Comment by sixtyj

16 hours ago

The older I get, the more I appreciate texts (any).

Videos, podcasts... I have them transcribed because even though I like listening to music, podcasts are best written for speed of comprehension... (at least for me, I don't know about others).

Audio is horrible (for me) for information transfer - reading (90% of the time) is where it's at

Not sure why that is either - because I look at people extolling the virtues of podcasts, saying that they are able to multi task (eg. driving, walking, eat dinner), and still hear the message - which leaves me aghast

  • Brittany Spears - Hit Me Baby One More Time.mp3

    To paraphrase the overused 'ol Sapir-Whorf, if all you think about is information that can be best represented as text, all your examples will be ones text wins at.

    • Not sure, text wins hands down at sharing the ideas of one person, with many, across space and time.

      I can read the thoughts of a philosopher who lived on literally the other side of the world, several thousand years ago.

      I'm unsure of, but would love to know, any other medium capable of that

      2 replies →

  • Podcasts are fine for entertainment, great for tuning out people or the traffic. I don’t expect to absorb information quickly, but try reading anything serious on the train when some guy is non-stop on his phone using his outside voice.

    • Ha! I used to

      I had a 53 minute (each way) commute on the train, and I found it perfect for reading papers or learning skills - I was always amazed that the background noise would disappear and I could get lost in the text

      Best study time ever.