Follow Your Curiosity. Read Your Ass Off

Follow Your Curiosity. Read Your Ass Off(askjerry.substack.com)

93 points by SparksZilla 5 years ago | 34 comments

miles 5 years ago |

And, at a certain point, be on guard against too much reading, as Einstein warned[1]:

> Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking, just as the man who spends too much time in the theater is tempted to be content with living vicariously instead of living his own life.

[1] http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/sateve...

pmoriarty 5 years ago | |

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of people are very far from having to worry about too much reading.

briefcomment 5 years ago | | |

I don't think so, I think they just fall into the second category of "theatregoers" aka "streamers".

watwut 5 years ago | | |

Nah. They do too much reading. Except it is on twitter and facebook.

thursday0987 5 years ago | | |

looking at hacker news is reading.

powersnail 5 years ago | |

Confucius also has a similar remark:

"Studying* without thinking leads to incomprehension; thinking without studying leads to peril."

However, I'd like to offer a counter-argument here.

There different ways of reading. Some are passive. Some are active. Reading with a critical mind is anything but detrimental to creativity.

Notably, great authors are often voracious readers, and reading is what they all agreed to be the foundations of their craft. It didn't hinder their creativity. The reason is two-folds: 1) they read critically; 2) they wrote.

The true way to foster creativity, is to create. Unless one read so much that no time is left to do anything else, reading isn't the enemy of creating.

And a further note on vicariously living one's life. I don't really see what's wrong with that. A person gets one life only, and it may be a fortunate one, a challenging one, a boring one, or one that's an absolute dismay. Drudging through the day and fantasizing through the night is hardly the worst form of life, in my opinion.

* "Studying" here refers to the intake of information.

SuoDuanDao 5 years ago | |

There's a very interesting TED talk in which someone talks about how to learn a skill to a decent level in 40 hours. He makes a similar point - that one should read a few books to learn what the key skills are, but not use reading as a procrastination-aide.

mariodiana 5 years ago | | |

A brief write-up and a link to the TED talk may be found here:

https://ideas.ted.com/dont-have-10000-hours-to-learn-somethi...

powersnail 5 years ago | | |

Learn a skill to a decent level in 40 hours is only possible if the skill is simple, for instance, playing a few chords on a ukulele.

I'd love to see someone learn the piano, the violin, or classical guitar. Or jazz improvisation. Or oil painting. Or ballet.

gexla 5 years ago | |

That's enough questions for Jerry. Anything which fits the "X your ass off" is probably bad advice unless you're running from something which is going to eat you.

SparksZilla 5 years ago | |

Thanks for sharing this. I love this quote, but I had not seen/heard it before.

I think about this a lot. The next edition actually addresses exactly this (in draft right now).

As I begin my career as a coach, one woman gave me some great advice: for every hour you read, spend at least an hour coaching. The experience matters—get your nose out of a book.

I struggle with how to balance these!

qntty 5 years ago | |

Also a little ironic that he suggests reading about a school of thought (zen) that famously talked about how useless reading is.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5 years ago | |

That's an incredible quote that should be plastered over every single news posting on reddit and Facebook. Maybe people would realize reading about politics is completely a waste of time.

phobosanomaly 5 years ago | | |

It's like watching the Hindenburg.

Sure, it's a waste of time, but are you not going to watch the Hindenburg?

zmodem 5 years ago | |

Thanks for sharing! That whole article is wonderful.

runawaybottle 5 years ago | |

As others mentioned already, just replace Reading with Social Media in that quote for 2020 and you’ll get nothing but the truth.

cambalache 5 years ago | |

OK, but then the interview continues>

" In his own field of thought Einstein follows every development with keen interest"

cambalache 5 years ago |

This is not even a properly disguised advertisement. Content free and full of fluff. Keep pieces like this in mind when HN as a group want to boast it is somewhat better than the other forums on the Internet. God I miss old Slashdot.

kthejoker2 5 years ago |

My own personal take is "only read something if you intend to teach it to someone else." Otherwise the stakes are too low.

There has to be a pretty even balance between consume and produce. I think the ratio is probably 30/70, but whatever your personal ratio is, make sure both sides are serving the other - consume to produce, take feedback from what you produce to consume more.

t0mbstone 5 years ago | |

I think you are failing to account for the most obvious reason why you should be reading things: So you can use the information YOURSELF, for your OWN purposes.

Reading a book can be like buying a new tool. The information you learn can sometimes transform your entire life. This is often true, regardless of whether or not you intend to teach the contents of the book to someone else.

dorchadas 5 years ago | | |

This is why I read. I just enjoy learning new things, so I try to read widely across a variety of interests, and read between pop books on a topic and academic works (sadly, I've found I can't read much fiction anymore). It's not so I can teach someone else, or even synthesize it all together for some grand research project (though maybe if I started taking notes...), but simply because I enjoy learning and broadening my interests, and it gives me more stuff to talk about with different people.

But, if I was independently wealthy, I'd just stay at university the rest of my life too, pursuing various majors/classes/masters as my fancy takes me. To me, that's the dream life, and reading is a way to sort of mimic that without having to pay.

Lierre 5 years ago |

While the main advise seems useful, "if you get interest in a thing, read a ton about it", this article is quite misleading. Not all sources are relevant, I don't know about Buddhism, but psychology is mentioned with psychoanalysis and it's not a science, while psychology is. Seems more about a new-age thing than really seeking correct information.

bun_at_work 5 years ago | |

I think the article is saying that, should you read something interesting, pursuing that interest will provide meaningful insights. The author is saying that "sources" aren't as relevant as the history of interesting ideas. They are not saying read all sources. Just read a lot about the things that interest you.

I find this strategy works very well for so many topics, specifically politics, economics, history, and more. Read 5 books on contemporary economics and you will be infinitely more informed than if you watch economics or market segments on news stations for 5 years. What you'll learn by reading those books is more than just some dry economic tautologies, you'll see the history of economic theory. So and so theorized economics like this, then they were disproven, then someone started talking about behavioral economics, etc etc. That seems to be much more useful than any alternative I know of.

qntty 5 years ago | |

Surely books about psychoanalysis are reliable sources of correct information about psychoanalysis

conductr 5 years ago |

Be Curious is maybe the first step. I’m not a big reader but I’m frequently curious and end up reading a lot because of it. I also look for the shortest path to info gathering. If I can read an article instead of a book. Or a list instead of an article. I’m all for it. If something piques a further curiosity, I can always find more content.

ErikAugust 5 years ago |

The author of this post is "building a new way to publish books online."

So I figure he wants us all to read as much as possible.

SparksZilla 5 years ago | |

I did found Holloway, but I left the company a few months ago. I love reading, but no hidden agenda—I promise!

gottareply2020 5 years ago |

'and take notes' would be my follow-up to the article. Unless you've got a photographic memory, taking notes forces you to:

1. map/filter/reduce what you're reading for easy reference later, and 2. add your own observations/opinions/connections in real-time

grammarnazzzi 5 years ago |

Ooooo. An edgey PSA. Read my "ass" off.

Thanks for the advice. What's your next tip?

> Get Attention: Post Your Ass Off

Who upvotes this nonsense?