Reading books vs. engaging with them var siteUrl = 'https://www.cold-takes.com'; var localTheme = localStorage.getItem('dawn\_theme'); switch (localTheme) { case 'dark': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-dark'); break; case 'light': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-light'); break; default: break; } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Cold Takes", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/favicon.ico", "width": 48, "height": 48 } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Holden Karnofsky", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/07/HK-headshot-current---compressed-1.jpg", "width": 1600, "height": 1067 }, "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/author/holden/", "sameAs": [ "https://www.cold-takes.com/about/" ] }, "headline": "Reading books vs. engaging with them", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/reading-books-vs-engaging-with-them/", "datePublished": "2021-10-20T15:03:32.000Z", "dateModified": "2021-10-25T21:34:53.000Z", "description": "Let's say you're interested in a 500-page serious nonfiction book, and you're
trying to decide whether to read it. I think most people imagine their choice
something like this:

Option Time cost % that I understand and retain Just read the title Seconds 1%
Skim the book 3 hours 33% Read the book quickly 8 hours 67% Read the book slowly
16 hours 90%

I see things more like this:

Option Time cost % that I understand and retain Just read the title (and the 1-2
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} } //Implement light/dark theme if(existingTheme == "dark") { ctdark(); } else if(existingTheme == 'light') { ctlight(); } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-TZK0WDB1DH'); var clicky\_site\_ids = clicky\_site\_ids || []; clicky\_site\_ids.push(101323562); ![Clicky](//in.getclicky.com/101323562ns.gif) :root {--ghost-accent-color: #888888;} [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) - Reading books vs. engaging with them By [Holden Karnofsky](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/ "Holden Karnofsky") Oct 20, 2021 5 min read Reading books vs. engaging with them ==================================== Let's say you're interested in a 500-page serious nonfiction book, and you're trying to decide whether to read it. I think most people imagine their choice something like this: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | **Option** | **Time cost** | **% that I understand and retain** | | Just read the title | Seconds | 1% | | Skim the book | 3 hours | 33% | | Read the book quickly | 8 hours | 67% | | Read the book slowly | 16 hours | 90% | I see things more like this: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | **Option** | **Time cost** | **% that I understand and retain** | | Just read the title (and the 1-2 sentences people usually say to introduce the book) | Seconds | 10% | | Skim the book | 3 hours | 12% | | Read the book quickly | 8 hours | 13% | | Read the book slowly | 16 hours | 15% | | Read reviews/discussions of the book (ideally including author replies), but not the book | 2 hours | 25% | | Read the book slowly 3 times, with 3 years in between each time | 48 hours | 33% | | Read reviews/discussions of the book; locate the parts of the book they're referencing, and read those parts carefully, independently checking footnotes, and referring back to other parts of the book for any unfamiliar terms. Write down who I think is being more fair; lay out the exact quotes that give the best evidence that my judgment is right. (But never read the whole book) | 16 hours | 33% | | Write my own summary of each of the book's key points, what the best counterargument is, where I ultimately come down and why. (Will often involve reading key parts of the book 5-10 times) | 50-100 hours | 50% | I'm guessing these numbers are pretty weird-seeming, so here are some explanations: * **Just read the title (and the 1-2 sentences people usually say to introduce the book): "seconds" of time investment, 10% understanding/retention.** 10% probably sounds like a lot for a few seconds of thought! I think this works because the author has really sweated over how to make the title and elevator pitch capture as much as possible of what they're saying. So if all I want is the "general gist," I don't think I need to read the book at all. * **Skimming or reading the book: hours of time investment, only 12-15% understanding/retention.** This is based on my own sense of how much I retain when I "simply read" the book (and don't engage much with critiques of it, don't write about it, etc.) - and my perhaps unfair impressions of how much others seem to retain when they do this. If person A says they've read a book and person B says they haven't but they've heard people talking about it, I often don't find that person A seems to know any more about the book than person B. * **Read reviews/discussions of the book (ideally including author replies), but not the book: 2 hours of time investment, 25% understanding/retention.