Aretae

The virtue of excellence

Friday, April 22, 2011

Math in Life QoTD

Illka:
Since the amount of information contained in a text seems to grow logarithmically with respect to its length, it is far more productive use of your time to read 500 one-page posts than one 500-page book.
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5 comments:

Ilkka said...

That sentence was one of those that had no idea about when I started writing the post, and then it just came to me, and I only realized how great it was when I saw you quote it.

April 22, 2011 at 8:01 PM
kx59 said...

500 one page posts of drivel is 500 pages of drivel. 500 pages in a "technical" book can be worth absolutely worth nothing. I have several.
500 pages of a well written fiction novel gets cheaper each time you reread it.
False premise in my opinion.

April 22, 2011 at 8:09 PM
Aretae said...

Illka,

heh. I think you're roughly correct on the logarithmic issue.

April 22, 2011 at 11:39 PM
Aretae said...

kx,

Thanks for dropping by. Let's say that Illka's line represents a theoretical upper limit on non-fiction, and we can all agree? Both Illka and I, I am sure, have 500 pages of Wrox Press crap. Not that some of their stuff isn't good...but other bits of it isn't.

April 22, 2011 at 11:41 PM
Alrenous said...

Even better is five hundred single page technical posts.

You know, like a wiki or something strange like that.

Basically Ilkka has just explained why I don't read dead-tree non-fiction, but am legitimately addicted to the internet's non-fiction. My connoisseur side prefers a very technical style, but I enjoy pretty much any serious exploration of an issue.

Just as long as it stops at one issue.

April 23, 2011 at 11:15 AM

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