阅读是在浪费时间吗？
【Gary Wu 的回答】
谈谈我的看法。
我陷入你所描述的这种困境很多年。每天，我花费数小时的时间逛论坛，浏览不同的博客，消费很多东西，这对我的生活没有影响。
最终我惊醒我已经浪费了很多时间。我检查我的生产比，发现我一直在阅读各种信息，但是事实上却没有用它来做任何事—我的生产比完全偏离了我想要的结果。
世界上最成功的人拥有的产量远远超过消费的东西。他们去创造东西，比如艺术，写作，商业等等。在某种程度上他们为他人或者自己增加价值。他们是写博客和书的那类人。他们采取行动。
我过去一直在消费的东西对我的人生没有实质性的影响。我没有按照曾经读到的做，也没有做出大的改变去变成更好的自己。不，我过去一直在盲目的浏览因特网，消费无用的信息，循环往复。
我原以为我一直在学习，但是事实上那是另一种方式的浪费时间。因此我下定决心修改我的生产比。我停止浏览信息，删除RSS，远离我过去常访问的博客。我停止登录网站，比如社交新闻站点和 Business Inside博客媒体。我时常注销Facebook，尽可能少的在YouTube上看视频。
上述行为帮助我减少摄入无用信息的数量，并且空出时间去生产东西或者学习使我受益的新技能
我也开始读更多的物理书，从而明白了：噪音永远比我们想象的高的。当我去年读完80本书后，我开始意识到信息过量的问题。最近我主要阅读一些和我需要的信息有关的内容，并且将会按照我读到的内容采取行动。
传统观点认为你读什么并不重要，因为你读的任何内容在一定程度上都将会使你受益。我不赞同这种观点。“无价值的阅读”和垃圾食物起作用的方式相同。就像垃圾食物含有极少的营养价值并且热量很高，垃圾信息包含极少的可操作建议并且用无用的事实填塞你的的大脑。
最近，信息过量真的令人担忧。它导致分析麻痹和无休止的追求知识，仅仅为了知识。这么多信息将花费许多人一生的时间仅仅是为了浏览完—因此，过滤这些信息去决定哪些和我们要了解的内容相关取决于我们自己。
我的意思不是你必须无微不至的计划你要消费的东西或者你不能为娱乐而读。偶尔地，有可能一个好的有关商业的灵感来自于你的休息时间和阅读/看一些完全和你平时关注的领域无关的内容。但是时刻谨记你的生产比。如果你对你所处的位置和花费时间的方式不满意，最好减少你的消费。
请注意，所有的信息不是固定的“无用”或者“有用”。如果你正在阅读八卦博客关于金卡戴珊最近的动向仅仅为了知道卡戴珊家族的消息，我打赌这是没有意义的。但是如果你是娱乐电视台一名负责现场直播的记者，追踪卡戴珊家族的消息有可能是你做的最重要的事情之一。
以下为英文原文：
【Gary Wu】
I can relate.
For many years, I was stuck in the same trap you describe. I spent hours every day just browsing forums, reading various blogs, and consuming a lot of stuffthat had no impact on my life.
Eventually it hit me how much time I'd been wasting. I looked at my consumption:production ratio. I was consuming all of this information but not actually doing anything with it - my C:P ratio was completely skewed.
The most successful people in this world have a C:P ratio that is much more heavily favored in the production side. They're out there creating things, whether it be art, writing, businesses, etc. adding value to others or themselves in some way. They're the ones writing the blogs and books. They take action.
What I had been consuming had no material impact on my life. It wasn't like I was implementing things I had read and making vast improvements to better myself. No, I was just going through the same routine of mindlessly browsing the Internet consuming useless info.
I thought I was 'learning' but really it was just another way to pass the time. So I made the decision to fix my C:P ratio. I stopped following the news. I deleted my RSS feed of blogs I'd visit. I stopped going onto sites like reddit and Business Insider. I deactivated my Facebook account every so often. I (tried) watching fewer videos on YouTube.
All of this helped reduce the amount of useless information I was taking in, and freed up time for me to work on producing things or learning new skills that would better me.
I also began to read more physical books, as the signal:noise ratio is generally much higher (i.e. more useful information). Still, I've come to realize there's such a thing as information overload when it comes reading books as well after having read 80 books last year. These days I generally read things only if I need the information and will actually take action from what I've read.
The conventional wisdom is that it doesn't matter what you read, because anything you read will benefit you in some way. I disagree. 'Junk reading' exists in the same way junk eating does. Just like how junk food contains very little nutritional value and is full of empty calories, junk information contains little actionable advice and fills your brain with useless facts.
Information overload is a real concern these days. It leads to analysis paralysis and a never-ending pursuit of knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. There's so much info out there it would take many lifetimes just to get through it all - so it's up to us to filter through it to determine what's relevant to us.
I'm not saying you have to meticulously plan out what you consume or that you can't read for entertainment. Once in while, it's probably even a good idea to venture outside your comfort zone and read/watch something completely outside your usual domain. But always keep in mind your C:P ratio. If you're unhappy with where you are and how you're spending your time, it's best to reduce your consumption.
Note that all information isn't some binary 'useless' or 'not useless.' If you're reading gossip blogs about what Kim Kardashian has been up to lately just for the sake of keeping up with the Kardashians, I'd wager it's useless. But if you're an on-air reporter for E! Entertainment TV, then keeping up with the Kardashians is likely one of the most important things you do.