learning (technical books, scouring blogs for information about some framework/API, etc.), I began the habit of taking copious notes. My notes are very wordy; it's almost like I'm having a conversation with myself and rephrasing ideas so I can understand them better. OneNote is my weapon of choice - for me it reduces the "barrier to entry" of starting notetaking because it's easy write now and organize later.
Over time, I realized that when I took notes this way, I had a much higher retention rate and a much greater understanding of what I was reading. So much so that when I find myself sitting at my desk or on the couch and "infosnacking," I try to stop and ask myself, "is what I am reading right now worth taking notes on?" If it is, then I start writing. If it's not, I make the effort to tear myself away and either do something that's more productive or something that I really enjoy.
Thanks for waking me up
Also, I noticed I prefer writing on separate sheets better than a notebook. This way I can take several sheets from different time periods and work with them as a single group. When I am done, sorting them back is easy as long as each sheet is marked with the day it was originally worked on.
I was doing a fair bit of pair programming and I found that talking to my pair about whatever issue we were facing was helping me clarify the design in my head. When I started working on a few solo projects, I found that taking notes worked almost as well, despite lacking the other side of the conversation.
One of the biggest benefits was that I find it cathartic, where once I've written down all of the arguments for a particular design decision, I am able to move on without revisiting it in my head constantly.
http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.... https://pay.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/83i5n/the_rubb... http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking
My notes, on the other hand don't. And I may have gotten the details wrong or omitted that piece of info.
However, three factors have changed my outlook on this: 1) full-text indexed search, 2) cloud storage, and 3) low barrier to entry (I have found an organizational style that makes it easy for me to start writing at a moment's notice, without worrying about how to store/organize until later).
Full-text indexing is a huge deal, because I will often remember a certain combination of words or a particular term used in reference to some concept. Cloud storage ensures that I am almost never without my notes.
Add in the fact that if you make it easy enough for yourself to start writing, you will naturally end up with a lot of content about concepts you find difficult, and you'll skip the stuff you know well. The end result is a fully-searchable set of textbooks written specifically for your brain that you can always refer back to.
Sometimes, even if I'm not looking for a particular note, I'll crawl through a few old notes on any random subject in my notebooks and it will give me a new perspective on a problem I'm trying to solve, or remind me of something I wanted to try/research but didn't get around to.
From time to time I would just take my eyes out of the book to make sure that the cows hadn't trespassed our neighbor's property, and then I would quickly return to reading. To this day I always carry something to read with me, be it a book, a magazine or something like that.
And regarding the author's remark that his grand-grand-father would be horrified to learn in what strange circumstances we do read nowadays, I remember my peasant grand-mother scolding my grand-father for "preferring to read" instead of doing something more productive like feeding the cows. I heard a similar argument between my parents when I was little, with my father being accused of reading too much, and sure enough my (future to be ex)-wife also reproached me for reading too much.
The thread through all these stories is an author's dissatisfaction with their own life. "I found myself reading/working/eating too much. And I didn't like it. So Everyone Else in the world ought to stop reading/working/eating so much." Next week it'll be about how too much focus on creation makes one a narcissist. Or something. There's always something you can point to for making your life bland and unfulfilling. If you find yourself stuck in that loop, consider meditation instead of heroically "creating" a pile of unsubstantiated pontificating.
If you're going to devote a portion of your life to "consuming" (or, to use a more elevated term, "researching"), and a term to producing, and you're finding you're overwhelming yourself with the research phase, timebox it. Set a limit to how much time, or how much of your day, you're going to expose yourself to inputs.
Identify the stuff that you've absolutely got to pay attention to: the truck barreling down the street, the cliff at your feet, bills to pay, eating, time on the loo. Exercise.
And identify the time you're going to spend being creative and productive.
It doesn't have to be absolutely rigid deadlines, but there should be some sense of order to it. Some people work better with more structure, some with less. Find your own method in the madness and stick to it.
Yes, we're in a culture that makes consumption, and productivity dedicated to the interests of others (often our employers) easier, the norm, and default. Think of it as yet another system to hack for your interests and goals.
Good filters are good. But the flipside of a strong reject discriminant is identifying that which is worthy or simply that which you want to spend time with, and do so. Wiping out the other distractions at this point is very useful.
I go home and I watch Khan Academy videos now. I read Wikipedia. I read some Hacker News mainly to distract myself from work. I pretend that it's useful, and it sometimes is, but sometimes I wonder if I'm engaging in repetitive naval gazing and somehow getting off on the ubiquitous outrage.
Why do all this reading anyway? To be more fun at parties? To pretend like we're part of something important when all that lies ahead of us is years of sitting in a cube and stuck in traffic?
I guess it's all not so bad. Whatever floats your boat. Just realize that it's mostly entertainment unless you actually DO something with what you've learned. It's not what you think. It's what you DO that matters.
Can identify with that... try to use a time based site-blocker for the same, but of course have learnt to disable it..:-)
Reading isn't always just distraction, in the same way that the internet isn't and, as you've said, you use the internet for Wikipedia, Khan Academy videos, etc.
I just bought Ron Paul's "End the Fed" book (it's on sale in hardcover at Amazon), which I feel will give me a more informed position in politics. You'll have to pardon my belief that politics matter, and aren't a waste of time.
The book I'm currently reading is Higbee's "Your Memory : How It Works and How to Improve It", which I believe will help me extend my mnemonic memory, which will allow me to remember the things that never stuck with rote memory (capitals of all the states, periodic table, presidential terms, etc.)
These aren't fiction (well, depends on how you interpret "End the Fed" I guess), and aren't just a 'distraction', at least in my opinion.
Even if these things ultimately get categorized as 'Entertainment', I don't know that to be a problem either. The mind needs entertainment, and if trying to enrich your experiences and imagination is a 'waste of time', then I don't know what isn't.
What's the end game for watching Khan Academy videos? To know more? To be more successful? To make more money?
I don't know that any of those motivations (other than the first) is philosophically any better than reading for entertainment.
I am planning to refresh my data structures and algorithms background with an eye on using some of the techniques in this book to memorize them.
============* Potential Spoiler Alert* ===================== It isn't a 'how-to' book per se, as it mostly tells the story of how the author went from being a journalist who covered the World Memory Championship tournament and within a year of training, became the US Memory Champ.
Regardless, it's a really fun read, and Foer is a really good writer. It does have some 'how-to' moments in it, and the little I've learned has been 100% effective, but I needed something to deal with more complicated data structures -- I could easily memorize the periodic table now, in order, but I don't know how I would store associated data, like atomic weights, symbols, melting point, boiling point, etc. That's why I got the Higbee book.
Glad to hear an endorsement on it. The one deficiency I have with Moonwalking is that it doesn't go on to recommend a book or technique that would work. I debated over a few of the books mentioned in Moonwalking, and ultimately decided to go with the (not mentioned) Higbee book based on an external review.
Thanks a ton.
The one book that was in there that I really wanted to get was Pridmore's "How to be Clever", but it isn't available on the Kindle. :'(
I have recently made a conscious decision to comment more-often and submit more links to Hacker News. I want to create, engage, contribute and create more content. The transition from using HN as a tech RSS reader to actually engaging more with the community has been a really refreshing one. I do not feel that time spent writing this comment is time wasted. It is time contributed and, hopefully sometimes, appreciated.
PS - Upvote for the _why quote alone :)
when you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.
PPS - I enjoyed the effects of reading your post ;)
A second issue is that it's assuming that if you develop an efficient filter for incoming crap, that filter will be applied to what you generate. And that if that filter threshold goes beyond the level of your own ability to create, all you do is crap and you stop creating. The input filter does not have to be the same as the output filter.
I find HN is a pretty good filter for incoming crap.
Excessive consumption can also get in the way of quality consumption.
