Filter Information Harder (TODO: think of a good concept-handle)
Note: Long post usually mean the post is very well thought out and serious, but this comment is not quite there yet.
Many people are too unselective on what they read, causing them to waste time reading low value material[1].
2 Personal Examples: 1. I am reading through rationality: A-Z and there are way too many comments that are just bad, and even the average quality of the top comments may not even be worth it to read, because I can probably spend the time better with reading more EY posts. 2. I sometimes read the curated posts instead of finishing rationality: A-Z first which I also think is a suboptimal order.
Too unselective comes in two ways: Not skipping enough parts of what you’re reading, and not choosing hard enough.
Not skipping enough parts of what you’re reading
I have the tendency of trying to read everything in a textbook, even if it is quite low in information density, with many filler stories or sentences served as conjunctions. I probably should be trying to skip sentences, paragraphs and sections where I have sufficient confidence of either 1. I have already learned it and don’t need a refresher, or 2. They are not important for me (filler material or unimportant knowledge)
Not choosing hard enough
Sometimes there are things that even stop reading halfway is giving it too much attention. there are many things that you should just not read[2]. You can filter a lot of content based on the title, the author, the website which hosts the material, the “genre” of the text (most novels, most social media).
Further Question: When you don’t read all parts of textbook / posts, are you eligible[3] to comment on it?
Unsorted Ideas
There is a few rationality: A-Z posts that I want to link here, which talks about how you would accidentally believe in things you heard from other people.
Breadth first learning method seem to be better than depth first because it clears the unknown unknowns. Also in general it seems to be better to first have a vague understanding of something and then increase the resolution of the model, using a sort of iterative learning approach.
This idea can generalize too, but it may start to become useless. First generalizarion would be to filter more on what you listen to, and then to choosing carefully what you do, but then it just becomes rationality.
During highschool, one heuristic I learned is to ignore basically every question that people have asked because most of them are just stupid, as in thay are either irrelevant or deducible from previous public knowledge (like what the teacher just said)
History: feels like most of history only serves as interesting stories to add in conversations to show that you are knowledgeable, unless you are actively trying to learn psychology/human dynamics. One of my friend wanted to give me a Chinese History book and I really dont think reading that would help me.
If you could turn this into advice or guidance, it’d be really helpful. Even sharing a metric so we could say “you should be more selective if X, less selective if Y” would be better than a direction with no anchor (“too unselective”, no matter what). I don’t know if I’m in your target audience, but I’m at least somewhat selective in what I read, and I’m quite willing to stop partway through a {book, article, post, thread} when I find it low-value for me.
What I had in mind when I say “people” is myself, and the average non-LW friends around me.
Worthless is a bad word choice, I just mean that there are better things to read.
Additionally:
I also think I have the tendency of trying to read everything in a textbook, even if it is quite low in information density, with many filler stories or sentences served as conjunctions. I probably should be trying to skip sentences, paragraphs and sections where I have sufficient confidence of either 1. I have already learned it and don’t need a refresher, or 2. They are not important for me (filler material or unimportant knowledge)
I will try to make a more quantitative metric, but I don’t have one right now, just intuitions.
Thanks, “don’t read everything in a textbook” is good practical advice. Learn to skim, and to stop reading any given segment when you cross the time/value threshold. Importantly, learn to NOTICE what value you expect from the next increment of time spent. Getting that meta-skill honed and habitual pays dividends in many many areas.
I don’t necessarily disagree generally, but I do somewhat disagree for myself. Since I don’t have visibility into other people’s reading habits or selectivity, I’m unsure if I’m an outlier or if I actually do disagree. What does “many people” mean, and more importantly how can an individual (specifically: me) tell if they are too unselective, on what dimensions?
[Draft]
Filter Information Harder (TODO: think of a good concept-handle)
Note: Long post usually mean the post is very well thought out and serious, but this comment is not quite there yet.
Many people are too unselective on what they read, causing them to waste time reading low value material[1].
