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A comment on Why We Sleep: A Tale of Institutional Failure. Parent comment

Re:Why We Sleep: A Tale of Institutional Failure by ramraj07 on Sunday April 12, 2020 @03:40AM (#22846632)
Did you need a full book to tell you that though? The fundamental problem with pop sci books is that very often the most important facts (and probably the only generally communicable facts) about the topic should not need more than a few dense pages in a long-form article. But you can't sell an article for twenty bucks so the professors who would love a million or two (do they make that much?) Just expand it into drivel and cut corners to "simplify" the prose and take creative license.

Even the greatest popsci book of all time, a brief history of time, is famously a tome almost no one ever reads fully[1]. Every popsci book I've taken up I can never finish because half of it would be repetitive BS and I'll come out of it not taking anymore takeaway points than what was in the article in Forbes promoting the book. The motivations for publishing popular science books by professors are probably to blame here, on top of the fundamental research ethics problems that plague academia nowadays.

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/1...

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Re:Why We Sleep: A Tale of Institutional Failure by kd5bjo on Sunday April 12, 2020 @04:20AM (#22846735)
> Did you need a full book to tell you that though?

Yes, actually. The point of writing an entire book is to present enough evidence for the reader to come to the author’s conclusion on their own.

The important part of reading a book, the part that has a chance of altering your behavior in the future, is spending time considering the subject matter from various different angles. That’s what gives you the ability to recognize similarities between situations described in the book and situations that appear in your life. This ability to see the things that happen to you in a new light is the real value these books provide.

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Re:Why We Sleep: A Tale of Institutional Failure by sho on Sunday April 12, 2020 @04:54AM (#22846862)
> The point of writing an entire book is to present enough evidence for the reader to come to the author’s conclusion on their own.

What a great quote. I'll be stealing that thanks.

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Re:Why We Sleep: A Tale of Institutional Failure by strstr on Sunday April 12, 2020 @03:44AM (#22846646)
This is no different that standard text books. There is a lot of filler. You can skim if the primary concept already makes sense, or you can read the extra details if you are confused.

It’s a popsci book, not big Rudin.

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