<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law#:~:text=Sturgeon's%20law%20(or%20Sturgeon's%20revelation,science%20fiction%20author%20and%20critic.">Sturgeon’s law</a> is a philosophical aphorism that states that 90% of everything is crap. And, of course, you should take this with a grain of salt. “All things — cars, books, cheeses, hairstyles, people and pins are, to the expert and discerning eye, crud, except for the acceptable tithe which we each happen to like.”— From Theodore Sturgeon’s “On Hand: A Book”

Sturgeon’s law 

1. What is the oldest error-free book for X topic?2. What is the newest error-free book for X topic?3. Can I find the book online, for free?

Questions to ask yourself before going out to buy a new book

Assert someone’s credibility & respectability in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academia_(disambiguation)">The Academia</a> is to check their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index#:~:text=among%20different%20fields.-,Calculation,with%203%20or%20more%20citations.">H-index score</a>. This represents how many other scientists are citing their paper. a “successful scientist” will have an h-index of 20 after 20 years; an “outstanding scientist” will have an index of 40 after 20 years; and a “truly unique individual” will have an index of 60 after 20 years or 90 after 30 years.

<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">When 90% of everything else is crap</h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law#:~:text=Sturgeon's%20law%20(or%20Sturgeon's%20revelation,science%20fiction%20author%20and%20critic." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Sturgeon’s law</a> is a philosophical aphorism that states that 90% of everything is crap. And, of course, you should take this with a grain of salt.<BLOCKQUOTE>“All things — cars, books, cheeses, hairstyles, people and pins are, to the expert and discerning eye, crud, except for the acceptable tithe which we each happen to like.”— From Theodore Sturgeon’s “On Hand: A Book” (published in Venture Science Fiction, September <a href="https://archive.org/details/Venture_v01n05_1957-09_Gorgon776/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">1957</a>, Vol. 1, №5, pp. 49–50)</BLOCKQUOTE><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law#:~:text=Sturgeon's%20law%20(or%20Sturgeon's%20revelation,science%20fiction%20author%20and%20critic." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Sturgeon’s law</a> can still be an interesting framework to keep in mind just in case you might randomly go on a book buying spree. If you are looking to start a personal kit of frameworks you can use to read both more books and articles, you should start with filtering out the fluff first.Sure, you can choose semi-random consumption and use speed &amp; skimming to consume your book faster while also increasing your chances of finding a new gem. But most of the books today are not that good. As there are various ways to make a book look good.In comparison with the good old days when a book had to be written by hand first, then involve the printing press, the shipping, the reading, and re-reading by millions of people so that one can end up saying something like ‘yes, this book is good’ and stood the test of time.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Questions to ask yourself</h1>So what I usually do is I try to ask myself a series of questions, often going through a mental checklist, before deciding whether or not I should start reading this new shiny book or piece of research.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">1. What is the oldest error-free book for X topic?</h1>To shape up an answer to this particular question, I would start digging through the online world. I would go and start with the basics, visiting the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3UA5WC5S5UUKB5G" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Amazon Review Page</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/book-reviews" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Goodreads Reviews</a>, and slowly migrate to subreddits, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quora" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Quora</a> deep dives, underground book review blogs, and, why not, ask some of my literate friends. I would compare notes, create a quick list, and ultimately decide if I would go and pick it up. And I do keep an open mind. I am not gonna get stuck in a quest to find the perfect book having the aforementioned stats. But I will try to get as close as I can. A great example of this is reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Meditations by Marcus Aurelius</a>, a solid book that stood the test of time and is one of the greatest works of philosophy.I would then consider skipping books that came to life as a result of, say, a series of blog posts on a specific topic, where I could absorb and understand the main idea without having to read 300+ more pages on examples portraying that idea. A few years ago, I remember there was a popular book called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_Thing_(book)" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">The One Thing</a>, containing one single great idea that was constantly reiterated —the value of simplifying one’s workload by focusing on the one most important task in any given project. I’ve never read to book, neither I think I do not need to. And I am not saying that these books are bad, but one could reduce their length without losing information.Through contemplation, one should eventually be able to squeeze out and generate more ideas by following a simple concept, extrapolating, and reaching higher grounds like a little Buddha. But most of us are not like that.There’s also a caveat here, as there are various kinds of books. Reading a Sci-Fi book is very different from reading a Scientific book. So I would also think about differentiating the Scientific Errors vs. the Sci-Fi Errors, which technically are not errors in the context of reading such a book. But is on your side to decide how far do you want to go.I do enjoy feeling energetic whenever I want to start reading a new book. I want to get excited. If I view it as just another book I have to readjust to make sure that I keep my one thousand books per year record, I won’t read it. Having that initial spark of curiosity that can fuel your future endeavors.