I definitely agree about the "filtering crap from gold" bit. Once you reach a certain level of skill it can become a hindrance: you develop an extremely low tolerance for anything that doesn't catch you as interesting within a few seconds, and you start speed-reading absolutely everything. This is good in that you aren't wasting time consuming something that's not really useful, but it's bad in that you end up continuously subjecting yourself to input in this way. You can spend a whole day processing a million inputs, throwing them all away and learning nothing, when the alternatives are to spend your time doing something more fun or productive, or slowing down a bit and maybe actually getting a tidbit or two out of the first few hundred inputs and leaving the rest for another time.
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.
I've also found that taking notes is extremely helpful when I'm trying to understand something. Especially when I'm reading on the computer, where it's so easy to open a new tab and do something different. However, every time I've tried to use something like OneNote or org-mode, or anything that I think will help me organize my notes, I get extremely frustrated. So, instead, I just keep a cheap spiral bound notebook next to my computer. Being forced to write on something other than the computer is great, and I've found I don't need to organize the notes really, they're in chronological order and easy to flip through.
I keep what is essentially a lab logbook next my work desk. The natural chronological order works mostly well: (1) notes on related topics are often close in time (the temporal locality, in a way) and (2) it helps to find "stuff I was working on two months ago", or "right after I finished that project in May".
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.
One of the most positive changes I made to my programming / design was to start taking notes that looked like a stream of consciousness conversation with myself.
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.
A tried notes in HS and college but it they never seemed useful -- after all the content is in the book, and most books have a great index/table of content so I can find whatever piece of info I want.
My notes, on the other hand don't. And I may have gotten the details wrong or omitted that piece of info.
Notes aren't just for reference. The act of taking notes (even if you never directly reference them again in the future) improves recall and understanding of the material for most people.
This was primarily the reason I started taking notes - I really had no plans to use them as references.
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.
I don't know if it's that dangerous. One of my biggest fears is to be stranded somewhere and not having anything to read, and I had this fear way before smart-phones were invented. I can still remember how at 14 I was reading "Ender's Game" in the middle of nowhere where my grand-mother had sent me to graze the cows.
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.
"stranded somewhere and not having anything to read". I can associate with this. Although there has been much written about the function and role of boredom in modern society. In particular, that while boredom may not be pleasant, or well understood, it is a different state of mind as opposed to active engagement and entertainment. And perhaps in the state of mind, certain thoughts may rise that need such an environment to percolate to the surface.
It is a scary prospect to be left with nothing but your own mind. If you have to read on the toilet instead of just focusing on getting things done it is definitely time to realise something is wrong. Are we happier because we can be entertained constantly? I am pretty sure the answer is no, and that actually it tends to contribute to stress. I say this as someone over-stressed and always concerned about being productive.
Jesus Christ. Can't a guy do anything without a corresponding pseudoscientific (actually, wholly arbitrary) blog post about "$anything considered harmful"?
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.
Meditating would be a very beneficial activity, but the over-active analytical mind would put it down as 'one of those things that would make me better' and never actually get around to doing it.
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.
Often reading is just distraction. There's often very little actionable information there. It's just taking your mind off your real problems. It's basically all entertainment.
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.
I'll just set up every straw man and let you tear 'em down, I guess.
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.
The Higbee memory book is fun. I used it to help my kid memorize some things before kindergarten (spell a complicated last name, sing daddy's phone number, where I live, etc).
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.
I got started with the idea of mnemonics by reading Jonathan Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein[1]", which is an exceptionally good read.
============* 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.
Moonwalking actually has a pretty extensive bibliography. In addition to the memory techniques, the references to Dr. K. Anders Ericsson's work on how to become an expert at anything was really interesting (http://www.coachingmanagement.nl/The%20Making%20of%20an%20Ex..., for example)
You are right. Excessive consumption can get in the way of creation. However, I think consumption can also inform creation.
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 ;)
Yeah, honestly, there's a weird dichotomy here. The post mentions things like reading in the bathroom, or reading on the way to work, or whatever. But there's nothing inherent in those that doesn't mean you can't also be creating when you get home. I suppose there is a mention of getting home and just reading/watching TV/playing games on electronics, but other than that every other “excessive consumption” example isn't even necessarily in the way of creating. If your mind is also scanning for ideas while you read, all of those situations can in fact be boons to creation rather than obstacles.
I agree, is not consuming prevents creating, it's consuming too much takes time from creating. In that sense, developing a good filter for crap would allow you to consume faster leaving more time for creating.