** Good reviewers know the context/field for the book better than I do, and probably read the book more carefully than I did. Hopefully they picked out the really key good and bad parts, and if those are the only parts I retain, that's probably more than I could hope for with just a slow reading. * **Read the book slowly 3 times, with 3 years in between each time: 48 hours of time investment, 33% understanding/retention.** This implies that the 2nd and 3rd readings are actually more educational than the 1st: the first only gets me from 10% (which I got from reading the title) to 15%, the next two bring me to 33%. I think that's right - it's hard to notice the important parts before I have the whole arc of the argument and have sat with it. Hearing other people talk about it and seeing some random observations related to it also help. * **Write my own thorough review of a particular debate between the book's critics and its author: 16 hours of time investment, 33% understanding/retention.** (The table has more detail on what this involves.) This is the same time investment as reading the book slowly, and I'm saying that is worth something like 5x as much (since once I've read the title, reading the book slowly only takes me from 10% to 15% understanding/comprehension, whereas this activity takes me from 10% to 33% understanding/comprehension). * **Write my own summary of each of the book's key points, what the best counterargument is, where I ultimately come down and why: 50-100 hours of time investment, 50% understanding/comprehension.** I know hugely more about the books I've done this with than the books I haven't. But even here I'm only estimating 50% understanding/comprehension. I don't think it is really possible to understand more than 50% of a serious book without e.g. spending a lot of independent time in the field. TLDR - I think the **value of reading a book once (without active engagement) is awkwardly small, and the value of big time investments like reading a book several times - or actively engaging with even part of it - is awkwardly large compared to that.** Also, the maximum amount of understanding you can get is awkwardly small. And a lot of the best options get you a "raw deal" on sounding educated: * If you read reviews and not the book, someone else can say they read the book and you can't, even though you spent just as much time and retained more of the book. * If you digest the heck out of the book, you still can't say anything in casual conversation except "I read the book," which is also what someone can say who spent way less time and retained WAY less. Ultimately, if you live in the headspace I'm laying out, you're going to read a lot fewer books than you would otherwise, and you'll probably be embarrassed of how few books you read. (But if more people [described their engagement with a book in detail instead of using the binary "I read X,"](https://www.cold-takes.com/honesty-about-reading/) maybe that would change.) **Edited to add clarification:** this piece is about trying to casually inform oneself in areas one isn't an expert in, via reading books (and often other pieces) directed at a general audience. A reader pointed out that when you have a lot of existing expertise, the situation looks quite different, and often skimming or reading is the best thing to do. (Although in this case I would add that one is probably mostly reading reports, academic papers, notes from colleagues, etc. rather than books). 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Reading books vs. engaging with them var siteUrl = 'https://www.cold-takes.com'; var localTheme = localStorage.getItem('dawn\\_theme'); switch (localTheme) { case 'dark': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-dark'); break; case 'light': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-light'); break; default: break; } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Cold Takes", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/favicon.ico", "width": 48, "height": 48 } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Holden Karnofsky", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/07/HK-headshot-current---compressed-1.jpg", "width": 1600, "height": 1067 }, "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/author/holden/", "sameAs": [ "https://www.cold-takes.com/about/" ] }, "headline": "Reading books vs. engaging with them", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/reading-books-vs-engaging-with-them/", "datePublished": "2021-10-20T15:03:32.000Z", "dateModified": "2021-10-25T21:34:53.000Z", "description": "Let’s say you’re interested in a 500-page serious nonfiction book, and you’re\ntrying to decide whether to read it. I