Reading

Reading and True Literacy

• To read better, learn how to choose better books - Lindy Effect - [1]
  • Guide to reading better. [2]
• Reading is a valuable skill much underutilized. Even those who are 'literate' do not take advantage of the skill.
• Reading taste can grow up. From comic books to drame to sci fi to science and humanities... [3]. You start with junk food, your tastes grow up.
• Re-reading - don't read everything, read the greatest books over and over.
• More blogs - Farnjam st, Kevin Simmler's blog
• But oldest wisdom is in books. Skim a large number, pick out the juicy parts.
• Read anything. Build the habit. Your habit will improve.

Knowing

• Circle of competence [4]. Open source economies which include openly accessible rapid learning materials break through this paradigm, increasing one's competence significantly. Civilization is so far yet so close to this point.
• It is important to know the difference between complexity and chaos. Chaos is complete lack of pattern and predictability. Complexity is many interactions that are difficult to understand, but ones that follow nonstochastic rules - and this can be modeled or understood. Don't confuse chaos (such as conspiracy theories) with things that can be explained (such as evolution). A faulty mental model involves treating something as complex when it is chaotic. For example, we waste time on evaluating chaos, when we should move on and fuggedaboudid.