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    • chrissetiana
      Top reader of all time
      3 years ago

      Me, to me, every time i try to read books these past months:

      “I’m not kidding: I couldn’t do it,” she said. “It was torture getting through the first page. I couldn’t force myself to slow down so that I wasn’t skimming, picking out key words, organizing my eye movements to generate the most information at the highest speed. I was so disgusted with myself.”

      • bill
        Top reader of all time
        3 years ago

        Omg lol @chrissetiana you’re digging so deep in the archives! My comment is from three years ago (!) but it seems like something I could have written yesterday.

        Back then, Readup was just some weird, barely-functioning browser extension that @Jeff and I were using on ourselves and sharing with our friends. The community (and product) has grown and evolved in such a beautiful way.

        Slow and steady wins the race.

        Slow news for the win.

        • chrissetiana
          Top reader of all time
          3 years ago

          Haha, yes. There are many hidden gems in your old reads, @bill. I went through some, starred others for later and would definitely go back and dig for more. Good finds.

          It’s fascinating to see (and super exciting to be part of) Readup’s growth. Here’s to so much more 🥂❤️✨

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      6 years ago

      Even as I write this comment, I'm having a hard time slowing down. My current browser window has nine tabs open and five other browser windows sit in the dock at the bottom of my screen.

      From the second I open my laptop, I feel an overwhelming pressure to bang through the things I need to do, sound smart along the way, and get on to the next thing. I'm always already too late. At 9:07am on Monday morning, my co-founder slacks me, "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK." Obviously, he's in the same boat.

      The internet isn't just rotting our brains and making us depressed - it's also making us crazy.

      "Drinking from a firehose" is an expression my first boss used to use. I think he meant to say that it's impossible to do everything, especially in a busy environment. Successful people take in what they can, let the rest go, and don't fall over along the way.

      Sticking with that analogy, trying to really read (or, what this article calls "linear reading") on the internet is like trying to capture a small, specific drop of water while standing under Niagara Falls.


      For years, I assumed that my inability to sit with a book was based on an undiagnosed (but super obvious) case of ADD. I've never lost the joy of reading, the joy of getting lost in text for hours. It's just getting tougher to find that joy. To get myself in that mode.

      Last night I found it for about 15 minutes and it was incredible. Someone had left a copy of Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer in the laundry room in the basement. I literally had nothing else to do so I read the prologue and the first chapter (a riveting crime involving a sect of fundamentalist, polygamist Mormons) and it was a revelation. I'll probably reference that book at least five or six times in the coming weeks because I want people to know that I still read books - actual, physical, books.

      At different times, I have felt varying degrees of hopelessness that this might not be a solvable problem, that my ability to read thought-provoking (even complicated!) books might continue it's downward plunge. My current goal is twofold: (1) decrease overall time on screens/internet (2) increase the % of screen/internet time really reading, full articles, linearly.


      One more thought I just had: If newspapers actually do die, we are all so terribly screwed.