think most people imagine their choice\nsomething like this:\n\nOption Time cost % that I understand and retain Just read the title Seconds 1% \nSkim the book 3 hours 33% Read the book quickly 8 hours 67% Read the book slowly \n16 hours 90% \n\nI see things more like this:\n\nOption Time cost % that I understand and retain Just read the title (and the 1-2\nsentences people usually say to in", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://www.cold-takes.com/" } } .gh-post-upgrade-cta-content, .gh-post-upgrade-cta { display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-align: center; width: 100%; color: #ffffff; font-size: 16px; } .gh-post-upgrade-cta-content { border-radius: 8px; padding: 40px 4vw; } .gh-post-upgrade-cta h2 { color: #ffffff; font-size: 28px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; margin: 0; padding: 0; } .gh-post-upgrade-cta p { margin: 20px 0 0; 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I think most people imagine their choice something like this: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | **Option** | **Time cost** | **% that I understand and retain** | | Just read the title | Seconds | 1% | | Skim the book | 3 hours | 33% | | Read the book quickly | 8 hours | 67% | | Read the book slowly | 16 hours | 90% | I see things more like this: | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | **Option** | **Time cost** | **% that I understand and retain** | | Just read the title (and the 1-2 sentences people usually say to introduce the book) | Seconds | 10% | | Skim the book | 3 hours | 12% | | Read the book quickly | 8 hours | 13% | | Read the book slowly | 16 hours | 15% | | Read reviews/discussions of the book (ideally including author replies), but not the book | 2 hours | 25% | | Read the book slowly 3 times, with 3 years in between each time | 48 hours | 33% | | Read reviews/discussions of the book; locate the parts of the book they’re referencing, and read those parts carefully, independently checking footnotes, and referring back to other parts of the book for any unfamiliar terms. Write down who I think is being more fair; lay out the exact quotes that give the best evidence that my judgment is right. (But never read the whole book) | 16 hours | 33% | | Write my own summary of each of the book’s key points, what the best counterargument is, where I ultimately come down and why. (Will often involve reading key parts of the book 5-10 times) | 50-100 hours | 50% | I’m guessing these numbers are pretty weird-seeming, so here are some explanations: * **Just read the title (and the 1-2 sentences people usually say to introduce the book): "seconds" of time investment, 10% understanding/retention.** 10% probably sounds like a lot for a few seconds of thought! I think this works because the author has really sweated over how to make the title and elevator pitch capture as much as possible of what they’re saying. So if all I want is the "general gist," I don't think I need to read the book at all. * **Skimming or reading the book: hours of time investment, only 12-15% understanding/retention.** This is based on my own sense of how much I retain when I "simply read" the book (and don't engage much with critiques of it, don't write about it, etc.) - and my perhaps unfair impressions of how much others seem to retain when they do this. If person A says they've read a book and person B says they haven't but they've heard people talking about it, I often don't find that person A seems to know any more about the book than person B. * **Read reviews/discussions of the book (ideally including author replies), but not the book: 2 hours of time investment, 25% understanding/retention.** Good reviewers know the context/field for the book better than I do, and probably read the book more carefully than I did. Hopefully they picked out the really key good and bad parts, and if those are the only parts I retain, that’s probably more than I could hope for with just a slow reading. * **Read the book slowly 3 times, with 3 years in between each time: 48 hours of time investment, 33% understanding/retention.** This implies that the 2nd and 3rd readings are actually more educational than the 1st: the first only gets me from 10% (which I got from reading the title) to 15%, the next two bring me to 33%. I think that’s right - it’s hard to notice the important parts before I have the whole arc of the argument and have sat with it. Hearing other people talk about it and seeing some random observations related to it also help. * **Write my own thorough review of a particular debate between the book's critics and its author: 16 hours of time investment, 33% understanding/retention.