It's weird how thoroughly people have internalized that tl;dr is supposed to be the default way to take in information now. Not only for themselves, but for others.
Most of what I read these days can be captured— almost entirely— by a good tl;dr. Unless I’m reading for pleasure, I’d prefer to read content that is as direct and succinct as possible.
The problem with this approach, that I discovered is, normally what we assume as a filler can have a lot of information for other parts of our brain or life in general.
I have enlightened from many small details in articles, books and papers. While looks unimportant and irrelevant, these parts can knock down dominoes in one's subconscious, resulting in enlightenment or closure on another subject.
Even if that doesn't happen, I learn a couple of more things.
tl;dr: reading tl;drs only is akin to chewing caffeine powder instead of drinking coffee. bland, uninspiring and non-rewarding. What we assume as useless is generally is the spirit of the matter.
> tl;dr: reading tl;drs only is akin to chewing caffeine powder instead of drinking coffee. bland, uninspiring and non-rewarding. What we assume as useless is generally is the spirit of the matter.
Which is how I drink coffee.
Coffee is bitter, awful, and irritates bowel, wasting your time on extra toilet visits (of the longer kind). Adding milk makes things even worse (lactose ain't particularly light to deal with in adulthood). I wouldn't even touch this stuff, if not for it being the universally approved (socially and legally), ubiquitous wakefulness promoter (aka stimulant drug), and better alternatives are much harder to get (even prescribed, they're not meant to serve as coffee replacements). Caffeine powder (in tablets or otherwise) is how you get to "the spirit of the matter" while skipping all the misery and unpleasant side effects.
I suppose it really is a good analogy to most of long-form writing that isn't pure fiction or explicitly for entertainment.
coffee, even without caffeine, contains so much antioxidants, you can sort of imagine the coffee bean as carrying the antioxidant burden of the entire world on its back
I know that everybody has a different metabolism and respect your choices, but I'll kindly disagree and will not accept the blanket statements you did.
> Which is how I drink coffee.
You're not drinking coffee. You're using caffeine as a drug. Which is fine, but the similarity is akin to drinking Soylent and claiming you cooked and ate a particular dish for the lunch.
> Coffee is bitter, awful, and irritates bowel, wasting your time on extra toilet visits (of the longer kind).
Coffee is not awful, and not all coffee is bitter. Lighter roasts have a gentler taste profile (plus higher caffeine), and/or you can select less acidic beans. What I generally brew ends up pretty smooth. Either case, it doesn't irritate my bowels.
I'm not particularly critical of how coffee affects my bowel movements. It doesn't imprison me in a particular place in my home or office. Honestly, if you think spending 10 minutes for your body's needs as a waste of time, I think you have to review your lifestyle choices.
> Adding milk makes things even worse (lactose ain't particularly light to deal with in adulthood).
I'm drinking at least ~400ml milk (for the last 30+ years) and eat good amount of cheese every day. I don't believe this. Don't come with try and see, because I tried, and it changes nothing. My body doesn't care about it.
On the other hand, coffee's stimulant effects is secondary to why I drink coffee. I like its taste, it helps me to digest after lunch, and generally it's a good combination with a cookie or a bitter chocolate in the lunch break before starting the second half of the day. BTW, I drink a bit more than a single cup of coffee every day, because I regulate my intake amount and time, yet I get the benefits. Otherwise, I had periods which I drank 2L per day. So coffee tolerance can be tuned and can be kept in check.
The "spirit of the matter" is coffee as a whole, with all the taste, personal time and whatnot. Caffeine tablets capture a single aspect without any taste or finesse.
It's same for the long form writing. I'm in it not only for the tl;dr, but the story in itself. Funnily, I generally read these while drinking my coffee, so the enjoyment is squared.
We discussed the same thing for the last couple of days with colleagues. Distilling everything doesn't concentrate the contents. You have to lose something, and that something is not only filler for most of the time.
Sure but this is only important if the only thing you care about is absorbing just the information without any of the context around it. That context is often imoprtant.
