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/lit/ - Literature

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5792838 No.5792838 [Reply] [Original]

What's better: reading 1000 books and only understanding 1% of each book, or reading 10 books and understanding 100% of each book?

>> No.5792844

reading 1000 books and understanding 100% of each book

>> No.5792848

>>5792838
>Gustave Flaubert — 'What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books.'

More understanding.

>> No.5792852

>>5792838

Subscribing to a particular school of thought and interpreting 1000 books under its filter.

>> No.5792854

>percentage of understanding

I don't think you understand what understanding is all about.

>> No.5792866

it's a trade-off obviously. These days there's lots of superficial trivia knowledge and very little in-depth careful learning.

On the other hand, there's entirely too little knowledge altogether.

I dunno, anything but Wiki-tier trivia please.

>> No.5792897

>>5792838
Probably the 1% option. With a sample size of 10 books, its less likely you'll gain the right kind of knowledge.

>> No.5792914

>>5792897
Are you actually this stupid or are you trying to be funny?

>> No.5792919

1000 books x .01 understood of each = 10 understanding points

10 books x 1.0 understood of each = 10 understanding points

So I guess it's the same. This is a valid applications of maths, right?

>> No.5792923

1000 x 1% = 1000%

10 x 100% = 1000%


its the same

>> No.5792924

>>5792838
What's better: living 1000 years and only being awake 1% of each year, or living 10 years and being awake 100% of each year?

>> No.5792932

>>5792914
The first 1% of understanding a book isn't necessarily equivalent to the 1 point of percent from 99 to 100, it is not a linear scale.

>> No.5792938

>>5792838
If I get to pick the 10 books than yeah

>> No.5792939

>>5792924
1000 years.
I'm a beta fag who doesn't talk to people so I wouldn't care about losing loved ones. I could also follow the story of a society and maybe be its historian.

>> No.5792977

What's better: taking 1000 white dicks to gently dip their heads into your asshole, or taking 10 black dicks to the bottom of your rectum?

>> No.5792981

>>5792977
1000 white dicks for sure. my asshole wouldn't be destroyed

>> No.5793007

>>5792838
first one obviously. You get broader knowledge then in second case.

>> No.5793012

>>5792981
After a thousand dickheads? Are you sure?

>> No.5793016

>>5792981

Yeah even if this mechanically easier, your chances of getting an STD are almost 100%, even with condoms.

>> No.5793020

>>5792977
in 1000 dicks there's the risk of having guys with giant schlongs.
With 10 huge black dicks you know what you're going to take
I say certainty before comfort

>> No.5793438

>>5792838
10 books about advanced math and quantum physics

>> No.5793464

>>5793438

modern mathematics is the driest, most abstract, useless shit known to man.

>> No.5793512

>>5792838
It's the same because 1% of 1000=10

>> No.5793539

>>5793464
:(

>> No.5793582
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5793582

>>5793512
Thatll do, donkey......

>> No.5793596

>>5793464


category theory is pretty neat

>> No.5793603

>>5793464
although i love literature oh so much, i think you meant literature

>> No.5793614

This is an utterly senseless question.
What kind of books are we talking?
Is that 1% of understanding just about some random element from a given book, or is it about one of the book's core ideas or themes. If it's the latter, how is that only 1% understanding of the book?
Can it really be said that you've "read" a book, if you don't understand the book? If I read a book in Spanish, while understanding Spanish pronunciation conventions, but not the vocabulary, does that qualify as reading it? Is there even a point in that kind of reading?

For shits and giggles, I'm going to say the latter is better. Being able to understand the underlying themes in the first few books of R.A Salvatore's Drizzt series (which is clearly that black people are bad) is more useful than knowing when and where he uses the phrase "burning purple orbs" for the entirety of that series.

>> No.5793619

>>5792919
>>5792923
sounds like a pretty solid application of the comprehension calculus to me

>> No.5793632

It depends on the books

>> No.5794082

You aren't going to read a book and "understand 1%" of it. Unless you are reading a book that you literally don't know any of the words you are going to at least be getting something out of it.

>> No.5794115

>>5792838
Reading 398 books and understanding 43% of them

>> No.5795937

>>5792919
>>5792923
the maths is all very well, but clearly the 100% comprehension option is better when applied to the real world. if you claim to have read 'pride and prejudice' and don't know who mr darcy is because you only understood 1% there's no point reading it

>> No.5797138

>>5792924
That's a very good way to show what OP's question is all about.
Neither extreme is good though. With the first option your comprehension of each book/year is so low that you don't really have much of an idea what's going on. With the second option you're limited to something pretty monotonous.
I'd say read a few books very very well, in order to have a relatively stable base, then read as much diverse stuff as you can so that you can turn that base into something richer and heterogeneous.

>> No.5797178

>>5794082
That's not the point you insufferable motherfucker, its a simple question, either one or the other, if you ain't picking one, and just coming here to try to show it isn't a realistic question, you can only be a really big, huge piece of shit

>> No.5797182

>>5797178
>ain't

>> No.5798660

how is it possible to have a 100% understanding of a book in the first place?

>> No.5799075

>>5792838
As a hardcore reader, walking into a library skimming the books, and then leaving.

>> No.5799125

Reading 10 books and understanding 100% of each book. Because it looks like it'd take much less time for the same amount of knowledge.