Comments on: Grow Your Mind and Increase Focus Through Reading

By: Bcroke

Bcroke — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:40:41 +0000

Hey Scott, really enjoyed this article, but I had to make a comment to follow up with Koushik. I’m almost finished reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, (why the internet is making us dumber).

The research he cites shows that spending too much time in digital distraction land is fun for quick dopamine fixes, but awful for critical thinking, creativity and productivity.

I think way more research needs to be done on digitals affects on our minds, especially young people who are so quick to use these new technologies and whose brains are still developing.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:19:16 +0000

Hey Sajal —

Great point, great questions. I’m actually writing a chapter now on how to get the most out of reading online articles in the least amount of time.

I’ll let you know when the chapter is published. But in the meantime, here’s the trick:

1. Have a trusted source or user generated content site like Reddit, or Digg (tread lightly).
2. Open the top 3 articles per day, and then close Reddit/digg
3. Read them using: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
4. Schedule a tweet out using sharefeed bookmark

Finish

Should take 10-15 minutes depending on article length.

By: Sajal Dutta

Sajal Dutta — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:30:31 +0000

Books/articles are good..but the related ones are better! Always the case?

Digg like site is eating all my focus up! I open them (Digg, Delicious etc.), look for what is going on in the current technology, by the time I convince myself that I have learned enough for the day, 3 hours or so is gone! I always think – ‘hey! I am actually researching! I am not skimming through nonsense garbage.’ I am actually reading IT related stuff. But is it? Isn’t it wasting my time too? Shouldn’t my focus be more on my actual work? What am I achieving? How can I control it? Am I on the right track?

By: Three Easy Ways to Increase Reading Comprehension

Three Easy Ways to Increase Reading Comprehension — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:18:37 +0000

[...] blog postsUS Soldier Waterboards 4-Year-Old Daughter For Not Knowing …Grow Your Mind and Increase Focus Through ReadingAdam Daifallah: How do you solve a problem like Sarah Palin …From Nothing To Something. How To Get [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:39:11 +0000

Koushik — Excellent point. Thanks for that finding and the study. That’s interesting. I believe I read about that once. I wouldn’t be surprised if Googling increased bloodflow in the brain. I just wonder if it’s due to the active clicking, or actual knowledge that arises and exercise that flows through the mind. I definitely feel that way after reading, as well as programming. I’ve felt it before googling, too, but have no evidence backing it up. Thanks for the link. That’s the second time I’ve received that today! I’ll check it out now. Appreciate it.

- Scott

By: Koushik

Koushik — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:54:05 +0000

Very well written. I was watching a PBS Frontline documentary one night about our digital lives– and a doctor on the show pointed to brain scans which showed increased blood flow in the brain when we are googling, than when are reading. However, he was ambivalent about making a judgement based on the observation. The makers of the documentary are old-school and they started out making the documentary thinking that they would find data to prove the digital age is making us dumber and less focussed. However, a lot of school teachers on the show (not all) proudly presented the case for more technology, saying that we do not yet *know* that not reading enough books is making us dumber, and that kids nowadays are getting their neurons wired in a different way than our generation etc etc. I think we are going to find out the long-term repercussions of decreased book-reading/more_technology in a couple of decades or so. But my intuition tells me that we are not going to like what we find in terms of long-term effects.

PS:
The full Frontline show is available online :
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:13:37 +0000

Thanks, Nate. Appreciate it. Reddit and Digg is a trap I see a lot of “Social Media” gurus falling into. They think that working means surfing Digg all day; however, I think there’s a lot we can do to add focus and objectives to social media marketing that many forget.

You’re spot on about lunch the lunch conversations!

By: Nathaniel Broughton

Nathaniel Broughton — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:35:19 +0000

Great chapter, Scott. I can see the need for a ‘dopamine’ fix in many of the people I’ve employed and worked with. Gotta go check Reddit, gotta read 20 BS blogs every day, etc.

It’s obvious from our lunch conversations they retain nothing but small bits of stories and ideas. But they got their fix alright!