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I find it really very sad how much of the vast sea of media and information we can consume in our short lifetimes, especially in regards to literature. Any ideas on how I can maximize the amount?

>>3379 consume more. how else would you do it?

What? We already maximize the amount. The amount of media we binge on average is massive, way more than previous generations ever did. Consuming media isn't the same as having fulfillment; there will always be more manufactured faster than you could possibly consume, with each hour creating more than you would have time in your entire tenure on earth to pore through. And it doesn't do anything for us. It doesn't enlighten, it doesn't give us joy--it only keeps us busy and distracted. We're stuck in this Brave New World-style deluge of triviality, of ideas which are overabundant yet shallow and alienating. Think of the potential of your own life's story as the most important part of that sea of media. If you spend time living bad facsimiles of other people's stories through machinery and media, you will always be missing moments of your own.

>>3379 >especially in regards to literature Go get an e-reader, now. Even the soykaftiest jailbroken Kindle 4 (with koreader) is infinitely cheaper, more convenient and better for sheer volume than any physical media. And book piracy is the simplest soykaf ever (http://gen.lib.rus.ec/ and https://b-ok.org/). Nothing else can even compare. Torturing yourself to read a book on a PC monitor is horrendous. Smartphones? Not even close, the eye strain and screen glare compared to an e-reader is absurd. Ever since I've got it I've been burning through my huge backlog of books like crazy. Piles of books I would've had to spend hundreds of dollars to buy physically, or squint for hours to read on a smartphone until my eyes bleed. Oh, and you can use the e-reader while walking - and it looks less weird than goose stepping around with a big-ass book in front of your face.

>>3381 That's true, but I mean worthwhile information, stuff with substance. Good media and books. >>3382 Thank you, good tip

>>3382 Now looking into kindles, very lost

>>3379 >Any ideas on how I can maximize the amount? Why do you want to consume as much as possible, or rather, what's the end goal?

>>3392 I don't know, really. Something about dying and knowing so little of all the great things offered seems very disappointing and wasteful to me. And as addressed earlier in this thread, I want not to consume useless information but things with substance, good, well rounded media.

>>3390 I'm using a second hand Kindle 4 and it was pretty cheap, but if you want an easier install process for stuff like Koreader (a highly customizable file browser/viewer) without any jailbreaking, you could get a Kobo. I got lucky as my Kindle 4 was already jailbroken and had KUAL installed on it (KUAL is an application launcher, it launches other applications like Koreader). The guy who did the jailbreak said he followed the instructions from this forum - sadly, I can't really help you with that more, other than give you the links: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=150 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88004 The Kindle 4's 800x600 resolution isn't enough to read manga or comics well enough, but for text it's great.

I pretty much agree with >>3381 There is no need to maximize the amount of media you consume. You won't find fulfillment in doing that. Trust me, I went through a phase of trying to read every "great" novel that "everyone should read before they die". It wasn't until I was reading Little Women that I realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I hated that book. It bored me to tears. Find what you love, and immerse yourself in it. Along your journey you'll find different paths that will take you to other great things that you didn't even know would bring you happiness. Thousands of things are considered great to many people, yet they are not to be enjoyed by everyone. You should explore to see what you do love, but don't force yourself to consume things just because they are considered classics or great works. Someone else will do that for you and enjoy it much more then you ever will. I don't recommend pirating books and using an E reader. I say buy what you can and use your local library for what you can't. Having a stack of books you haven't even begun to read is a great daily reminder to read and also is satisfying in its own way. Something about a physical book just feels so much better. You can stuff an E reader with hundreds of books you will never read, but creating your own physical library or using your local one is more fulfilling. This is my biased opinion I admit. Some might not find my desire for physical books a necessity within themselves, You will have to figure out what is more appealing to you. Maybe let us know what you are interested in and we'll help you find something to read.

You may change certain habits in your life so that you have more time for important stuff such as reading, like choosing the right transportation method, I like to read in the bus and sometimes I take longer routes to read a little more. In some places like the school library there's always some distracting person arriving sooner or later, and now I avoid being there. Reading faster is possible too, there are certain guides for that, just remember to actually practice, that's whats really helps. You can also watch videos at double speed (I actually started with x1.5). Youtube and VLC player have that capability. Some months ago I started reading random journal articles and I realized I could read one every day, because most of them are not very long, they are also very rich in content, and they are specially useful when if you don't know a subject very well. I usually read on my smartphone, it may not seem the most comfortable thing to do, specially for your eyes, but you should be fine with a red light filter and the correct brightness settings. I read even in total darkness. Also, I like to take color notes of everything I read, so when I want to check something in the book it gets easier to find, this is specially practical in e-book readers, because you don't have to bring color pens or markers with you.

