D
Deleted member 11126
Kraken
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2020
- Posts
- 11,736
- Reputation
- 14,342
Title is click bait because there are still many good books to be read but they are not what they once were.
Why books became known as the best way to learn:
Books are valuable because for all of human history they were the only way to record thoughts and observations of people and store it in a physical entity. Besides that word of mouth was the only way to pass on information. If you wanted to learn about Germany 800 years ago while living in Britain the only way you could do it besides finding a person who had been there or traveling yourself was to find a book about it. If no one in your town knew something books were the "only" way to find information on that subject. Storing text in paper and stone tablets is not superior because humans learn in that way it was simply the only possible way to store information for centuries besides word of mouth. Meaning this was often times the only meaningful information that would be saved as time went on.
This does not apply anymore:
I still recommend the classics because they were written in a time where only smart people could read so they are some of the cleverest writings in all of history. Reading is also useful with certain textbooks because they can allow an autist niche creator to publish work that may not be better in other places. But for the most part new books and works are inferior. You pretty much are not going to find many decent new books in the last 50 years. The medium is not inherently better then any other forms.
Best ways to learn:
Using forums like reddit or niche places is ideal as speaking with a real person is better then a static writting. Also I recommend youtube because its interactive enough to keep your attention. And for official sciences pirate lib gen textbooks and ask Chatgpt to summarize chapters if you don't understand it.
Tldr:
Books in the past were the only way to store information long term. Now there are millions of ways information can be stored and received
Why books became known as the best way to learn:
Books are valuable because for all of human history they were the only way to record thoughts and observations of people and store it in a physical entity. Besides that word of mouth was the only way to pass on information. If you wanted to learn about Germany 800 years ago while living in Britain the only way you could do it besides finding a person who had been there or traveling yourself was to find a book about it. If no one in your town knew something books were the "only" way to find information on that subject. Storing text in paper and stone tablets is not superior because humans learn in that way it was simply the only possible way to store information for centuries besides word of mouth. Meaning this was often times the only meaningful information that would be saved as time went on.
This does not apply anymore:
I still recommend the classics because they were written in a time where only smart people could read so they are some of the cleverest writings in all of history. Reading is also useful with certain textbooks because they can allow an autist niche creator to publish work that may not be better in other places. But for the most part new books and works are inferior. You pretty much are not going to find many decent new books in the last 50 years. The medium is not inherently better then any other forms.
Best ways to learn:
Using forums like reddit or niche places is ideal as speaking with a real person is better then a static writting. Also I recommend youtube because its interactive enough to keep your attention. And for official sciences pirate lib gen textbooks and ask Chatgpt to summarize chapters if you don't understand it.
Tldr:
Books in the past were the only way to store information long term. Now there are millions of ways information can be stored and received
Last edited:
. But yeah for rest of the population, internet really is the most efficient when it comes to learning.