2 Personal Examples: 1. I am reading through rationality: A-Z and there are way too many comments that are just bad, and even the average quality of the top comments may not even be worth it to read, because I can probably spend the time better with reading more EY posts. 2. I sometimes read the curated posts instead of finishing rationality: A-Z first which I also think is a suboptimal order.
Too unselective comes in two ways: Not skipping enough parts of what you’re reading, and not choosing hard enough.
Not skipping enough parts of what you’re reading
I have the tendency of trying to read everything in a textbook, even if it is quite low in information density, with many filler stories or sentences served as conjunctions. I probably should be trying to skip sentences, paragraphs and sections where I have sufficient confidence of either 1. I have already learned it and don’t need a refresher, or 2. They are not important for me (filler material or unimportant knowledge)
Not choosing hard enough
Sometimes there are things that even stop reading halfway is giving it too much attention. there are many things that you should just not read[2]. You can filter a lot of content based on the title, the author, the website which hosts the material, the “genre” of the text (most novels, most social media).
The Best Textbook on Every Subject
Related Reading: Lessons I’ve Learned From Self Teaching (TODO: make a short summary here about why it is related)
Further Question: When you don’t read all parts of textbook / posts, are you eligible[3] to comment on it?
Unsorted Ideas
There is a few rationality: A-Z posts that I want to link here, which talks about how you would accidentally believe in things you heard from other people.
Breadth first learning method seem to be better than depth first because it clears the unknown unknowns. Also in general it seems to be better to first have a vague understanding of something and then increase the resolution of the model, using a sort of iterative learning approach.
This idea can generalize too, but it may start to become useless. First generalizarion would be to filter more on what you listen to, and then to choosing carefully what you do, but then it just becomes rationality.
During highschool, one heuristic I learned is to ignore basically every question that people have asked because most of them are just stupid, as in thay are either irrelevant or deducible from previous public knowledge (like what the teacher just said)
This applies to this shortform: think about whether it is worth continue reading, or just close this page and read other stuff
History: feels like most of history only serves as interesting stories to add in conversations to show that you are knowledgeable, unless you are actively trying to learn psychology/human dynamics. One of my friend wanted to give me a Chinese History book and I really dont think reading that would help me.
this word is vague, I know
If you could turn this into advice or guidance, it’d be really helpful. Even sharing a metric so we could say “you should be more selective if X, less selective if Y” would be better than a direction with no anchor (“too unselective”, no matter what). I don’t know if I’m in your target audience, but I’m at least somewhat selective in what I read, and I’m quite willing to stop partway through a {book, article, post, thread} when I find it low-value for me.
Clarifications:
What I had in mind when I say “people” is myself, and the average non-LW friends around me.
Worthless is a bad word choice, I just mean that there are better things to read.
Additionally:
I also think I have the tendency of trying to read everything in a textbook, even if it is quite low in information density, with many filler stories or sentences served as conjunctions. I probably should be trying to skip sentences, paragraphs and sections where I have sufficient confidence of either 1. I have already learned it and don’t need a refresher, or 2. They are not important for me (filler material or unimportant knowledge)
I will try to make a more quantitative metric, but I don’t have one right now, just intuitions.
Thanks, “don’t read everything in a textbook” is good practical advice. Learn to skim, and to stop reading any given segment when you cross the time/value threshold. Importantly, learn to NOTICE what value you expect from the next increment of time spent. Getting that meta-skill honed and habitual pays dividends in many many areas.
My comment at the point of time of his reply:
Many people are too unselective on what they read, causing them to spend a lot of time reading worthless material (This applies to this shortform).
I don’t necessarily disagree generally, but I do somewhat disagree for myself. Since I don’t have visibility into other people’s reading habits or selectivity, I’m unsure if I’m an outlier or if I actually do disagree. What does “many people” mean, and more importantly how can an individual (specifically: me) tell if they are too unselective, on what dimensions?