Analogy: I remember the days when Times Square in New York was a free-for-all of adult themed establishments. Sometimes, this sort of over the top shouting makes you want and appreciate what's being advertised even less.
Analogy with music: I find that many mainstream audiences are immune to many musical subtleties and often have only the crudest understanding of rhythm. Many such people are unable to hold a melody in their heads, much less process complex melodies. Music used to be a special and rare thing to be cherished, sought out, and paid attention to. Now it's a background thing that we largely tune out.
What's really disturbing about reading and writing suffering from this phenomenon is that writing is frozen cognition. If there is so much to be read that we are tuning it out, then what's the point? If we are reading so much that we are reading without deep cognition, then really we are hardly reading at all.
I feel like this about blog posts (even sometimes facebook/twitter updates). Is what I have to say so interesting that I need to share it with others? My cumulative reading filter usually says no.
And terrified he should be, I am terrified thinking other people are not paying attention to the traffic.
Being a maker or a creative of some substance requires one to study a particular subject in depth. A part of the challenge the Internet creates, is that it's very easy to get a hugely broad sweep of rather shallow information. It's just not possible to study the whole range of information in depth, but we can send deep probes at one, two, or a few points and thus get a good idea of how deep the ocean of knowledge really is.
Given that my great-great-grandfather would have been born in the mid-1800s, explaining it would be arduous, not scary. I'm pretty sure that all of the other things I'd have to explain to give him proper context on, "people use their phones in the car and in the bathroom" would probably scare him more.
I'm trying to be more mindful about what I consume, but also more committed to finishing what I begin consuming. I try to eliminate the meta-think in your head constantly assessing whether the content is worth my time, instead fully committing to exploring the idea being espoused, even if its bullshit. Its much more mindful to dissect the bullshit rather than dismiss it as low thought.
The link-based architecture of the web contributes heavily to the way we bounce from idea to idea. I've been thinking about how to de-emphasize the constantly shifting focus of clicking on a new link to explore an idea (If you've ever got lost in a quora/wikipedia loop, you understand this phenomenon). What if we could anchor an origin (say, this HN page about "The Dangerous Effects of Reading"), and when we explored links from here, we started a new path on a map showing how deep we were surfing from the original page. If we return to this page, we start an adjacent path that we can explore again. At the end of our browsing session, we have an information map showing how different ideas linked to each other. It might provide a meaningful perspective to our browsing experience.
"I need to hear what others think before I form an opinion (If you have ever read a review of a new gadget before it launches: think about how ridiculous this activity is)"
While I agree that I read too many product reviews, on larger issues, I need to read the opinions of people who actually know what they are talking about. I am so sick and tired of people offering up their opinion on complicated issues like economics when they have nothing other than a few crappy talk show hosts to base their opinion on. I wish people would just say, "I don't know how to fix the deficit or whether my candidate has a good plan, but I did check this book out on economics and I am reading through it"
Maybe I'm "too far in the rabbit hole", but exactly what's wrong with this? Is it a bad thing to be informed before spending my money?
I have been burned by buying things that have reviewed well but I ultimately found not up to the task, but I'd rather find out something is a dud before rather than after (e.g., Kindle Fire).
This will just make things worse! Trust me.
For balance, I recommend keeping a pen and a paper by you (or a text editor open) and occasionally pausing your reading to have a scribble whenever something strikes you as interesting.
Additionally, the thing that you absolutely must take the trouble to read are other people's comments on what you have written (exceptions allowed for people who get too many of these comments to make that practical).
Really? Try telling your ancestors that you have bombs that can destroy entire cities. Or try telling your ancestors[few centuries back] that you could go to moon today, or that you have the whole world's information in your fingertips, they might faint in disbelief! My point being, that our ancestors' reaction is not a reason why we should not be doing something!
But, I do agree with the author that, the availability of tremendous information is forcing us to judge too quickly, and probably will lead us to making bad judgements!
The results? I feel more action-oriented, I have more free time, I feel my thoughts are more organized and I no longer feel the "feed stress" (you know, when you look at 1000 unread items and your heart starts pumping faster).
