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Comment by bnjemian | Hacker News Reader

One of the things I’ve come to feel is that so much of the reading I do on the web (news, etc.) is fundamentally ephemeral in it’s relevance to my life and goals. Put another way, 90% of it doesn’t actually contribute to my knowledge or personal growth — it won’t matter tomorrow or once I realize some immediate goal. Sure, I get entertainment out of it, but that’s mostly it.

In my view, non-fiction books can be a good answer to that. Authors put a lot of work into curating a set of ideas and (in some cases) mental tools, models, etc. that have long-term, portable value across domains. They can also give you good insight into how experts think about certain problems. Some of the most thoughtful writers aren’t publishing their work in digestible chunks — and many published before the Internet was even invented.

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on the contrary, I have found that reading stuff on the web is 90% of what contributes to my knowledge. I can say that whatever I am today (in terms of what I know), it is most probably because of the internet. Not just in terms of computers, but just daily life, directly or indirectly.

I think it is just a matter of the source in your case, which may have led you to feel that 90% of what you read doesn't contribute to your knowledge.

I've gained a ton though random wanderings on the internet and wikipedia and so on but it's really not the same as reading one in depth work a person put 500+ hours of their life into.

Yeah, a book is researched, thoughtful and laying a long, and complicated argument. Just the act of reading the long forms of ideas will make you better at thinking.

Reading a Wikipedia page or watching a video, almost always dismisses the ideas that lead to a conclusion, which is what you need if you want to THINK, not walk around with containerized ideas that other people came up with.

But most books could be a 100th of the size they are

I think you're reading the wrong books, then. I wish the books I read were 100 times longer.

That depends entirely on the quality of the writing.

Indeed. There's a reason for that: Most modern non-fiction books are the result of a publisher giving a book deal to an author to expand an article they wrote and people who are going to spend $20 on a book want to feel like they are getting their money's worth (more pages == better deal).

Few modern authors are willing to buck the trend and publish a 100 page book, but they do exist. Take a look at Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form.

I used to feel the same way, then I started reading books. So it might also be that you picked out the wrong books, or that whether you mostly read books or stuff on the web, whatever you go with you’ll put more effort in and hence find higher quality material.

In any case, mind sharing your favorite sources?

I used to be the same and to a certain degree, information on the internet is better. There is simply more information and it updates regularly. A book will be out of date soon. And information on the internet is often free of charge.

The value that comes with a book is its structure and its limited size. You don't get all information, you'll get the important information. And it is structured in a way that helps you learning.

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