3/21/2023 0 Comments Instapaper chrome![]() The problem is that our entire digital world is geared toward snackable chunks of low-grade information - photos, tweets, statuses, snaps, feeds, cards, etc. Using your friends as your primary filter for new ideas ensures you remain the dumbest person in the room, and contribute nothing to the conversation. This is the fundamental flaw in the “information diet” advice from Tim Ferriss and others: strong filters work best on a larger initial flow. In order to consume good ideas, first you have to consume many ideas. #1 | Increasing Consumption of Long-Form Content Increasing consumption of long-form content (which is presumably more substantive).But I want to focus now on the two that Read It Later apps can help with: There are A LOT of ways we could talk about to improve the quality of the information you consume. I’ve written previously about how to use Evernote as a general reference filing system, not only to stay organized but to inspire creativity.īut I didn’t address a key question when creating any workflow: how and from where does information enter the system? The quality of a workflow’s outputs is fundamentally limited by the quality of its inputs. The highest leverage point in a system is in the intake - the initial assumptions and paradigms that inform its development It will also save your current progress on one device, so you can continue where you left off on a different device (for those longer pieces). Marking an item as read in one version of the app will quickly sync across all platforms. Personalized, in this case, not by a cold, unfeeling algorithm, but by your past self: Web browser “tile” view You can also view your list in a “tile” layout on the web, making it into essentially a personalized magazine. Note: at time of writing, I was using Pocket, but have recently switched to Instapaper because of Pocket’s “Share to Evernote” bug mentioned below.Ĭlicking the button while viewing a webpage turns the button pink, and saves the page to your “list.” Navigating to, or opening the Pocket app on your computer or mobile device shows you a list of everything you’ve saved: Mac desktop client The app I use, Pocket, adds a button to the Chrome toolbar that looks like this: Chrome toolbar and Safari’s built-in “Add to Reading List” feature.Send to Kindle (for sending articles to your Kindle).On top of that core function they add features like favoriting, tags, search, cross-platform syncing, recommended content, offline viewing, and archiving. They are essentially advanced bookmarking apps, pulling in the content from a page to be read or viewed in a cleaner, simpler visual layout. So-called “Read It Later” apps give you the ability to “save” content on the web for later consumption. It’s not a condition anymore, it’s a trait - the inherent and unavoidable experience of modern life characterized by “distractibility, inner frenzy, and impatience.”īefore I explain the massive, under-appreciated benefits these apps provide, and how to use them most effectively, a quick primer in case you’re unfamiliar. Basically, the terms ADD and ADHD are falling out of use because effectively the entire population fits the diagnostic criteria. What has become exceedingly scarce (and therefore, valuable) is the physical, emotional, attentional, and mental capability to sit quietly and direct focused attention for sustained periods of time.Ī recent article in the Harvard Business Review puts a name to this new neurological phenomenon: Attention Deficit Trait. The fact is, the ability to read is becoming a source of competitive advantage in the world. The end result is the same person who spends 127 hours per year on Instagram (the global average) complains that she has “no time” for reading. ![]() But those glances have slowly become stares, and those stares have grown to encompass a major portion of our waking hours. We’ve made a habit of filling those hundred random spaces in our day with glances at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. What makes this number significant (in my view) is that it represents 22 books’-worth of long-form reading that would not have happened without a system in place. This number by itself isn’t impressive, considering our daily intake of information is equivalent to 34 gigabytes, 100,000 words, or 174 newspapers, depending on who you ask. At the end of 2014 I received an email informing me that I had read over a million words in the ‘read it later’ app Pocket over the course of the year.
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