出版与作家生涯2022lithub.com
学者们曾担心书籍索引会毁掉阅读
Scholars once feared that the book index would destroy reading
导读
这篇文章讲的是：书籍索引刚出现时，曾有学者担心它会毁掉阅读——读者只翻条目、不再通读全书。这段阅读史小插曲，对今天讨论“碎片化阅读”“短视频毁掉注意力”很有参照价值。写作者可以从中看到：每次媒介形式变化，几乎都会引发同样的道德恐慌，而真正的问题往往在于读者如何使用工具。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
引用他人观点前先核对上下文：评论者指出，文中伽利略那句话批评的是“只查索引、诉诸权威却不亲自观察”的学者，而不是索引本身；断章取义会让论证失信。
- 02
把“新形式毁掉阅读”的历史案例当作写作素材：从卷轴到书页、从手抄到索引，每次都能套用这个反复出现的恐慌框架，让当下议题更有纵深。
- 03
与其笼统地把注意力下降称为“适应”，不如用数据说明（如美国成年人一年不读书的比例在 1978 至 2014 年间近乎三倍），让判断有依据。
- 04
既然读者越来越习惯跳读，写作者更应主动提供结构，比如小标题、要点、索引式导航，而不是抱怨读者没有耐心。
HN 评论精选
作者误读了引文，断章取义会削弱论证的可信度。
作者引用的那句话是：伽利略抱怨那些“扶手椅哲学家”，他们为了了解自然现象，既不上船、不碰弩炮和大炮，而是躲进书房翻索引或目录，看亚里士多德有没有谈过。但在评论者看来，这句话批评的是“诉诸权威、不做实证研究”的人，并不是在贬低索引。评论者说，他没看到其他引文能支持“大量学者害怕索引会毁掉阅读”这个说法，并半开玩笑地说：真希望有一种信息结构能让我更容易找到这类证据。
karaterobot查看英文原文
>... on the Continent Galileo grumbled at the armchair philosophers who, “in order to acquire a knowledge of natural effects, do not betake themselves to ships or crossbows or cannons, but retire into their studies and glance through an index or a table of contents to see whether Aristotle has said anything about them.” That quote does not appear to be dismissive of indexes to me. It appears to be about people who appeal to authority rather than doing their own empirical research. I didn't see other quotes to support the claim that [a significant number of] scholars feared that the index would destroy reading, and I'm a bit skeptical of the claim offhand. I wish there was some information structure that would allow me to find such supporting evidence more easily...
对新的阅读形式的恐慌反复出现，是一种历史常态。
我听说（而且就是最近）有古典学者提出类似论点：从卷轴转向装订成册、按页分段的书籍，同样是有害的。
frostburg查看英文原文
I have heard (yes, somewhat recently) some classicists argue that the move from scrolls to books, with the text segmented in pages, was also harmful with arguments along similar lines.
长篇阅读能力确实在退化，不宜轻描淡写为“适应”。
我想接着谈“技术侵蚀长篇阅读能力”这一点。作者把这当作旧时代的杞人忧天而一笔带过，但我认为大体属实：美国国家艺术基金会的数据显示，过去一年读过至少一部小说、短篇、诗歌或戏剧的成年人比例，从 1982 年的 57% 降到 2015 年的 43%；皮尤和盖洛普的调查则显示，一年里一本书都不读的成年人比例，在 1978 到 2014 年间近乎三倍。如今连把十分钟的视频称作“太长”都很常见。作者却只是中立地把这描述为一种“适应”，还拿它和 11 世纪修士的读书方式相比，在我看来很荒唐。读法改变或许无妨，但当超过五分钟的持续专注都难以维持时，人就会真的无法再进入任何长篇内容。
Barrin92查看英文原文
I'll latch on the point being made about the capacity of long reading being eroded by tech. The author dismisses it as old-timey, but I think this is largely true[1] >"The findings on reading comport with some other recent data on American reading trends. Numbers from the National Endowment for the Arts show that the share of adults reading at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the prior year fell from 57 percent in 1982 to 43 percent in 2015. Survey data from the Pew Research Center and Gallup have shown, meanwhile, that the share of adults not reading any book in a given year nearly tripled between 1978 and 2014." I think even behaviour like calling a 10 minute video "too long", is now common. It seems absurd to me to just describe this neutrally as the author does and call it an 'adaption' comparing it to us behaving differently than 11th century monks. Reading differently might be fine, but when anything longer than five minutes of sustained concentration is too much you're getting to a point where you physically can't actually engage with anything in long form any more. [1]https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8XPnysn2QvwJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/29/leisure-reading-in-the-u-s-is-at-an-all-time-low/+&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
同类还值得读
写书：值得吗？
Writing a book: is it worth it?
Martin Kleppmann（《设计数据密集型应用》作者）复盘写书到底值不值：金钱回报低、耗时极长，但带来了可见度、信任和职业机会。
出版与作家生涯2020 · 642 分 · 287 评4 条写作要点编辑精选写书并不是个好主意
Writing books is not really a good idea
这篇文章讨论靠写书谋生的现实难度，评论区从版税数学、收入预期和写作目标三个角度补充了作者视角。
出版与作家生涯2021 · 577 分 · 609 评4 条写作要点编辑精选如何自助出版一本书：实用资源清单
How to self-publish a book: A handy list of resources
这是一份关于「如何自助出版一本书」的资源清单帖，涵盖从编辑、排版到 ISBN、销售渠道的实操工具与花费。
出版与作家生涯2018 · 558 分 · 88 评4 条写作要点编辑精选我自助出版一本Ruby on Rails书，赚了7万美元
How I Made $70k Self-Publishing a Book about Ruby on Rails
这是一篇 Ruby 开发者自述：他把一套 Rails 性能课程（书＋视频＋答疑）自出版，一年毛收入约 7 万美元，并总结了选题、定价、营销等经验。
出版与作家生涯2017 · 539 分 · 175 评4 条写作要点编辑精选石黑一雄警告年轻作家因“恐惧”而自我审查
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
石黑一雄提醒年轻作者因“恐惧”而自我审查，即这条帖子讨论的核心。
出版与作家生涯2021 · 396 分 · 641 评5 条写作要点编辑精选