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The too many books problem

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#1 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 04:38 AM


Yesterday I ended my attempt to organize the pdf files, that I have, and that concerns the aging and started to feel like an librarian. I put the different type of pdf files in different folders and ended with 104 books, more than 200 scientific studies, published in different magazines, 40 brochures (pdf files, that are too short to be called books, but are not studies), and 146 garbage pdf files, that are designed as advertisements of different anti - aging products. Except them, I happened to have 30 video files, 110 lectures in power point format and 33 audio files (I do not count the 4 podcasts from the longecity forum, that I have downloaded).

When I saw that, I realised, that since I am not a professional aging researcher, and I have to do my job in order to survive, when having on mind the free time, that I have and the speed, that I am reading books, I will not be able to read all of the books on aging, that I have, in my lifetime, unles it extends during my reading :) To make the problem worse, 3 of the books are more than 1000 pages long, and the more scientific the books get, the less understandable they become. On the other hand they concern different sciences and maybe it is impossible for a man to become enough competent in all of these sciences, especially in the medical ones. Moreover, the overlaping information is in random parts of the books, so a man do not knows what not to read from each book. If some day I occasionally manage to read of all of my pdf aging books, then after the time I do that the information in them may no longer be valid, because of the science development.

Does anyone have encountered the same problem? If so, what is Your strategy for knowing which book to read and which not to read? Or what is Your strategy to cope with this problem?

#2 okok

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 04:20 PM

Waiting for the the Nuremberg Funnel too. Meanwhile i resorted to an ereader and tablet. You can build a full index of all your pdf's in acrobat for easier and faster access too.

#3 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 29 August 2012 - 05:34 AM

okok thank You for the answer. I was actually thinking about purchasing a tablet. The main problem, unfortunately is the insuficient time, but tablet may help reading always You have a free time.

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#4 docTorpedo

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Posted 16 February 2013 - 03:03 AM

Perfectionism is a bitch. Get rid of it. Just slowly start with anything. If its a chore you will beat yourself with it, I recommend don't. Making excuses for not reading it, and thinking that you need a tablet to read is a warning sign.
Also if you want to get through material faster, learn to read without reading the word out loud in your head. Reading speed will be limited to how fast you are able to say the word.
Also you could purchase something like Ivona (http://www.ivona.com/en/). Its a virtual text reader, and you can save the mp3 files for later use. You could also change playback speed.

Edited by docTorpedo, 16 February 2013 - 03:07 AM.

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#5 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 21 February 2013 - 11:19 AM

This for the virtual text readers was a nice one, so thanks. Perhaps I will try it.

I never knew, that I am reading the word out loud in my head, but when I think a bit, maybe You are right.

Actually reading a pdf ebook on the tablet before falling asleep appeared to be a good (even pleasent) option too. Why do You think, that it is a bad sign?

I initially thought the same as You, that to slowly start reading anything is a good option, so I started reading a small and readable ebook about the aging. But after reading away 3 - 4 garbage ebooks, that I first thought to be extremely informative and scientific, now I do not think, that choosing to read "anything" is a good option. Perfectionism maybe is not good either, but simply getting something from the shelf and start reading it, also is not the best option. So, I started to think how to know what to read and how to read it fast. Thus I got to the point, that the perfect books for reading seems to be the books, from which science people learn their information. For example, medics learn in the universities a science, that is called Gerontology. The biology science for the aging is Biogerontology. So, gerontology and biogerontology books for medical students and biology students appeared to be a better option than the books, that I red firstly. However the information in the "big books" is so large, and the books are so many, that I calculated, that reading all really good scientific information is inpossible for one human life time, at least for my lifetime. So, I thought to ask if somebody have found a way to cope with that.

#6 docTorpedo

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Posted 21 February 2013 - 05:22 PM

Yeah, I think anyone would recommend you to start with the basics: chemistry, cell biology etc. Then you are most likely more able to weed out the books that isn't relevant.

As for speed reading, don't stress it. If you are not able to speed read (reading without internal pronunciation) , just read normally and train for speed reading on the side if you are interested.

Yeah, ebook-reader / table is cool and convenient. I just see many people who think that they will turn their bad habits around if they just get the right gadget, the best gadget, the right book etc...

#7 Avatar of Horus

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Posted 30 March 2013 - 01:14 PM

I, too, see and understand this problem, but in my opionion currently it cannot be coped, as you, too, write that even the reading of all those books and articles is impossible, physically. There are millions of texts coming each year as the science advances, and there will be even more in the future.

What you can do, is that first you read some general books with overall scope, like the university textbooks you mentioned, then after you have some general comprehension, chosing the subtopics that interest you and expand your knowledge in those areas.

This kind of specification was the answer of humanity to this issue; just need to look any fields of science and expertise, for example there are many different kind of biologists, doctors, etc.


Possible solutions may appear, which can at least partially ease the problem.

On the individual level one such thing can be the nootropics, the enhancment of the human intellect.
But this, too will probably be limited, simply becuase of the definite volume capacity of the brain.