Overall, fantastic post, fantastic insights I fully support. Btw, sorry for the shameless autopromotion, in case you're interested I blog at http://restreitinho.com.
We don't stop creating because we are consuming more. It is other way round. We are consuming more because we are afraid of creating.
I think that is very key. If one can convince a population that they are not capable of mastery then you can make them feel inferior and keep them as your subjects. This is why so many royal courts funded and raised up artists and musicians and claimed the culture they created as theirs. The inverse is also why so many independence movements have also grown up beside artistic and intellectual movements.
I'd argue that creating something is significantly harder than simply consuming (YouTube comments and the like notwithstanding). Fear may enter into it at times, but more likely just simple complacency and inertia.
The one I knew of initially was from Faulkner (One of my moderately favorite writers)
"Read everything--trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out."
I posted this today, too: http://adrianoferrari.com/essays/silence-compelling-creativi...
For those who say that reading can inform creation, I think neither David nor I would disagree.
It's just that the balance is so weighted on the consumption side that we need go to the other extreme once in a while to redress the balance.
I'm not sure I understand - why shouldn't I execute what I wrote? Isn't it like a musician not listening to what is he playing?
My thinking is that, especially for beginners, it's too easy to get into a tight write-compile-debug loop without thinking in broader terms about the problem. It's just an exercise in thinking about the structure of your code.
Also, you can do, or not do, whatever you want :)
Also, I feel so ashamed listening to podcasts on my way to work now.
> I need to use other peoples work to make myself look cool through sharing them with my friends
To me, sharing other peoples work is a channel for opening up dialog with my peers and learning more about them, and sharing more about myself. While I see that "looking cool" may sometimes be a motive, I think many may share things to spawn discussion (i.e. HN).
> I need to hear what others think before I form an opinion (If you have ever read a review of a new gadget before it launches: think about how ridiculous this activity is)
This one really threw me. Sure, forming an opinion based on reading reviews before something launches is ridiculous, but if somebody has a gadget that is soon launching that you may be interested in, it is only part of curiosity embedded in human nature to read what their experiences of it.
And I definitely go by others' experiences (reviews -- "what they think") of a product before making a purchase. To me, this is just being responsible with my money, and time -- and I believe this has paid off for me, and will probably always do this. I know several that don't do this, and often end up regretting purchases they make.
Reading others experiences -- not just on products, but in general -- help us be more educated and can prevent us from making mistakes. The key is to be able to filter out objective experiences vs. subjective garbage.
> Get off the popular train - teach yourself not to judge based on anything other than your own view.
I find that most people I know either follow pop culture or avoid it -- rarely have I heard about someone that on one end of the spectrum and decides to move to the other end.
I believe the real moral of this piece would be: Be open and make a conscious effort to change your habits.
Most adults are stuck in habits that take years to form, and will likely not change over night, and it will require ongoing effort. They have to first make be willing to do this, and make the decision to do this.
> Cease input - turn your cellphone off, stop reading every stupid blog post about productivity, just stop.
Remember that in order for our creations to be beneficial to others (and often times, that is the purpose of our creations), others must consume our creations. So I think it's more of a matter of finding the balance between consumption and creation, vs. altogether ceasing consumption. (I don't think this point was intended literally, but this thought did cross my mind as I read that statement.)
This is my favorite thing Merlin has ever done, and I think about it all the time. I identify strongly with the following three points.
* identify and destroy small-return bullshit;
* shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful;
* make brutally fast decisions about what I don’t need to be doing;
I completely disagree that honing your filter (um, to mix metaphors) is a bad thing. At a time when we have tons of ideas thrown at us constantly every single day, it is the essential thing. Otherwise you're looking at every stupid god damned cat video thrown your way.
I love hearing Merlin talk about this stuff because he is intellectually honest and communicates in an almost koan-like style. That said, the hard part is closing the gap between thought and practice. I struggle with it every day.