Comment by kiba | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kiba | Hacker News Reader

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I think this is a shallow article.

First, just in time manufacturing has the noted weakness of having no slack or resilience in the system. This is part of why we experienced supply chain disruption during the pandemic.

Second, it is assuming that knowledge that's not being 'used' right now in production environment is useless.

For example, the way people avoid scam and snake-oil medicine is not by directly knowing every single piece of science but having a broad knowledge enough of the world to know that it's probably scammy. I don't need to know much about virology to understand that drinking bleach is probably a bad idea for fighting viral infection.

Third, most of what he's going to read is probably not real knowledge, or difficult to obtain unless experienced or acquired directly. Some things you can only learn via doing. Some things you can only learn through systemized research. How many of these books about entrepeneurship only apply to their specific situation, or specific context? How many are simply scam?

What I think is helpful, however, is to cultivate curiosity about the world, in all things that you can. It's probably helpful to your career if you focus your curiosity on specific things you need to do, but that's not the only thing worth learning. I think I want to focus on things that make me a better engineer and build a successful business, so maybe 60-70% for that, and the rest for play and passion and just love of learning.

Edit: added a missing no as pointed out by someone.

I've only read the first part of the article, but something struck me here:

: Over the next 6 months, I read 30+ books on entrepreneurship, startups, marketing, “growth hacking,” and everything tangentially related I could find. And that doesn’t include the countless blog posts, articles, reddit threads, and whatever else I could get my hands on.

: A good plan, right? No, 80% of it was a waste of time, and most people make the same mistake with how they consume information every day.

Well, yes, because a great deal would be repeated even on tangential subjects as the authors aren't necessarily assuming you've read anything else on the topic.

and here:

: Getting in shape requires doing a few very simple things every day for months, not finding a new 13 minute 6 step workout every day so you can have a butt like today’s hot celebrity.

No, but it may take experimentation and reading to find a routine that works for you.

: You don’t need an entire site on lasting longer in bed or water fasting, you just need one or a couple really good articles.

Again, people vary. Why not cover them all, and the unforeseen events, instead of just outputting what worked in your particular case as if you're everyone?

I think there's even more to unpack, though. Yes, there will be a fair bit of repeated knowledge, but what the 30+ books do is cement your mental map and expose the common agreement and disagreements in the general field. From there, additional work may not be novel because there are a handful of insights and 200 pages of rehash once you have that mental map, but there is no single book developed that can implant that mental map.

And that is true in most fields. It takes seeing multiple perspectives to figure out what will "stick" with you. Tiago Forte's "Building a Second Brain" stuck with me because I had already read "Getting Things Done" and a number of other productivity books. (As but one example.)

Overall, I agree. However:

: A good plan, right? No, 80% of it was a waste of time, and most people make the same mistake with how they consume information every day.

>Well, yes, because a great deal would be repeated even on tangential subjects as the authors aren't necessarily assuming you've read anything else on the topic.

I also read a lot of these books and I can confirm that 70-80% of the content is unnecessary. It's mostly the author boasting about how great they or their methods are and stories about someone who implemented the method successfully. It seems that every book has to hit 200/300+ pages mark. Most of the content is just filler.

This feels a lot like the old saying about advertising: "I know that half of my ads are a waste. I just don't know which half".

> just in time manufacturing has the noted weakness of having slack or resilience in the system

Did you mean 'having no slack or resilience'?

Assuming you did and I understand your point, I disagree with it insofar as it applies to knowledge. Yes, JIT manufacturing of real things can be easily tripped up and it screwed us during the pandemic, but does that apply here? The author is saying "when you figure out what you need to read, go out and get it" rather than "keep a bunch of tabs and bookmarks hanging around in case you need them".

I mean, yeah, I guess if you only read things you can get from the library or in dead tree form, but if you really want to read something there's ebooks and audiobooks galore out there, and if we have a supply chain mess that's so bad that you can't get an electronic book, we're all kinda screwed anyways.

Assuming you did and I understand your point, I disagree with it insofar as it applies to knowledge. Yes, JIT manufacturing of real things can be easily tripped up and it screwed us during the pandemic, but does that apply here? The author is saying "when you figure out what you need to read, go out and get it" rather than "keep a bunch of tabs and bookmarks hanging around in case you need them".

I am an advocate of learning broadly, instead of being narrow. That's not to say you shouldn't learn only the things you found that you need, but that it shouldn't be the only thing you're doing.

Books, I assumed, will be there if you need it.

The just in time example is a great example of why you need to read broadly. If you read about logistics about the pandemic, you would have learned about the weakness of just in time.

If you read just in time, you will miss many ideas because you do not know you need them.

This.

To anyone entering a new topic for themselves, not knowing what you don’t know is the biggest barrier and risk. This is why, for example, cargo cult style development is so fraught with issues.

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