Aaron Swartz wrote a little blog post entitled HOWTO: Read More Books. Sounds great, right?

Wrong!

The basics of reading more books include such steps as “alienate everyone close to you”, “block your favorite blogs” (where he suggests that you unplug your TV and literally block your favorite websites at the router level) and “keep the temperature low”. Sounds fine if you’re a monk whose committed himself to a life a solitude.

I like watching TV and what’s the benefit of reading more books if it kills my social life and makes me miserable. I’d like reading as an alternative to TV and blogs, not a replacement. I’d love to see a list of tips on how to read more books that include small and practical steps that anybody can do without reorienting their life around reading.

In Aaron’s defense, he did deliver what he said he would. The post is a list of ways to read more books. And you will read more books since that’s all that will be left. But the post totally misses on the point of self-improvement. If you’re going to suggest a strategy or set of rules to improve your life, they’d better outweigh their cost.

That’s all.

Remember when I wrote this post? (1 year ago)

Well … it came true!

A Muslim, a Christian, and a crazy guy walk into a room. The one thing you can know for sure is that at least two out of three of them organize their lives around things that aren’t real.

via Scott Adams Blog

I organize myself around my TV schedule. I should probably change that.

If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet. Go to some other place where you may learn and contribute.

via Wikipedia

Basically, you’re only as good to me as what I can contribute or get out of you. It’s a pretty businesslike perspective but I think it applies really well to websites we visit or any place we spend a lot of time.

It shouldn’t be applied to relationships though. Selflessness is a virtue.

Comments can be beneficial, but usually aren’t. For the vast majority of comment-enabled blogs, the comments are a net loss for the author with very high rates of ad-hominem attacks, nastiness, nonsensical responses, and spam.

via 37signals

It’s kinda ironic since the quote itself comes from a comment.

“Take a look at our menu! It’s a PDF of a screenshot of a scan of a Word document printed on a dishtowel.”

– Restaurant website

There are too many restaurants with websites for all of them to be good. It’s especially difficult with tiny marketing budgets and short timelines.