> While all these words mean "to give up completely," abandon stresses finality and completeness in giving up.
per https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abandon
You may be using it hyperbolically, but if you go out of your way to clarify you don't mean it why use the hyperbole in the first place?
The point of this piece is that you should accept never coming back to things removed from your river - Buddhist attachment, etc.
My practice is to have a set rule about when to continue and when to put away. And I think that’s ok.
I’m all for people having their own heuristics that work for them, but don’t like sharing an easy to follow rule that may be harmful but is followed just because it’s simple and easy.
It seem especially funny that a literature professor would have such a rule as there are so many great books in literature that are difficult and unpleasant while I’m reading them but I’m glad I did.
I’m reminded of a colleague who said something like “every morning a 5am I don’t want to go to the gym and I want to quit the whole time because it’s not fun, but after I finish I never regret having done it.”
Abandoning a book does not mean you can never pick it up again. I have abandoned media that I didn’t like only to return to it years later and enjoy it.
> The challenge with the advice is that is I want ok experiences, it works. But if I’m looking for amazing experiences it cuts them off.
That would only be true if all amazing experiences sucked at the start, which is absolutely not true.
> Lots of art is difficult until the switch that makes it worthwhile.
And lots of it is worth it all the way through, or has something that makes you believe it will deliver if you stick with it.
> Especially since one great book may be as enjoyable as 100 marginal books.
And because our time is finite, if we abandon those 100 we may have the opportunity to find 5 great books instead of 1.