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596 points yunusabd | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.245s | source

I feel like it was inevitable, with the recent buzz around NotebookLM. I'm just surprised that it hasn't been done yet.
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andai ◴[] No.41899047[source]
Brilliant idea. I think this has real value as well: as I get older, I find that I have less energy for reading, but I also notice I often miss really cool stuff that was briefly on the front of HN.

I like that it summarizes the comments too. There are often real gems buried in there. (I assume you're only taking a few top ones?)

I think a great improvement could be made with personalization. Most of what's on the front page isn't personally relevant to me, and there's a lot of cool stuff on the new submissions page that never catches on. So it would be nice if a system could learn what kind of stories I personally respond to, and show me (a summary of?) those -- even if they aren't currently trending.

Last.fm came out 20 years ago (proving you don't even need AI for amazing recommender systems), but it seems personalizing your experience never really caught on. (Yeah, the YouTube algorithm kind of does this, but you unfortunately have no real control over it.)

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a13n ◴[] No.41899278[source]
agreed on energy for reading. do you think it’s that we’re getting older or that the friction associated with consuming information is just getting lower and lower over time?
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andai ◴[] No.41899462[source]
So my energy levels have declined noticeably from age 20 to 30. I thought it was mostly my own chronic health issues causing accelerated aging, but many of my friends are making similar complaints.

I did notice far before this point (e.g. age 10 to 20) that my patience for reading had gone down significantly. If I had to guess I'd say that in my case it's due to an underlying anxiety that started in early teens and never left me. Drowning it out seems to require something more stimulating than reading (on paper).

(Perhaps meditation or therapy (shadow integration?) would help here. I've certainly had glimpses of inner peace during times when I was meditating regularly. One insight from this time: "holy crap, I always thought I needed to struggle harder, but it turns out I just needed to learn how to relax...")

I can get through audiobooks but I can only consume them while traveling or doing chores. If I'm sitting down, the restlessness is too high and I can't concentrate on the book.

I also have ADHD and heard similar things from others with ADHD, so I'm not sure to what degree this translates to others.

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conductr ◴[] No.41900457[source]
I never had ADHD or related attention problems. However, I find the way interwebs has evolved over years and to basically trained our brains to be so focused on super short pieces of simply digestible content has basically turned me off of longer form content. I’ve noticed my preference for immediate gratification has increased significantly. It feels like I’m developing an attention disorder in my middle age years.
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1. card_zero ◴[] No.41900818[source]
I read a huge amount every day, lots of news articles, chapters of whatever book, random material of interest, people's comments and questions. I rarely read anything "long-form", however, because it has a strong tendency to be a giant self-indulgent bloviating pile of shit. There are exceptions: I've read every story on damninteresting, because it's true to its name. (Hi Alan. Post something new.)

I've nearly finished Moby Dick, but I don't know why, it's dreadful, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I guess it's historically interesting.

Possibly you guys are not losing the will or energy to read, you're merely discovering that the things you think you ought to read are terrible. Try only reading what you like. So what if it's short? Maybe your preference is right.