I often find myself explaining the same things in real life and online, so I recently started writing technical blog posts.

This one is about why it was a mistake to call 1024 bytes a kilobyte. It’s about a 20min read so thank you very much in advance if you find the time to read it.

Feedback is very much welcome. Thank you.

  • Ook the Librarian
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    131 year ago

    I read slowly. It sucks, but it’s not from lack of experience or lack of education. Reading speed seems a weird metric to start wondering if people lack intelligence.

    Being able to read quickly is a valuable skill. I don’t think I could handle jobs like editing, policy making, or lawyering simply because there are not enough hours in the day to make up for my reading deficit.

    Of course, your anecdote is about a group, and mine is about one person. But the sweeping conclusion (if even it isn’t a firm one) on generations irks me. Every generation has its outliers. There will never be a generation without hardworking geniuses in every active field. As far as I know, you are an outlier in your generation, and the comparison simply fails. Maybe peers you knew personally didn’t get the cold judgment of intelligence by reading speed that you are applying to kids you don’t have a relationship with.

    I don’t know. I will never dismiss the importance of reading. But you sound like Lucy here.

    • @logicbomb
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      61 year ago

      I read relatively slowly, but I have the ability to read much faster. I simply like reading more slowly. I have this weird suspicion that people who read very quickly are getting information more quickly, but that they’re either not absorbing it fully, or they’re not enjoying it as much as I do. But that’s obviously a biased perspective.

      • Ook the Librarian
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        61 year ago

        I had a literature professor who liked to say “Speed reading is for people who run through musuems.”