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Our brains summarise all the time.

I can't remember exactly what texture/shade is on the ceiling of my bathroom, but I remember roughly what colour it is. If you asked me if there's a bit of pain flaking off and where it is, I couldn't tell you to save my life.

When I open HN (or most things) I will skim down the list of titles and it's keywords that will jump out at me.

When I read threads I will start skimming when the conversation evolves into endless debate, unless I'm interested in said debate.

Processing every possible bit of input in full would not make for a very efficient or worthy experience, but of course this is contextual. Someone a contract should read every word; though this has been weaponised in the form of long ToS - they know most people don't read those at all.



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