I completely disagree with the article’s core premise. I have read voraciously for my entire life since I was a little kid. Maybe much of it wasted, yet tidbits of knowledge I have gained over the years of reading come up constantly, and give me a bit of a leg up in conversations.

HN is a big part of that, I can read about a wide array of technologies and processes and science that I normally would never encounter. And without fail, some number of those topics will come up in work conversations and I can speak somewhat intelligently on the topic.

The same is true even for fiction. Having read some semi-obscure book long ago may be a connection I have with a new acquaintance.

Again, a lot of it is wasted, it there’s no way to know exactly which bits will never come up, and which will.