The Dangerous Effects of Reading | Hacker News Reader

The Dangerous Effects of Reading

blog.davidtate.org

103 pointshenrik_w24 comments

I think this is especially important for programmers. While learning a new technology (or programming in general), many get trapped in an endless consumption cycle - there are enough books and blogs to fill many lifetimes of reading for any semi-popular topic. It's extremely important to balance consumption with a healthy amount of creation (practice). Otherwise it's really hard to gain real knowledge.

Yeah, that's a problem in a lot of fields, not just programming.

Just from my own experience, writers, marketers, filmmakers (and all the sub-disciplines within filmmaking), poker players, and entrepreneurs all suffer the same challenge these days. It's all too easy to get caught in the read -> feel you don't know enough to start yet -> read more -> never actually finish anything trap.

That is definitely me. The problem is how little reading do I need? What if the next article is really important?

My advice, if you want it: try and make the thing you want to make. If you get absolutely stuck, read more to find the solution.

Otherwise, finish that thing, then think about what could have gone better with that thing. Research ways to do those things better. Make the next thing.

Repeat.

(Not theory - this is how I'm approaching learning a fairly major new discipline to me right now. It seems to be working OK.)

The way I get around this, at least with programming, is I read just enough so that I can start putting something together, and then I start on a small and silly project. If I run into any obstacles in building the thing, then I go back to my resources and read a bit more until I can get around that obstacle. It works pretty well.

The only thing I want to quibble with is capturing your ideas. You don't need to do that. If you let your mind go, you will have another idea in a minute. If you start making lists of ideas, then you are just consuming your own input.

I have a kind of rule of 3. I can do 3 things well. Spending time with my family is one. Spending time at my job is another. I've only got one other thing left that I can do well. If I split it up into a million different ideas, then I really won't do any well at all.

Must purge my github account of cruft...

I actually find writing ideas down helps me clear out the cobwebs.

It allows me to move something that's consuming a piece of working memory and or subconscious processing into a concrete form that my mind can let go of.

I can come back later and decide whether to do anything with the idea or not. As a bonus very often the process of writing it down revealed a bunch of the complexity or awkwardness of the idea.

That's not the case for me - sometimes, I get awesome ideas that I simply forget and never remember. Writing them down is great.

Though I rarely browse through that list of ideas - a couple times a week, maybe, or when I need new ideas for content :-)

I now use a small notebook, just 80 pages and pocket-sized. All entries are timestamped. When I reach the end and start a new one, I review the last one and my first entry is a list of things from the last that I still find interesting.

Just out of curiosity - what is the time stamp for? I also keep noteboks. I have a rough idea of what months / years they span. I've never needed to know the exact date or time I had an idea. Are you trying to find out which part of the day gives you the most ideas?

Sorry, missed this. I date/timestamp everything (a) so that it also functions as a diary, and (b) as an aid to memory - sometimes seeing the time/date helps me reconjure the context of the thoughts.

>Must purge my github account of cruft...

You just summed up my third thing: organizing things instead of doing.

"I should really work on that project that's important to me, but I can't do it without 'clearing my mind' first. Better clean out my github/bookmarked reading list/workshop/garage/etc."

Turns out I'm really good at getting ready to do things.

I have a similar vice... I'm really good at planning things.

I've planned and then put together an awesome ultralight backpack, which I've used only a couple times in five years. I really enjoy tweaking it though, making it better. Turns out ultralight gear is useful for car traveling too. But I don't use it for it's intended purpose.

On the flip side, I work better from a plan. I recently spent several hours designing a crude electric guitar, writing step-by-step instructions on how to build it, then building it from those instructions. I'm almost done and the plan has kept me on track.

I have a tenancy to plan the crap out of things. Many of them I never complete; some I do.

Great post. A must read, to stop compulsive reading

Minor correction, "The dangerous effects of reading fluff".

Much like you are what you eat, you'll become what you read...

That's a completely different thesis.

Reading fluff has few or none of the side effects described in the post. You don't learn anything, you don't practice separating filtering crap from gold, you don't look cool. It doesn't (actively) change the way you think.

Of course there are lots of good reasons why you shouldn't read an excessive amount of fluff, but this article is about why "good" reading and consumption is bad for you. (if not accompanied by a healthy amount of putting theory into practice).

The title of the article is a bit unfortunate. The context is about "information overload" from over-consumption and not that the act of reading is itself harmful.

He seems to be saying a lot of the same things as the author of the book and website "The Information Diet."

http://www.informationdiet.com/

"Time in bathroom reading on phone"

When going to the bathroom, just go to the bathroom

Seems to be down for now.

Previous discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3403936

golden

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote extensively on this and I feel he said it best.

[Excessive reading] robs the mind of all elasticity; it is like keeping a spring under a continuous, heavy weight. If a man does not want to think, the safest way is to take up a book directly he has a spare moment.

- "Thinking for Oneself"

Contains a great quote by Pope Duncaid 3:

"Forever reading, never to be read."

Link:

https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/...

This was an excellent read, thanks for the link.

A great deal of nuance in the essay about doing vs thinking vs reading/consuming.

Lewis Carroll also wrote an excellent essay using digestion as a metaphor for reading.

http://harpers.org/sponsor/balvenie/lewis-carroll.1.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com