Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits

I read a lot, and I own a lot of physical books, but I almost never actually read physical books anymore. I'm one of the happy few that used my Kindle for more than a week after getting it as a gift.

I find that reading on an ereader is many times easier for me, primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on the page nearly as often. I'm not dyslexic (I've been tested), but I do think that there's some issue with my brain where if the text is small I really can't follow it. On all my computers the text is gigantic and even then I will click and highlight text as I'm reading so don't lose place. I would love to be paid to read but I don't think I'd love to be paid to read physical books.

I remember my grandmother was wholly unconvinced that my Kindle was a different thing than an iPad or a Game Boy, and that it was not "real" reading, for whatever reason.

The headline makes it seem more monetary than it actually is.

https://www.read.gov.sg/join-the-readsg-challenge

It seems like turning points into money is just a happens to exist sort of mechanic. Enough to write a headline that they are technically "paying you". The real mechanics are much more typical gamification. Like earning xp, streaks, leaderboards, limited edition goodies at events, prize draws, collective goals.

The strict money payout is S$0.02 per 15 minutes at most once a day. Obviously if you were doing this it would be more for the rest of the dopamine then hoping to buy a candy bar after like 50 days.

While books > articles > audiobooks > podcasts > listening to music > TV > short-form content, it's all content consumption in the end, and while that's fine, I think it's a little overhyped.

I prefer to draw the distinction at creating vs doing vs consuming, and focus on balancing the time spent consuming (which is a natural part of enjoying life, but usually people consume way too much) unless it's in the service of one of the other two categories (e.g. consuming articles to learn/inspire the creation of something better or plan a trip to do something, etc.)

> to build daily reading habits among a phone-first population

Reading is fundamental.

EDIT: Other skills and habits that you can then build on reading: critical thinking, reasoning, detection and handling own biases, numeracy, financial literacy, and more. All these dimensions are manipulated via phones and the apps on them, so you need a firewall.

Also: writing. Cursive writing.

Such a classic societal fail most people can't seem to recognize. The point isn't to read, it's to read because you want to, not because of a stick/carrot.

RMS makes the same mistake in thinking that disallowing proprietary software in repos is better than giving the tools to avoid it and education about what is compromised in the process.

  A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believes things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy
  ― John Milton, Areopagitica

Singapore libraries are really annoying for foreigners because they don’t let you use the WiFi.

Thailand at least gives you a 1 hour pass.

Not that anyone asked but my ranking of public libraries in Asia

1/ Taiwan

2/ HK

3/ Thailand

4/ Laos (private libraries are cute, but hot…)

4/ Vietnam (Bring your passport!)

5/ Singapore

I haven’t been to a library in Japan or S Korea. I tried working from a community center in Japan but I couldn’t figure how it works.

I feel fortunate that today's distractions didn't exist when I was younger (or I probably wouldn't read many books).

Nowadays I "turn off" all the distractions that I can before bed to get a few pages in. Reading during the day is still pretty challenging if the book has dull bits (I recently finished the 3 body problem series. At it's peak, its some of the best sci-fi I've ever read. But some parts of the books were such a slog to get through. During those sections I often found myself reaching for my phone, just out of habit)

duolingo seems to have figured out how to get people to drop what they're doing to perform a task

is there like a duolingo for books

like a bookmark that annoys you if you havent moved it in too long

For me it's not the phone that's stopping me from reading books but my computer, on which I play games, and browse, and do private stuff.

Where I live, electricity price is so ridiculous, I leave my PC off for 3 to 5 hours a day.

You get bored after 5 minutes. This is the best time to open your book and read.

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Same idea applies for the phone. Just leave it off.

They're going to have to try a lot harder than $1 for 50 days worth of reading, in a world where any time taken off from work is a risk.

Yes, but without Pizza Hut involved, do they even stand a chance?

They should be paying them to meditate. That would be the more healthful and revolutionary course.

Regular daily intellectual concentration is much the same be it game, book or reddit. And it makes you crazy. You withdraw from reality.