i used to be a blinkist user
In Cris' Discord server, we had a brief moment reflecting back on using Blinkist and other summaries, sparked by a post by Winther where that was mentioned.
I was in a very strong self-optimization phase during my time as a user 7 years ago; early 20s, trying out making a timetable for each day, scheduling every minute, no buffer. Minimalism. Productivity. Cal Newport books. Other selfhelp. Then also the start of my traineeship back then, which meant 4 hours of commute 3 days a week. Getting up at 4am, walking the dog, catching the train, 2 hours to work, 2 hours back, arriving at 7pm, walking the dog, eating dinner, talking to my girlfriend (now ex) that i was living with, falling into bed. On other days and especially the weekends, I focused on the household, on my partner, on the dog, homework, and helping moderate a forum and writing blog posts for a certain subreddit. That meant my entire me-time happened on the train, because that was the only time I had to myself where I had nothing to do and was just waiting to arrive somewhere.
So when I wasn't catching up on sleep on the train, I tried to max out the productivity. I studied, I read books, I listened to podcasts, I meditated, I did my Duolingo sessions (I stopped using it since), I even tried embroidering during that time (it sucked; I think knitting is better suited for this), all during the commute. Retrospectively, I did it because I thought I had to. I was still looking to fulfill streaks and x hours a day requirements, and I didn't allow myself downtime. In the end, it burnt me out a lot and I had no enjoyment doing all of these things because I had no control over when and how they were happening.
But in that time, I was also a Blinkist premium user. It makes sense in that context: Why read a selfhelp book (or general non-fiction) for days if you can read multiple in a day? Why read through all that unnecessary filler when you can just extract the important lessons and realizations? Why, if pressed for time, not skip all that?
I had all these summaries, all these snippets and quotes saved. I felt soooo productive and like I unlocked some sort of life cheat code. But after a year or so, I cancelled it and deleted it. What I took away from that little experiment is that it's another aspect of fast consumption in this world that doesn't have any lasting impact and is actually empty. I might as well have been scrolling through a sort of Twitter feed of these summaries - and just like a real feed, you don't even remember what you read anymore a few hours or a day later. I blame this on the fact that reading a book is usually a sort of spaced repetition exercise - you'll read it over days, weeks, maybe months, and pick it up again and again. You repeatedly have to remember what you already read to get back into it, the book adds on to that knowledge, and repeats its core thesis again and again. You're properly immersing yourself, learning to follow the author's thinking.
Reading a summary once was just never going to be able to offer that experience. Reading a book lives off of you connecting repeatedly with it and letting it into your life, letting it rest in your brain for a bit; like taking it with you here and there and knowing where you were when you read that chapter. Putting it down and staring into the room, into the sky, processing what you just read. Maybe people-watching and letting it all sink in, if you're in public. Over weeks, the book lives alongside your life and might mention things here and there that you actually also currently see in your life. That makes the lessons stick.
Thinking this can somehow be distilled, speedran and optimized to death was a mistake. Without the repetition, the immersion and commitment, it was as vapid and shallow as a short Tweet. I remember none of it!
But I remember a lot from the books I have on my harddrive, or that are on my shelf.
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Published 25 Jun, 2025