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">2. What is the newest error-free book for X topic?</h1>Repeat the first investigation framework. Going online once again, reading notes, maybe summaries, Goodreads reviews, Amazon reviews and also checking with friends, gathering resources. One can also make use of something like <a href="https://www.blinkist.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Blinkist</a> for this, which is an app that summarizes books into digestible 15-minute chunks.<h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">You should define what error-free means.</h2><UL><LI>Is the author actually respected in the scientific community? Or is it just a New York Times Bestseller with a good publisher?</LI><LI>Is it pop psychology, or is the person who wrote the book a well-respected scientist?</LI></UL><h2 data-selectable-paragraph="">The H-index score</h2>A quick way to assert someone’s credibility and respectability in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academia_(disambiguation)" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">The Academia</a> is to check their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index#:~:text=among%20different%20fields.-,Calculation,with%203%20or%20more%20citations." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">H-index score</a>. This represents how many other scientists are citing their paper. It takes into account both the number of an individual’s publications and their impact on peers, as indicated by citation counts. Its creator, Jorge Hirsch (UC-San Diego) asserts that a “successful scientist” will have an h-index of 20 after 20 years; an “outstanding scientist” will have an index of 40 after 20 years; and a “truly unique individual” will have an index of 60 after 20 years or 90 after 30 years. So an average score is basically 10, a successful score is 20, an outstanding score is 40 and then you go to 60 which is the realm of Nobel Laureates.There are many ways to think about science, the precision of its findings, and how much confidence we should have in them. I oftentimes think of it as a spectrum. Physics is the “real” or “hardcore” science, and we confirm our faith in its findings daily. You then have the social sciences, which are on the other end of the spectrum. And then you have books that are not on the spectrum at all — Fiction. This is very much personal but oftentimes can be a great catalyst for innovation, as a lot of people have been stimulated by works of fiction in their youth.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">3. Can I find the book online, for free?</h1>Now, another important tactic I would use is trying to find the particular book online for free. You have a lot of chances to find such books as these, again, have stood the test of time and are old enough to be curated.Free books:I would then download and upload it to my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Kindle</a> account, and that’s it. If you are into reading physical books and like the feeling of paper on your fingers, you should still be able to print the book out. But finding the book online, for free, can save you money and time as well. As you do not have to go to the store or spend time to order the book. And — if you were wrong — there’s going to be no pressure, and you won’t feel sorry for spending money on it.<h1 data-selectable-paragraph="">Conclusion</h1>Now, I admit, I do not do this for every single book. I am not that mad.Creating a framework where you are able to go straight to the most emblematic error-free books as you can is a nice tool to have in your back pocket. Filtering out the fluff, while also reinforcing what is clean and scientifically correct.For the general population, in a world ruled by chaos theory, it is quite easy to say that a constellation has a strong effect on your life and find correlations everywhere. A banana falling from a tree in India could also have an influence on your life as well — in principle. But this is not useful on a scientific level, as you can run into all kinds of practical problems.<figure><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/500/1*WiNIvq0-yqJlIvSeIWXeF" width="692" height="692"></figure>So keeping an open mind while also trying to clean up that 90% of everything which Sturgeon outlined as crap, can be an overall great to consider while deciding what book you should consume next.Thank you for reading!If you enjoyed this, maybe I can tempt you with some bits of content similar in flavor hosted on my YouTube channel — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertBlanc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Robert’s Theories</a> — I produce videos on mental models, productivity, critical thinking, noticing confusion, and futuristic scenarios.I also write 💌 <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/roblanc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">a weekly newsletter</a> that you might like — I call it <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/roblanc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Link Incubator</a>, which translates into a weekly growing collection of links, books, assets, research, music, gadgets, things that will confuse or upset you. You can think of this as a caffeine jolt of not just inspiration but also tactical advice you can use.Or simply follow me <a href="https://twitter.com/robsblanc" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">on Twitter</a> 🐦 or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/robsblanc/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" dir="ltr">Instagram</a>.

