Maybe this is just our cultural lot: We live in the age of skimming. I want to finish the whole thing, I really do. I wish you would, too. Really—stop quitting! But who am I kidding. I’m busy. You’re busy. There’s always something else to read, watch, play, or eat.
Farhad Manjoo, You Won’t Finish This Article: Why people online don’t read to the end.

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This may be the phrase of the era – “We live in the age of skimming.” Farhad Manjoo’s article describes a generation of “glancers,” people who glance at many articles and sample pages to read, but taking very few deep dives.

(He describes, and illustrates, technology that shows how shallow our dives are — how much we skim).

I plead guilty – partially. Although, I did read his article to the end, and read at least two or three books a month pretty much in their entirety.

So, let me point to a new idea (new to me). We need to adopt “the Rule of 96.” Building on the 80/20 rule, 20% of an eight hour work day is 96 minutes. So, what if we decided to invest 96 minutes a day, every day, for some “much more than skimming” reading and learning. Maybe tackle a book, in depth. Or some terrific commencement address; or some worthy long-form essay…

You choose your own approach- your own learning projects. But, if we’re going to stand against the tide in this age of skimming, we’re going to have to get to some deeper-dive projects.