[bmitc]

Learning and reading is something I've been struggling with. One, getting older, even at a relatively young age is definitely taking its toll. It's mainly my memory. I've always had great recall, but it has gotten slower. Secondly, I believe computers and in particular phones and tablets have partially destroyed my attention span and ability to be comfortable inside a book for a long period of time. I read all the time, but not in a deep, concentrated way. Despite knowing these things are problems, even though I typically read or learn on them and do not play any games on mobile devices, it has taken me to admit to myself that I absolutely must distance myself from mobile devices, and even my computer, if I want to get back to long-form, deep learning. Both are going to take some practice and discipline.

One thing that has helped is signing up for actual university classes as opposed to online courses. Online courses are of course awesome, but taking a few graduate level mathematics courses at a local university really got me back into deep reading, of at least technical material.

Another thing is trying to reduce my anxiety. Instead of worrying about all the books I have that are unread, of which there are hundreds and maybe even over a thousand (yes, I have a problem collecting books), I'm trying to just concentrate on one or two and actually finish before switching or moving on. This is one of the hardest things when your interests change fast, but I am really trying to bolt myself down on this one. I'm not quite there yet.

[blinkingled]

> computers and in particular phones and tablets have partially destroyed my attention span

Right on. That and the constant, never ending polling for information that comes with it leaves you with no downtime and a very worn out feeling. We need downtime throughout the day - pick up a task, do it, put it down and do nothing for a while before switching to another. Without that you can't focus and that leads to irritation which makes things worse.

[orbit7]

Understanding the zeigarnik effect and assigning a the literal next action to everything made a dramatic difference for me in this respect its alike to shutting down a ton of background processes with pop-ups. The subconscious keeps bubbling up stuff. On the positive side its also a useful to use as a memory tool for pinging up stuff you need to remember.

[hackernewds]

Would you mind expanding on this? I couldn't understand what practice it was you actually implemented

[BeetleB]

> I read all the time, but not in a deep, concentrated way. Despite knowing these things are problems, even though I typically read or learn on them and do not play any games on mobile devices, it has taken me to admit to myself that I absolutely must distance myself from mobile devices, and even my computer, if I want to get back to long-form, deep learning.

Somewhat related:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29739940

Once I started printing things and not reading them with a screen, my reading of real books went up as well. When you're reading on a screen, you don't realize you're competing with physical books. But when you're reading something physical, you do become aware of it.