Reading, Part I

There are three different approaches I'm trying in 2020. Blogging is certainly the most concrete goal, but even there I want to emphasize the danger of not being flexible. I want to avoid the trap of attempting "blogging absolutism", because failing to post once will shatter that illusion and it's easy to understand how people lose motivation from there. I think Ezra Klein was speaking recently about how it's especially problematic for a lot of aspiring vegetarians (I figure a podcast call out every other post should be roughly par for the course. Don't worry, it's an ecclectic mix).

That said, my second goal - if they're ordered - is to move away from listening to as many podcasts and try to read more. I've always read a decent amount, but nothing crazy. When I taught English in Korea in '16 and '17 I had more time on my hands, and there was a good period of maybe four months when I kept up a book a week, but that stopped quickly when I came back for grad school. I miss it, for sure. There's a different sense of accomplishment when you finish a book, and it creates an entirely different atmosphere for your evening to put time aside for a physical book than listening to people speak unnaturally fast while you scroll the internet or play on your phone.

There are some public figures I respect deeply who inspired it too, either through explicitly advocating books over podcasts or simply reminiscing over periods of their lives where they devoured the high-water marks of Western Literature. More important, though, is the distraction factor. The problem with podcasts is they're easy to do in the background to a million tasks, but you can't work to them. I listen when I'm doing something mindless - commuting, eating lunch, some menial tasks in the lab (weighing disks can take forever!) - but then I pull up my laptop to start responding to emails, or planning the next task, but of course I just want to hear the end of this short interview, or let them finish this point... In any case, it's been eating into my productivity and I want to curb it. I want to finish my PhD in this decade, thanks!

P.S. All the pictures so far have been taken myself. We'll see how long I can keep that up. I hope you like mountains.