A second option may possibly be the brain-computer interface, with which you can access vast amounts of informations, like Wikipedia as if it was in your memory, instead of a computer.

On the general science level the artificial intelligence can be the ultimate solution, which can
combine the storage of vast data and informations, and are able to interpret them.

All of these are in this very early developmental status, especially the first two, so presently in which I see the most promise is the AI. Nowadays there already exist data mining agents, who are capable to retrieve relevant data from huge datasets, and it will develop. In the near future perhaps not in the eneral, the AGI methodology, but in some specific more limited, distinct aimed problem solving ways.

Edited by Avatar of Horus, 30 March 2013 - 01:24 PM.


#8 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 30 March 2013 - 06:23 PM

Avatar of Horus, Thanks for the answer!

I already red some large university textbooks and I chose my subtopics of interest. Unfortunatelly, the information flow is still too hudge. I don't know however how much information is generated for the 3 subtopics, that You write for (nootropics, brain-computer interface and artificial intelligence), since I do not believe, that these will be the answers for livinglonger or for living forever.

#9 Avatar of Horus

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Posted 30 March 2013 - 06:52 PM

Avatar of Horus, Thanks for the answer!

I already red some large university textbooks and I chose my subtopics of interest. Unfortunatelly, the information flow is still too hudge. I don't know however how much information is generated for the 3 subtopics, that You write for (nootropics, brain-computer interface and artificial intelligence), since I do not believe, that these will be the answers for livinglonger or for living forever.


I agree with that that those 3 fields probably will not be the answer to the life extension, only for some help of handling the too much information problem in general.
However IMO the AI will have a role in LE too, I mean that in the way of analysing the bioinformatics data: e.g. in finding pharmacologically active molecules, matching the proteins and RNA with the DNA, and the like, since for example the DNA code of humans is more than 3 billion base pairs long, even the learning of its sequence is not possible for a human, let alone computing the various reactions it does.

#10 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 30 March 2013 - 07:12 PM

It will be nice if these technologies will be developed.

#11 Wu Hang

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Posted 07 August 2013 - 05:14 AM

Again all three technologies are related and completely relevant. BCI holds the key towards physical and mental enhancement of the future, AI helps scientists to understand our brain in a more systematic manner, which helps us to develop a better strategy to use our mental resources. Nootropics merely overclock our brain and maintaining the fuel which powers the brain to accomplish more at shorter time. I would recommend reading all three topics and getting the just of it, then moving on towards genetic engineering if you will. Extreme genetic engineering is exciting to talk about, yet it's not as piratical as other technologies because government regulation comes to play.

#12 lazarian

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Posted 08 September 2013 - 04:22 PM

I found that dropbox helps tons with organisation. It is a lot clearer what's going on and all. :)

#13 brainstorm11

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Posted 02 December 2013 - 07:36 PM

Maybe try to include more tiers of folders. This might help you get things more organized even if it requires more clicks. I.E: First folder is 1) books 2) studies and then deeper and deeper. You need to remember how you categorize, though.

#14 olaf.larsson

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Posted 06 December 2013 - 06:44 PM

Create a folder named "Library" in this folder create subfolders for each cathegory of books. I have different folders named "mito", "telomeres", "mutations" etc. I name each book- or publicationfile like "mito1", "mito2", "telo3" etc. Then I have an indexfile in each folder written in Word och Notepad in which there are lists of filenames associated with the title of the publication and information what it is about.

#15 Danail Bulgaria

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 05:49 AM

I organized my information long time ago. Even though, it is still more than one man can digest.

 

Do you know of some freeware or GNU software for android for Text to Speech?



#16 erzebet

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Posted 25 July 2014 - 07:17 PM

I used to have the same problem when I was younger but I feel like as I grow older I tend to get better at choosing which books are worth my time and which are not.

 

The first leap of faith was when I bought a good ebook reader (in my case a Kindle, I had a cheaper ebook reader beforehand which was crap) - what this has allowed me is to separate digital reading from surfing the Internet. Conclusion: I am now able to focus on what I read so that I read everything much faster and I understand it much better. I also got to read a lot more during commuting and other dead times.

 

Secondly I read with a purpose: I expect to gain something from reading a book in the first place. So I choose books that are well written - clear, short sentences written in English - and I expect the information to be used by me today (or in a couple of months at worst).

 

Thirdly I read according to my moods - sometimes I have enough energy to read tough academic literature, other times I need distraction or something light.

 

From time to time I take the time to read some practical biblioteconomy books. Although not a librarian myself, being able to research information resources and to judge their reliability is priceless. I also learnt about specific niche databases and what to expect from the (many) libraries I use.

 

Since time is tight, I prefer to read reviews if I am just exploring a topic and more in-depth articles and books if I know exactly what I'm looking for.

For example, I wanted to be aware of what SENS is about as it holds great promise so I started out by reading the wikipedia articles, and then I found the "Ending aging" book which is written for laypersons. That was exactly what I needed.

 

Don't be afraid to skip sections or entire books if the text doesn't seem to be that exciting or useful. Don't forget about the politics of research either: many people publish for the sake of publishing or for grant money, not because they actually have something to say.


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