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.
You express exactly what I was trying to. If you read HN all day and write no code that is a bad day for creation. If you code as much as you can and broaden your mind by reading HN in your downtime that is probably a good balance.
I find HN is a pretty good filter for incoming crap.
You are right. Excessive consumption can get in the way of creation. However, I think consumption can also inform creation.
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.
You stagnate at work for fear of everything you do being judged like every news article or viral video that you view.
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.
"Side note: how freaking scary would it have been to explain to your great-great-grandfather that people would carry around computers and look at them while in the bathroom or driving - he would have been terrified of this future"
And terrified he should be, I am terrified thinking other people are not paying attention to the traffic.
There is a big difference between musician and non-musician members of the audience. At this point in our history, there is no reason why a denizen of the first world can't be a maker or a creative of some sort.
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.
In my experience, speed of filtering ("is this thing I'm reading cool enough to continue reading?") and fear of being filtered ("is this thing I'm creating cool enough for other people to read?") are 100% orthogonal. They are simply not related even a tiny bit, which makes this post seem kind of hilariously inane.
For extroverts maybe? I could totally identify with that part of the post and the _why quote. Impostor syndrome is another example of better-tuned filters getting in the way.
how freaking scary would it have been to explain to your great-great-grandfather that people would carry around computers and look at them while in the bathroom or driving - he would have been terrified of this future
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.
Purposeful consumption is different than impulse based consumption. Investigating ideas by reading specific books, articles, and reflecting on the idea is consumption at its finest IMO.
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"
If you have ever read a review of a new gadget before it launches: think about how ridiculous this activity is
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).
No: read this article that tells you to stop reading so many articles, agree with this opinion that says you should stop agreeing with everyone's opinion that you read about, etc.
> Get off the popular train – teach yourself not to judge based on anything other than your own view. Stop listening to the mainstream radio or to popular music channels. Try college radio.
I didn't quote anything about TV -- I was pointing out that getting deeper into music, especially of the indie/college radio variety, is an even bigger step into the mire of trying to discern quality/buzz/popularity/etc.
It can be. However, if you find DJs who you really enjoy, then you let them do all the curating and mire wandering for you. I posted a bit about this and the difference between college radio and freeform radio: http://cacciatc.github.com/other/2011/12/29/get-off-the-popu...
As a counterpoint, there is also a danger to writing without reading. Reading other people's work can stop you from needlessly reinventing what already exists. It informs your opinions and reminds you to consider things that you might have otherwise neglected to. It can also act as a reality check and prevent you from disappearing too far up your own bumhole (when you write about something, and then write about what you wrote, and iterate until your whole argument becomes a house of cards).
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).
<Quote>
Time in bathroom spent reading on your phone [Side note: how freaking scary would it have been to explain to your great-great-grandfather that people would carry around computers and look at them while in the bathroom or driving - he would have been terrified of this future]
</Quote>
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!
Reading this (excelent) post made me realize I made three very important decisions in 2011: 1) start carrying a notebook at all times; 2) stop reading so much stuff and filter my content sources; 3) start a blog.
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.
I think the author is expressing that if you (only) let external sources be the inpiration of who you are, you will lose yourself. That's why it is important to create (also).
We are given 2 ears and 2 eyes to read and listen, but given only one mouth to express ourselves. So, nature herself optimized us for consumption ;-). Also, when we use the term reading it is usually meant for longer content. But, most of what people do with smartphones could at best be called juggling or glancing.
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.
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.
And—as Kenneth the Page put it—ten fingers, "which must mean that God really wants us to poke things!" [1]
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."
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.
I'm suprised nobody has mentioned Clay Johnson's new book, "The Information Diet." Pretty interesting read that goes with everything in this article. Side effect to overconsumption is increased personalization of information which makes us more ignornant to new/foreign ideas.
Also, I feel so ashamed listening to podcasts on my way to work now.
The truth is that I don't think most people have it in them to create. The ones that will actually create new things will know when to stop listening to other people. The rest of mankind is probably happy just consuming for their entire lives.
Interesting piece, and for the most part, spot on. A few thoughts as I read this, though:
> 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.
Also on early episodes of Back to Work he talked a lot about oscillating between time and attention. That is if you stay in your bubble all the time you won't create very interesting things, but that's not a common problem these days because distribution and consumption is so easy that the vast majority of people can go through life without creating anything (which was not the case when 90% of people were subsistence farmers). Instead you need to find the balance where you are actually receiving the right amount of input to do your best work.
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.
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.