Quantity or Quality

There is the age-old debate of Quantity vs. Quality.

Today I was thinking about this in relation to reading books. Especially the non-fiction kind that really explore a particular topic or intellectual area. These books usually stretch your imagination or bring you knowledge that changes or enhances your perspective on the new subject. Depending on how new or complex the topic, the book may require serious concentration. After plowing through hundreds of pages that may have stretched over several days or weeks, you may think that you have not comprehended or synthesized the information to your satisfaction.

I have moved between the two poles of quantity vs. quality in reading informative material by either:

1. Re-reading or scanning the book a second time to tie together the major concepts (3 is the magic number but I have never taken the time to read 3 times).
2. Writing a short paper, review or blog on the book.
3. Moving on to the next book and assuming synthesis will take care of itself.

Any of these is probably just fine. If you read enough books over time, many concepts will repeat from different perspectives and this should allow your brain to put things together in your own personal way, but still retain the core information in some way. However, I think that the act of summarizing or presenting the material is an important part of internalizing the information and re-inventing it in your own image.

Even though I was thinking in terms of books, this quality vs. quantity thing applies to all aesthetic, intellectual and personal experiences of course. After any of those experiences, the simple act of writing a blog can help solidify your thoughts, opinions and feelings about the experience. More privately, a journal works of course.

Even though Dave Winer has put forth some rules of thumb for good blogs (one is that good blogs have subjects in which the writer knows a lot about), I believe there is value in blogs like I write that are personal impressions of experiences. Of course, I don't have a readership, and maybe that is one reason :) So, maybe I am blogging to myself. But hey, its good therapy, right?

This is a long-winded way to say: experience, reflect, expand produce.