** (The table has more detail on what this involves.) This is the same time investment as reading the book slowly, and I'm saying that is worth something like 5x as much (since once I've read the title, reading the book slowly only takes me from 10% to 15% understanding/comprehension, whereas this activity takes me from 10% to 33% understanding/comprehension). * **Write my own summary of each of the book’s key points, what the best counterargument is, where I ultimately come down and why: 50-100 hours of time investment, 50% understanding/comprehension.** I know hugely more about the books I've done this with than the books I haven't. But even here I'm only estimating 50% understanding/comprehension. I don’t think it is really possible to understand more than 50% of a serious book without e.g. spending a lot of independent time in the field. TLDR - I think the **value of reading a book once (without active engagement) is awkwardly small, and the value of big time investments like reading a book several times - or actively engaging with even part of it - is awkwardly large compared to that.** Also, the maximum amount of understanding you can get is awkwardly small. And a lot of the best options get you a “raw deal” on sounding educated: * If you read reviews and not the book, someone else can say they read the book and you can’t, even though you spent just as much time and retained more of the book. * If you digest the heck out of the book, you still can’t say anything in casual conversation except “I read the book,” which is also what someone can say who spent way less time and retained WAY less. Ultimately, if you live in the headspace I’m laying out, you’re going to read a lot fewer books than you would otherwise, and you’ll probably be embarrassed of how few books you read. (But if more people [described their engagement with a book in detail instead of using the binary “I read X,”](https://www.cold-takes.com/honesty-about-reading/) maybe that would change.) **Edited to add clarification:** this piece is about trying to casually inform oneself in areas one isn't an expert in, via reading books (and often other pieces) directed at a general audience. A reader pointed out that when you have a lot of existing expertise, the situation looks quite different, and often skimming or reading is the best thing to do. (Although in this case I would add that one is probably mostly reading reports, academic papers, notes from colleagues, etc. rather than books). 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Cold Links: assorted sports longreads var siteUrl = 'https://www.cold-takes.com'; var localTheme = localStorage.getItem('dawn\_theme'); switch (localTheme) { case 'dark': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-dark'); break; case 'light': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-light'); break; default: break; } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Cold Takes", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/favicon.ico", "width": 48, "height": 48 } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Holden Karnofsky", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/07/HK-headshot-current---compressed-1.jpg", "width": 1600, "height": 1067 }, "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/author/holden/", "sameAs": [ "https://www.cold-takes.com/about/" ] }, "headline": "Cold Links: assorted sports longreads", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/cold-links-assorted-sports-longreads/", "datePublished": "2021-10-15T20:26:02.000Z", "dateModified": "2021-10-15T20:26:02.000Z", "keywords": "sports", "description": "Most of these are on the general theme of my obsession with obsession
[https://www.cold-takes.com/give-sports-a-chance/]. (That link also explains the
"Cold Links" idea.)

(NYT) Probably my favorite sports piece ever
[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robicpm.html?\_r=2&pagewanted=all]
, about the world's leading ultra-endurance athlete. Excerpt:

> The craziness is methodical, however, and Robic and his crew know its pattern by
heart. 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} } //Implement light/dark theme if(existingTheme == "dark") { ctdark(); } else if(existingTheme == 'light') { ctlight(); } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-TZK0WDB1DH'); var clicky\_site\_ids = clicky\_site\_ids || []; clicky\_site\_ids.push(101323562); ![Clicky](//in.getclicky.com/101323562ns.gif) :root {--ghost-accent-color: #888888;} [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) - Cold Links: assorted sports longreads By [Holden Karnofsky](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/ "Holden Karnofsky") Oct 15, 2021 2 min read [sports](/tag/sports/) Cold Links: assorted sports longreads ===================================== *Most of these are on the general theme of my [obsession with obsession](https://www.cold-takes.com/give-sports-a-chance/). (That link also explains the "Cold Links" idea.)* [(NYT) Probably my favorite sports piece ever](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robicpm.html?