from someone with ADHD who, as well, flaked to sparknotes for in-class reading throughout high school, the greatest favor you can do for yourself is Not That At All Costs.
reading and similar prolonged focus tasks are, unfortunately, a muscle you have to train. what chatgpt will do will be equivalent of the plot summary on the back of the book but with spoilers, or just pure dry timelining. it’s deleterious to your general comprehension capacities and trains a helplessness instinct if you lean into it. it will have cascading effects on your critical thinking abilities.
if you have not tried audiobooks, try audiobooks. it’s a different neural pathway than reading, which might help, and its still fine for comprehension and critical thought.
I can definitely understand that so much of mental capabilities are a muscle you need to train; I used to love reading when I was growing up; the only other people I knew who loved reading as much as myself was one of my siblings (we didn’t share the same interests though), everyone I went to school with had zero interest in novels unfortunately. I recall spending hours and hours just engrossed in novels, a practice I can’t imagine doing now without forcing myself to continue. I lose interest in the stuff I’m doing (watching stuff, gaming, etc) very quickly, but I do recall when I used to read as a child I could just sit on my bed for hours on end just reading. I used to be able to finish books I liked in 1-2 days, but now I can barely remain interested for more than a handful of minutes at a time. I can’t help but feel there’s a muscle I let deteriorate that is now no longer up to the task.
Basically once content like video games, TV shows and anime became more accessible I ended up leaving reading behind; ironically aside from wanting to be a game developer ever since I was a kid, I also always had my heart set on being a writer (I still have a lot of fleshed out stories in my head I never wrote down), but I also left that behind ages ago. I just don’t have the focus or patience to do what it takes to be a good author (it takes skill to tell a story and to tell it well, and it takes practice to do that, I’m too lazy to practice).
If you want to get back into shape, as it were, try short stories. I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes and they’re mostly only a few pages each and written for a mass market audience. Turn your brain on exactly as much as you need to either read an entertaining adventure or critically analyze the crime and try to solve it first
Very relatable. I think starting work killed my interest in reading. Only having a couple free hours every day curtails any lengthy reading sessions, and piecemeal stuff is too sporadic, like I can’t squeeze a half hour of fiction reading on a bus trip if I’m lucky to get a seat and then pick it up seamlessly on the commute back. Having the time to deep read and choose when to stop is critical to my enjoyment and understanding of written media.
from someone with ADHD who, as well, flaked to sparknotes for in-class reading throughout high school, the greatest favor you can do for yourself is Not That At All Costs.
reading and similar prolonged focus tasks are, unfortunately, a muscle you have to train. what chatgpt will do will be equivalent of the plot summary on the back of the book but with spoilers, or just pure dry timelining. it’s deleterious to your general comprehension capacities and trains a helplessness instinct if you lean into it. it will have cascading effects on your critical thinking abilities.
if you have not tried audiobooks, try audiobooks. it’s a different neural pathway than reading, which might help, and its still fine for comprehension and critical thought.
I can definitely understand that so much of mental capabilities are a muscle you need to train; I used to love reading when I was growing up; the only other people I knew who loved reading as much as myself was one of my siblings (we didn’t share the same interests though), everyone I went to school with had zero interest in novels unfortunately. I recall spending hours and hours just engrossed in novels, a practice I can’t imagine doing now without forcing myself to continue. I lose interest in the stuff I’m doing (watching stuff, gaming, etc) very quickly, but I do recall when I used to read as a child I could just sit on my bed for hours on end just reading. I used to be able to finish books I liked in 1-2 days, but now I can barely remain interested for more than a handful of minutes at a time. I can’t help but feel there’s a muscle I let deteriorate that is now no longer up to the task.
Basically once content like video games, TV shows and anime became more accessible I ended up leaving reading behind; ironically aside from wanting to be a game developer ever since I was a kid, I also always had my heart set on being a writer (I still have a lot of fleshed out stories in my head I never wrote down), but I also left that behind ages ago. I just don’t have the focus or patience to do what it takes to be a good author (it takes skill to tell a story and to tell it well, and it takes practice to do that, I’m too lazy to practice).
If you want to get back into shape, as it were, try short stories. I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes and they’re mostly only a few pages each and written for a mass market audience. Turn your brain on exactly as much as you need to either read an entertaining adventure or critically analyze the crime and try to solve it first
Very relatable. I think starting work killed my interest in reading. Only having a couple free hours every day curtails any lengthy reading sessions, and piecemeal stuff is too sporadic, like I can’t squeeze a half hour of fiction reading on a bus trip if I’m lucky to get a seat and then pick it up seamlessly on the commute back. Having the time to deep read and choose when to stop is critical to my enjoyment and understanding of written media.