
The Dangerous Effects of Reading - henrik_w
http://blog.davidtate.org/2011/12/the-dangerous-effects-of-reading/
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eliben
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.

~~~
tomjen3
That is definitely me. The problem is how little reading do I need? What if
the next article is really important?

~~~
thenomad
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.)

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mikekchar
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...

~~~
stinkytaco
>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.

~~~
codazoda
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.

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lucio
Great post. A must read, to stop compulsive reading

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

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

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bryanlarsen
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).

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ThinkingGuy
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/](http://www.informationdiet.com/)

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niche
"Time in bathroom reading on phone"

When going to the bathroom, just go to the bathroom

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ominous
Seems to be down for now.

Previous discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3403936](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3403936)

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G650
golden

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partition
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/...](https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/chapter6.html)

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

[http://harpers.org/sponsor/balvenie/lewis-
carroll.1.html](http://harpers.org/sponsor/balvenie/lewis-carroll.1.html)