_r=2&pagewanted;=all), about the world's leading ultra-endurance athlete. Excerpt: > The craziness is methodical, however, and Robic and his crew know its pattern by heart. Around Day 2 of a typical weeklong race, his speech goes staccato. By Day 3, he is belligerent and sometimes paranoid. His short-term memory vanishes, and he weeps uncontrollably. The last days are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages. Occasionally, Robic leaps from his bike to square off with shadowy figures that turn out to be mailboxes. In a 2004 race, he turned to see himself pursued by a howling band of black-bearded men on horseback ... Robic curls fetuslike on the pavement of a Pyrenean mountain road, having fallen asleep and simply tipped off his bike. Robic stalks the crossroads of a nameless French village at midnight, flailing his arms, screaming at his support crew ... > > > > > Over the past two years, Robic, who is 40 years old, has won almost every race he has entered, including the last two editions of ultracycling's biggest event, the 3,000-mile Insight Race Across America (RAAM) ... > > > > > He is not always the fastest competitor (he often makes up ground by sleeping 90 minutes or less a day), nor does he possess any towering physiological gift. On rare occasions when he permits himself to be tested in a laboratory, his ability to produce power and transport oxygen ranks on a par with those of many other ultra-endurance athletes. He wins for the most fundamental of reasons: he refuses to stop. > > [Fun article](https://deadspin.com/ultrarunner-courtney-dauwalter-takes-on-the-worlds-most-<PHONE>) about "Big's Backyard Ultra," an ultra-endurance race where people run around the same loop until they can't anymore. Ultra-endurance events are bonkers. [Epic piece](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/<PHONE>/what-do-athletes-do-to-pee-games) on how pro athletes deal with having to pee. [How Ronda Rousey processed her first-ever loss](http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/espnwrousey/in-exclusive-interview-ronda-rousey-says-not-losing-holly-holm). Rousey was briefly the world's most dominant and celebrated mixed martial artist. [Adorable article](https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/08/07/baseball-mud-rawlings) about the family that, for over 50 years, has been the sole supplier of the mud used to improve the grip on Major League baseballs. They get the mud from a secret location and MLB has no other way of treating the baseballs that players will be happy with. Unfortunately this yields only about $12k/year for the family (which probably explains why MLB hasn't tried all that hard to find an alternative mud supplier). Still, this is one of the most baseball things I've ever read. [![Twitter](https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/06/ct-twitter-square.png)](https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/twitter/offer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cold-takes.com%2Fcold-links-assorted-sports-longreads%2F&pubid;=ra-60a178324cffc42e&title;=Cold%20Takes%20-%20Cold%20Links%3A%20assorted%20sports%20longreads&ct;=1) [![Facebook](https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/06/ct-facebook-square.png)](https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cold-takes.com%2Fcold-links-assorted-sports-longreads%2F&pubid;=ra-60a178324cffc42e&title;=Cold%20Takes%20-%20Cold%20Links%3A%20assorted%20sports%20longreads&ct;=1) [![Reddit](https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/06/ct-reddit-square.png)](https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/reddit/offer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cold-takes.com%2Fcold-links-assorted-sports-longreads%2F&pubid;=ra-60a178324cffc42e&title;=Cold%20Takes%20-%20Cold%20Links%3A%20assorted%20sports%20longreads&ct;=1) [![More](https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/06/ct-addthis-square.png)](https://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/menu/offer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cold-takes.com%2Fcold-links-assorted-sports-longreads%2F&pubid;=ra-60a178324cffc42e&title;=Cold%20Takes%20-%20Cold%20Links%3A%20assorted%20sports%20longreads&ct;=1) [Subscribe](https://www.cold-takes.com/cold-links-assorted-sports-longreads/#subscribe) [Feedback](https://www.guidedtrack.com/programs/4kal2ue/run?posttitle=Cold%20Links%3A%20assorted%20sports%20longreads) For email filter: florpschmop ###