One should read the full article for a detailed view.

Sturgeon’s law is a philosophical aphorism that states that 90% of everything is crap. And, of course, you should take this with a grain of salt. Sturgeon’s law can still be an interesting framework…

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

books

Books

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law#:~:text=Sturgeon's%20law%20(or%20Sturgeon's%20revelation,science%20fiction%20author%20and%20critic.">Sturgeon’s law </a>is a philosophical aphorism that states that 90% of everything is crap. And, of course, you should take this with a grain of salt.

“All things — cars, books, cheeses, hairstyles, people and pins are, to the expert and discerning eye, crud, except for the acceptable tithe which we each happen to like.”

— From Theodore Sturgeon’s “On Hand: A Book” (published in Venture Science Fiction, September <a href="https://archive.org/details/Venture_v01n05_1957-09_Gorgon776/">1957 </a>, Vol. 1, №5, pp. 49–50)

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law#:~:text=Sturgeon's%20law%20(or%20Sturgeon's%20revelation,science%20fiction%20author%20and%20critic.">Sturgeon’s law </a>can still be an interesting framework to keep in mind just in case you might randomly go on a book buying spree. If you are looking to start a personal kit of frameworks you can use to read both more books and articles, you should start with filtering out the fluff first.

Sure, you can choose semi-random consumption and use speed & skimming to consume your book faster while also increasing your chances of finding a new gem. But most of the books today are not that good. As there are various ways to make a book look good.

In comparison with the good old days when a book had to be written by hand first, then involve the printing press, the shipping, the reading, and re-reading by millions of people so that one can end up saying something like ‘yes, this book is good’ and stood the test of time.

So what I usually do is I try to ask myself a series of questions, often going through a mental checklist, before deciding whether or not I should start reading this new shiny book or piece of research.

1. What is the oldest error-free book for X topic?

To shape up an answer to this particular question, I would start digging through the online world. I would go and start with the basics, visiting the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G3UA5WC5S5UUKB5G">Amazon Review Page </a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/book-reviews">Goodreads Reviews </a>, and slowly migrate to subreddits, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quora">Quora </a>deep dives, underground book review blogs, and, why not, ask some of my literate friends. I would compare notes, create a quick list, and ultimately decide if I would go and pick it up. And I do keep an open mind. I am not gonna get stuck in a quest to find the perfect book having the aforementioned stats. But I will try to get as close as I can. A great example of this is reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations">Meditations by Marcus Aurelius </a>, a solid book that stood the test of time and is one of the greatest works of philosophy.

I would then consider skipping books that came to life as a result of, say, a series of blog posts on a specific topic, where I could absorb and understand the main idea without having to read 300+ more pages on examples portraying that idea. A few years ago, I remember there was a popular book called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_Thing_(book)">The One Thing </a>, containing one single great idea that was constantly reiterated —the value of simplifying one’s workload by focusing on the one most important task in any given project. I’ve never read to book, neither I think I do not need to. And I am not saying that these books are bad, but one could reduce their length without losing information.

Through contemplation, one should eventually be able to squeeze out and generate more ideas by following a simple concept, extrapolating, and reaching higher grounds like a little Buddha. But most of us are not like that.

There’s also a caveat here, as there are various kinds of books. Reading a Sci-Fi book is very different from reading a Scientific book. So I would also think about differentiating the Scientific Errors vs. the Sci-Fi Errors, which technically are not errors in the context of reading such a book. But is on your side to decide how far do you want to go.

