I challenge myself to answer the following questions in everything I read: Has this taught me anything new and valuable? (If not, move on quickly) How can I apply insights from this article today? (Wait and I’ll forget) When have I applied the ideas from this post? Where have I not, but could have? (What was the difference?)
Nice philosophy, with one giant outlying case: The best and the worst of anything you can possibly read will seem the same: like a waste of time. And the only way to tell the difference is to add one new dimension: time. The best things you read will seem like a waste of time today, but one day you'll realize that it changed your life.
Apologies to Maslow, a suggested hierarchy of reading value:
This is a valuable insight; even if you can't distinguish reliably between Value 0 and Value 6, you can still increase your net gain by reallocating time spent on Value "Engaging" and "Interesting" to "WasteOfTime".
Also, I just realized most of my reading is Value 1 now. :/.
Exactly. I think the article here is laboring under a hugely faulty implied methodology for the way human beings work. We aren't robots. We aren't going to read something, even something we agree very strongly with, and then suddenly change everything about our entire lives.
Human behavior is more often a matter of degrees and shades. It typically takes a while for things to sink in, and it typically takes a while for people to actually implement ideas they think are good.
What that means is that it's not just a simple binary matter of people reading something that should have an impact on behavior and then either it impacting their behavior a lot or not at all.
And that's true of everything, from political beliefs to personal beliefs and ideology to personal and professional behavior.
This is partially the reason why I read these news sites so much. Too many life changing things have come from a stray comment on slashdot, HN, reddit or similar in my life. Not to mention it's entertaining.
Nice philosophy, with one giant outlying case: The best and the worst of anything you can possibly read will seem the same: like a waste of time. And the only way to tell the difference is to add one new dimension: time. The best things you read will seem like a waste of time today, but one day you'll realize that it changed your life.
Apologies to Maslow, a suggested hierarchy of reading value:
So how do you know if something that appears to be a waste of time is Value 0 or Value 6? You don't. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut.