Thursday, December 17, 2009

Read More!

I realized a while ago that I read a lot. It is not all quantifiable book reading either. In fact I do not read too many books. Maybe one or two books a month on in a busy month. I do read articles, blogs, status messages, away messages, scientific papers, emails, and a little bit of computer programming language all on a regular basis. I like reading because everything I read contributes to making me more well read. It helps me see through arguments. What I mean is that while often there is more than one way to accomplish a task there is often one way that is better than another. I should explain...

Once again I will talk about running because I do that almost every day. I am also quite well read on the subject. You want to run a 5k faster. There are several options which may all lead to a faster time. The challenge is to find the one that is right for your situation. Not the one that will make you the best 5k runner you can be but the one that fits you. In my running I have always been my own biggest competitor. I want to set a personal record as well as I can. I try not measure my progress against my friends because to some extent we are all doing different things. So if you are content to run 10 seconds faster than why go down the path of trying to run 40 seconds faster? You might become discouraged or injured. It is very counter productive. Everyone has to decide for themself the appropiate level of commitment.

For example:
  1. Run hard three times a week and go swimming or biking another three days a week.
  2. Run hard twice a week and easy four days a week and do no cross training or anything physical on the day off.
  3. Run hard 2-5 times a week, run every day, cross train, run twice some days, and take recovery seriously.
You might be able to run better than before doing 1 or 2. Doing 1 you won't get bored as easily because you are doing a different sport every day. Doing 2 you can be part of a team and have time to do something else important. Doing 3 you will most likely get a lot better, destroy that 5k, be tired all the time, and have no social life outside of running. What is the point of all this running talk? This post is about reading! The point is that each method accomplishes the goal of getting faster. Like reading, reading status messages is like the news because people will comment on the news so you don't have to read the news. Reading emails is like having a lecture without having to sit there. The future of communication is far more diversified than it ever has been. Now pretend the message of X, Y and Z is the same. Who is to say you should read X when Y and Z will get the message across?

The point is to extract the information you want the way you want. How you are educated on some topic is almost irrelevant. There are so many sources saying the same things. In fact search engines search by words. So the more words there are in a webpage relating to what you are searching for the more relevant that webpage will probably be. While audio media is a big force it does not have the transparency that written word does.

I'm just saying: read more.

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