I do enjoy feeling energetic whenever I want to start reading a new book. I want to get excited. If I view it as just another book I have to readjust to make sure that I keep my one thousand books per year record, I won’t read it. Having that initial spark of curiosity that can fuel your future endeavors.

2. What is the newest error-free book for X topic?

Repeat the first investigation framework. Going online once again, reading notes, maybe summaries, Goodreads reviews, Amazon reviews and also checking with friends, gathering resources. One can also make use of something like <a href="https://www.blinkist.com/">Blinkist </a>for this, which is an app that summarizes books into digestible 15-minute chunks.

<ul><li>Is the author actually respected in the scientific community? Or is it just a New York Times Bestseller with a good publisher? </li><li>Is it pop psychology, or is the person who wrote the book a well-respected scientist? </li> </ul>

A quick way to assert someone’s credibility and respectability in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academia_(disambiguation)">The Academia </a>is to check their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index#:~:text=among%20different%20fields.-,Calculation,with%203%20or%20more%20citations.">H-index score </a>. This represents how many other scientists are citing their paper. It takes into account both the number of an individual’s publications and their impact on peers, as indicated by citation counts. Its creator, Jorge Hirsch (UC-San Diego) asserts that a “successful scientist” will have an h-index of 20 after 20 years; an “outstanding scientist” will have an index of 40 after 20 years; and a “truly unique individual” will have an index of 60 after 20 years or 90 after 30 years. So an average score is basically 10, a successful score is 20, an outstanding score is 40 and then you go to 60 which is the realm of Nobel Laureates.

There are many ways to think about science, the precision of its findings, and how much confidence we should have in them. I oftentimes think of it as a spectrum. Physics is the “real” or “hardcore” science, and we confirm our faith in its findings daily. You then have the social sciences, which are on the other end of the spectrum. And then you have books that are not on the spectrum at all — Fiction. This is very much personal but oftentimes can be a great catalyst for innovation, as a lot of people have been stimulated by works of fiction in their youth.

Now, another important tactic I would use is trying to find the particular book online for free. You have a lot of chances to find such books as these, again, have stood the test of time and are old enough to be curated.

I would then download and upload it to my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle">Kindle </a>account, and that’s it. If you are into reading physical books and like the feeling of paper on your fingers, you should still be able to print the book out. But finding the book online, for free, can save you money and time as well. As you do not have to go to the store or spend time to order the book. And — if you were wrong — there’s going to be no pressure, and you won’t feel sorry for spending money on it.

Now, I admit, I do not do this for every single book. I am not that mad.

Creating a framework where you are able to go straight to the most emblematic error-free books as you can is a nice tool to have in your back pocket. Filtering out the fluff, while also reinforcing what is clean and scientifically correct.

For the general population, in a world ruled by chaos theory, it is quite easy to say that a constellation has a strong effect on your life and find correlations everywhere. A banana falling from a tree in India could also have an influence on your life as well — in principle. But this is not useful on a scientific level, as you can run into all kinds of practical problems.

So keeping an open mind while also trying to clean up that 90% of everything which Sturgeon outlined as crap, can be an overall great to consider while deciding what book you should consume next.

If you enjoyed this, maybe I can tempt you with some bits of content similar in flavor hosted on my YouTube channel — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertBlanc">Robert’s Theories </a> — I produce videos on mental models, productivity, critical thinking, noticing confusion, and futuristic scenarios.

I also write 💌 <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/roblanc">a weekly newsletter </a>that you might like — I call it <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/profile/roblanc">Link Incubator </a>, which translates into a weekly growing collection of links, books, assets, research, music, gadgets, things that will confuse or upset you. You can think of this as a caffeine jolt of not just inspiration but also tactical advice you can use.

Or simply follow me <a href="https://twitter.com/robsblanc">on Twitter </a>🐦 or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/robsblanc/">Instagram </a>.

How to read higher quality books

Sturgeon’s law

Questions to ask yourself before going out to buy a new book

JORGE HIRSCH

Robert.xyz 's ideas are part of this journey:

Related collections

Similar ideas