[anonymouskimmer]

I've only read the first part of the article, but something struck me here:

: Over the next 6 months, I read 30+ books on entrepreneurship, startups, marketing, “growth hacking,” and everything tangentially related I could find. And that doesn’t include the countless blog posts, articles, reddit threads, and whatever else I could get my hands on.

: A good plan, right? No, 80% of it was a waste of time, and most people make the same mistake with how they consume information every day.

Well, yes, because a great deal would be repeated even on tangential subjects as the authors aren't necessarily assuming you've read anything else on the topic.

and here:

: Getting in shape requires doing a few very simple things every day for months, not finding a new 13 minute 6 step workout every day so you can have a butt like today’s hot celebrity.

No, but it may take experimentation and reading to find a routine that works for you.

: You don’t need an entire site on lasting longer in bed or water fasting, you just need one or a couple really good articles.

Again, people vary. Why not cover them all, and the unforeseen events, instead of just outputting what worked in your particular case as if you're everyone?

[ebiester]

I think there's even more to unpack, though. Yes, there will be a fair bit of repeated knowledge, but what the 30+ books do is cement your mental map and expose the common agreement and disagreements in the general field. From there, additional work may not be novel because there are a handful of insights and 200 pages of rehash once you have that mental map, but there is no single book developed that can implant that mental map.

And that is true in most fields. It takes seeing multiple perspectives to figure out what will "stick" with you. Tiago Forte's "Building a Second Brain" stuck with me because I had already read "Getting Things Done" and a number of other productivity books. (As but one example.)

[mklepaczewski]

Overall, I agree. However:

: A good plan, right? No, 80% of it was a waste of time, and most people make the same mistake with how they consume information every day.

>Well, yes, because a great deal would be repeated even on tangential subjects as the authors aren't necessarily assuming you've read anything else on the topic.

I also read a lot of these books and I can confirm that 70-80% of the content is unnecessary. It's mostly the author boasting about how great they or their methods are and stories about someone who implemented the method successfully. It seems that every book has to hit 200/300+ pages mark. Most of the content is just filler.