I was once unemployed for a year when I was young (about 19) and I rather frighteningly read about one fairly serious novel a day. I have loads of time on my hands now (I'm 72) and could not get near that.
mncharity 3 minutes ago [-]
"I read books [...] I've read a couple of books a week for [...] 50 [years]"[1] - Jim Keller (CPU designer) with Lex Fridman.
Two days per book full time means one every 16 hours. Enough to read the full Foundation Trilogy with one hour to rest between books.
On a side note, I'm ashamed to share that I tested my reading speed, and while it was 264 WPM, my reading comprehension was 50%. That's why I read slower, and frequently re-read.
Out of spite I tried to measure my Spanish reading, 520 WPM and 100% comprehension. Very unfair since it's my native language and I can glance and skip instead of reading every word.
Can't say I ever took a test like that. 644wpm and 100% in English (native language).
Hard to judge that based on just five questions though.
daveshistory 2 hours ago [-]
I'm curious what these tests are measuring if you say your reading comprehension is only 50%. Your comment here is completely articulate and sensible so you are obviously fluent in English.
Edited to add: hm. I just got 67%. I guess my college degree is a waste. Should have gone the humanities route instead.
ASalazarMX 2 hours ago [-]
It hurts, doesn't it? I also thought a few measly questions would be a piece of cake, and mainly focused on speed.
dylan604 1 hours ago [-]
In high school, there was an academic event for reading comprehension. I tried it one time and was humiliated. They read aloud to you a story, and then they ask you questions about it after. I have no idea where my head was, as I didn't do well at all. I never tried the event again. It wasn't until that experience before I realized that I'm the type that needs to read things multiple times for it to stick.
testaccount28 45 minutes ago [-]
2000 WPM @ 75%
1 hours ago [-]
killbot5000 6 minutes ago [-]
How does he stay awake??
garciasn 30 minutes ago [-]
TIL I can get paid for doing what I do for fun: reading ~100 books a year.
What surprises me is that he only reads about 50 more books a year than I do, and he does it full time.
nomadiccoder 27 minutes ago [-]
> even allowing for time off, that works out to roughly 300 books a year, or well over 6,000 across two decades. And that is just the professional tally.
garciasn 23 minutes ago [-]
Every other day is ~3/week which is between 150 and 180/year; not 300.
He’d be reading nearly 6/week, which is ~every day.
embedding-shape 15 minutes ago [-]
> He’d be reading nearly 6/week, which is ~every day.
Sounds like one book per bank day, mon-fri, like many work schedules out there :) Would make sense considering the context too, doesn't sound like too much or too little.
garciasn 33 seconds ago [-]
Ah; that makes more sense. Thank you kind HNer.
nomadiccoder 16 minutes ago [-]
im just quoting the article
oinoom 3 hours ago [-]
I started to find this article interesting but every time I tapped “x” on an ad to dismiss it, no more than five seconds later, the same ad would appear at the bottom and distract me. Over and over.
If someone has the will to fight those little xs, they have the will to install uBlock Origin. It even works on iPad and iPhone now, through a regular Safari Plugin.
dieselgate 2 hours ago [-]
All my xs live in Texas.... and uBlock Origin even works on my locked down work Dell with firefox!
readthenotes1 2 hours ago [-]
So you're saying your PC is in Tennessee? Or is that just your VPN?
sorta piling on here, but it's also worth noting that this problem goes away (and the article is quite readable) in a browser with javascript turned off (and no adblocker).
seabombs 51 minutes ago [-]
Boring isn't it? Reading half a book every single day.
Not for him though, he loves it.
foo-bar-baz529 1 hours ago [-]
This seems like the kind of profession that AI would’ve already destroyed. Aren’t LLMs pretty good at what he’s doing?
nephihaha 2 hours ago [-]
I would imagine this sucks the fun out of some books and also forces you to read a lot of dreadful books. I knew a bibliophile who worked for a publisher and was sad to hear from him that he rarely got time to read for pleasure.
ASalazarMX 2 hours ago [-]
Isn't this a work-life balance issue? I work 8 hours a day on my work computer(s), yet I'm still eager to use my home computer for hobbies or pleasure.
This person could read for pleasure if they set the time for it. When I was coding all day, I didn't have the will to code for hobby at home, so maybe they had the time but not the drive.
dyauspitr 1 hours ago [-]
This is LLM territory and they are extremely good at it.
devilsdata 4 minutes ago [-]
For executives looking to impress? Not really. Being able to rattle off perspective on a book, curated by someone with very high media literacy would signal the same level of media literacy to their audience.
An LLM may be able to synthesise results well each time, but there will be quite a difference between a synopsis written by an LLM and someone whose job it is to write synopses of books.
Huge difference in quality, and considering the clientele, they are willing to pay for that quality.
michaelsbradley 1 hours ago [-]
[dead]
anoncow 2 hours ago [-]
With exceptions, after sometime everything can bring you down or nothing can bring you down.
Rendered at 00:09:42 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA&t=5040s
https://howlongtoread.com/books/323872/Train-Dreams
Two days per book full time means one every 16 hours. Enough to read the full Foundation Trilogy with one hour to rest between books.
On a side note, I'm ashamed to share that I tested my reading speed, and while it was 264 WPM, my reading comprehension was 50%. That's why I read slower, and frequently re-read.
https://swiftread.com/reading-speed-test
Out of spite I tried to measure my Spanish reading, 520 WPM and 100% comprehension. Very unfair since it's my native language and I can glance and skip instead of reading every word.
https://speedreadr.com/es/
Hard to judge that based on just five questions though.
Edited to add: hm. I just got 67%. I guess my college degree is a waste. Should have gone the humanities route instead.
What surprises me is that he only reads about 50 more books a year than I do, and he does it full time.
He’d be reading nearly 6/week, which is ~every day.
Sounds like one book per bank day, mon-fri, like many work schedules out there :) Would make sense considering the context too, doesn't sound like too much or too little.
Not for him though, he loves it.
This person could read for pleasure if they set the time for it. When I was coding all day, I didn't have the will to code for hobby at home, so maybe they had the time but not the drive.
An LLM may be able to synthesise results well each time, but there will be quite a difference between a synopsis written by an LLM and someone whose job it is to write synopses of books.
Huge difference in quality, and considering the clientele, they are willing to pay for that quality.