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by red-iron-pine 910 days ago
because time isn't fungible, and 99% of books, esp. about factual-ish stuff, can usually be boiled down to a few bulletpoints.

most books don't require that much nuance, nor "the experience" of reading it

1 comments

An interesting thing about fungibility is that _something is fungible to the extent that one treats it as fungible_. Yes, dollar bills are generally fungible but I might pay more for one with a serial number with lots of zeroes — it’s good for liar’s poker. I might devalue a dollar bill that you just blew your nose on.

That aside, I’m still not convinced I know what you mean when you say time is not fungible. I think what you might mean is that time is precious and not to be wasted, but I’m not sure what this has to do with fungibility.

Regardless, I think I agree with your main point which is that most written works are low-content repetitive trash. Let’s stipulate that I’m only talking about buying and reading rich, innovative, and/or elucidating works of nonfiction. They all require a great deal of nuance, I assure you.