>>3396 >Maybe let us know what you are interested in and we'll help you find something to read. As far as "classic" novels I'd say most I actually have some genuine interest in. Even ones that bore me to death I can appreciate at least on the basis of their writing. Writing being another thing I really enjoy, especially when it's clever or very well constructed (that's why I can tolerate those old novels, everything from the order to the word choice is very carefully chosen). As far as things that excite me, I'm a sucker for good romance, as long as it's reasonable (not outlandish poorly-plotted fanfics), and imaginative and thought provoking science fiction (think Ray Bradbury). Also a big fan of Jack London. I love philosophy, especially when it's built into a story. Right now I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 and it's really incredible to me. >>3397 >>3395 thanks for the tips

>>3379 I just found this great video on this exact topic, one of my favorite bloggers (Tim Urban) is in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIW5jBrrsS0 I'm this guy >>3382 >>3395 by the way, and I'm still insisting you get an e-reader if you're serious about this

certain texts on philosophy can at least make the desire to consume everything less prevalent, depending on the person. for me the most important book I ever read was the dao de jing (character by character; all the translations are soykaf). having that knowledge on top of meditative practices and general mindfuckery, I have everything that ever was in my head all I have to do is find it. I hope you may soon find something that helps you similarly!

>>3420 >character by character; all the translations are soykaf Nigga I can't learn fυckin Chinese I've been wanting to get into Lao Zi, so you best recommend some translations, son

>>3421 I've been using a combination of this website https://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/daodejing.php , wiktionary, and a notebook. you don't need to know chinese. it's old enough and "poetic" enough that knowing modern chinese won't help you anyway. it's not really something you could translate, not easily at least.

>>3422 Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but how can you claim to understand any of that if you're just pasting stuff character-by-character into wiktionary, and don't speak any Chinese? This seems like it would lead to less comprehension than even the worst 'typical' translation.

>>3423 because the grammar is completely different from modern chinese and I'm using other people's translations which are more focused on making it flow well in english than being true to the original text as background. also I have a background in linguistics but I feel like if you're decently smart you can figure it out even if you have no history with language as a study. give it a try it's really not that hard.

>>3379 I would recommend books like Harold Bloom's "How to Read and Why", "The Western Canon", Ordine Nuccio's "The Classics in our Live". They are finely written books written by scholars who have spend their lives wth studying the great works. I personally have spend many years reading fanatically the classics, watching the great movies, at some point it gets too abstract and you start wondering what you're even doing. By now I have amassed a pretty big library which is pretty neat though. My personal advice, lainon, would be to delve into everything, giev everything a chance, but find your favorites for yourself, and orientate yourself by that.

>>3381 I disagree with you. If we can moderate our usage of this content and only view content that is actually useful to us then we can become enlightened. Honestly, algorithms only make this easier, I was addicted to stupid trivia videos but then I started watching more tech videos and getting recommended those instead. I think there's something beautiful about the amount of culture we have access to now anyway. Even people who use Facebook aren't just accessing soykaf, they're actually reading the news, starting discussions, etc on all sides politically and ideologically. In ways this is very dangerous because it means soykaftier ideologies can spread, but it's also good because naturally ideas are going to progress faster. The key is moderation of content, keep yourself productive don't indulge in bullshit like PewDiePie or top ten videos.

>>3424 >because the grammar is completely different from modern chinese There still must be some grammar, though - that's why I'm skeptical about extracting meaning from translating symbol by symbol. Not to mention the language is super old and unrelated to the ones I do speak. >I have a background in linguistics Well that clearly helps. I'll give it a try though - it sounds like a fun experiment. I'm just wary of fooling myself into thinking I've understood some train of thought when I actually haven't. Thankfully there's still those 'poetic' English translations on the side, so thanks.

>>3429 np m8 and don't worry too much; chinese, especially old chinese, is pretty easy to translate without experience. if it were something like japanese I would never dream of trying without thorough study because japanese is like that but it's like that because japanese works on particles and suffixes modifying concepts whereas chinese works on symbols that signify core concepts and usually stand alone but sometimes combine to make compound word but it's usually pretty straightforward like fire mountain meaning volcano or mountain sheep meaning goat.

The goal to maximize consumption is wrong. what is necessary is to maximize thought. what you go to maximize thought, you see that consumption is about having the highest standards for what to consume. by this, almost everything (in the precise mathematical definition of the term) is horrible. This is the individual perspective. The social perspective consists in having each member of the society specialize their tastes in such a way (each relative to each other) so that they collectively cover all the ideas (forget about the text, the ideas are what matter), using the least work. also there must be the speculants, who specialize in finding that which does not yet exist in this 'collective consiousness', and the culturologists, who specialize in periodically 'stirring the culture' (i.e. sometimes making some unpopular but potentially interesting parts of the culture popular, so that they are widely and extensively scrutinized and enjoyed, and so that they can have their 'turn' effecting the practical aspects of the society (ideas lead to other ideas, ideas lead to organizations of matter/action, thusly effecting the world))

>>3379 AFAICT the highest "currency" is the speech of people you really love.