Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 159.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2023-08-03 07:44:36+00:00
        From: David Zeitlyn <david.zeitlyn@anthro.ox.ac.uk>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.157: limits to one's attention

Dear all

There's another limit in play about how much you can read over a
lifetime/or over a career. Depending on how you view skimming and how
fast a reader you are  you can do a sum about how much you can read over
a lifetime. The result will be an estimate but a finite one and this has
to be considered within the practical infinity of all the stuff that has
been, is and will be published. So any choice to read something is also
in effect a choice NOT to read other things. The challenge is how to
make good choices and this is where sometimes technical aids including
citation analysis or google ngrams can be helpful. But even with these
there is always the looming worry of the thing you’ve not read but
really should have. I find reflection on human finitude helps me accept
and come to terms with these worries!

dam summer good wishes

davidz


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