Cold Links: assorted sports longreads var siteUrl = 'https://www.cold-takes.com'; var localTheme = localStorage.getItem('dawn\\_theme'); switch (localTheme) { case 'dark': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-dark'); break; case 'light': document.documentElement.classList.add('theme-light'); break; default: break; } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Cold Takes", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/favicon.ico", "width": 48, "height": 48 } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Holden Karnofsky", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/content/images/2021/07/HK-headshot-current---compressed-1.jpg", "width": 1600, "height": 1067 }, "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/author/holden/", "sameAs": [ "https://www.cold-takes.com/about/" ] }, "headline": "Cold Links: assorted sports longreads", "url": "https://www.cold-takes.com/cold-links-assorted-sports-longreads/", "datePublished": "2021-10-15T20:26:02.000Z", "dateModified": "2021-10-15T20:26:02.000Z", "keywords": "sports", "description": "Most of these are on the general theme of my obsession with obsession\n[https://www.cold-takes.com/give-sports-a-chance/]. 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} } //Implement light/dark theme if(existingTheme == "dark") { ctdark(); } else if(existingTheme == 'light') { ctlight(); } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-TZK0WDB1DH'); var clicky\\_site\\_ids = clicky\\_site\\_ids || []; clicky\\_site\\_ids.push(101323562); ![Clicky](//in.getclicky.com/101323562ns.gif) :root {--ghost-accent-color: #888888;} [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [About (+highlights)](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/) [Most Important Century](https://www.cold-takes.com/most-important-century/) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Subscribe (free)](#subscribe) [Cold Takes](https://www.cold-takes.com) - Cold Links: assorted sports longreads By [Holden Karnofsky](https://www.cold-takes.com/about/ "Holden Karnofsky") Oct 15, 2021 2 min read [sports](/tag/sports/) Cold Links: assorted sports longreads ===================================== *Most of these are on the general theme of my [obsession with obsession](https://www.cold-takes.com/give-sports-a-chance/). (That link also explains the "Cold Links" idea.)* [(NYT) Probably my favorite sports piece ever](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robicpm.html?_r=2&pagewanted;=all), about the world's leading ultra-endurance athlete. Excerpt: > The craziness is methodical, however, and Robic and his crew know its pattern by heart. Around Day 2 of a typical weeklong race, his speech goes staccato. By Day 3, he is belligerent and sometimes paranoid. His short-term memory vanishes, and he weeps uncontrollably. The last days are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages. Occasionally, Robic leaps from his bike to square off with shadowy figures that turn out to be mailboxes. In a 2004 race, he turned to see himself pursued by a howling band of black-bearded men on horseback ... Robic curls fetuslike on the pavement of a Pyrenean mountain road, having fallen asleep and simply tipped off his bike. Robic stalks the crossroads of a nameless French village at midnight, flailing his arms, screaming at his support crew ... > > > > > Over the past two years, Robic, who is 40 years old, has won almost every race he has entered, including the last two editions of ultracycling’s biggest event, the 3,000-mile Insight Race Across America (RAAM) ... > > > > > He is not always the fastest competitor (he often makes up ground by sleeping 90 minutes or less a day), nor does he possess any towering physiological gift. On rare occasions when he permits himself to be tested in a laboratory, his ability to produce power and transport oxygen ranks on a par with those of many other ultra-endurance athletes. He wins for the most fundamental of reasons: he refuses to stop. > > [Fun article](https://deadspin.com/ultrarunner-courtney-dauwalter-takes-on-the-worlds-most-1830136537) about "Big's Backyard Ultra," an ultra-endurance race where people run around the same loop until they can't anymore. Ultra-endurance events are bonkers. [Epic piece](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19769575/what-do-athletes-do-to-pee-games) on how pro athletes deal with having to pee. [How Ronda Rousey processed her first-ever loss](http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/espnwrousey/in-exclusive-interview-ronda-rousey-says-not-losing-holly-holm). Rousey was briefly the world's most dominant and celebrated mixed martial artist. [Adorable article](https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/08/07/baseball-mud-rawlings) about the family that, for over 50 years, has been the sole supplier of the mud used to improve the grip on Major League baseballs. They get the mud from a secret location and MLB has no other way of treating the baseballs that players will be happy with. Unfortunately this yields only about $12k/year for the family (which probably explains why MLB hasn't tried all that hard to find an alternative mud supplier). Still, this is one of the most baseball things I've ever read. 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