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Comment by HN15718653 | Hacker News Reader

Right up there with reading large amounts of fiction. I mean, one should experience life instead of sitting on a couch or wherever for hours on end, staring at printed words and immersing yourself in some other person's imagination! At the end of it, so many hours every year and you have nothing to show for it.

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I think reasonable doses of fiction -- say a couple of books a month -- are useful, so long as you choose your fiction carefully. To me the best fiction is like hanging out with the coolest, smartest, and most articulate person you've never met, and letting them show you things they believe to be important.

This is not a substitute for experiencing things firsthand, but I can certainly point to many novels that shocked me into thinking about stuff differently.

Good fiction reaches you in a strongly empathic way, in a place where you're uniquely receptive to it. This is valuable for teaching things about your own life and the lives of others, which seems valuable.

> At the end of it, so many hours every year and you have nothing to show for it.

This one is tough for me.

Must all of life come down to having something to show for it?

What about those pockets of our existence where we can just _be_ and enjoy something for the sake of that enjoyment?

And if people stopped enjoying fiction, what motivation would there be for others to write if they had no readership to show for their work?

Productivity is a good goal but we're slightly more complicated as people than simple, single-purpose machines

The alternative is to work 80 hours every week with nothing to show for it.

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