Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 62 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#31

Post by mtippett »

My background theory is around schematization. Our knowledge is a complex web of inter-related concepts. Some factual, some abstract.

For audiobooks/read books, I look for 2 or 3 key "aha moments" that stick with me. For Thinking Fast it was "two ways of thinking", "loss aversion". From there other related concepts are just below the surface.

For Thinking in Systems it's "stocks + outflows + inflow", and "all systems reach an equilibrium".

As you read more, you get lots of different ideas cross pollinate, and from there you gain your own insights.

As others have said, pondering or applying the ideas in real life is really important.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#32

Post by padobson »

JohnFen wrote: post #15

I say that I learn best by reading (which is true), but an essential component of that is that I find ways to actually use what I'm learning -- because I really learn best by doing. If the book is about making data-intensive applications, for instance, I'll write such an application as I work through the book, using the concepts that I'm reading about. I'll also not worry about memorizing every bit of knowledge in th…

This is my answer. How do you know you've learned something? If you're learning how to build something, you know you've learned it when you can build it.

Fiction is a little tougher, but I've found conversations with my wife help me here. If I can make her as interested in the story as I am, then I must be retaining enough of the important points to say I'm absorbing enough of what I'm reading.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#33

Post by kangda123 »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #23

When I used to be an overintellectualizing, overacademizing nerd, I would use complex and regimented notetaking and review systems. The whole gamut from trendy notetaking wiki-type apps to flashcard spaced-repetition apps like anki. These things made me feel like I was learning. Flashcards and notetaking itself were fun games. I felt like I'd stumbled onto this hyper-optimized efficient way to learn whatever I wanted…

Math actually takes it to an extreme. I did not expect that and spent a few months reading math textbooks thinking I'm studying it. Maybe doing some basic exercises and moving further right after.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#34

Post by PeterisP »

I don't really understand the question. When I read a nonfiction book, if it brings a new perspective that changes my understanding, then it changes my understanding as I read it, I don't do (or need to do) anything else. And if it has something that I want to apply to my daily/work life, then I apply it to my daily/work life when I read it (not as some special process after reading the whole book), handling it the exact same way as if I got "that something to apply" from a chat at lunch or a HN post or a shower thought.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#35

Post by sva_ »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #23

When I used to be an overintellectualizing, overacademizing nerd, I would use complex and regimented notetaking and review systems. The whole gamut from trendy notetaking wiki-type apps to flashcard spaced-repetition apps like anki. These things made me feel like I was learning. Flashcards and notetaking itself were fun games. I felt like I'd stumbled onto this hyper-optimized efficient way to learn whatever I wanted…

> It's inefficient, failure-laden, and it's the best way to truly learn something.

I think there's value in documenting the errors/failures one ran into, and reflecting on them in hindsight. That is what actually shows one's learning process.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#36

Post by kfarr »

PeterisP wrote: post #34

I don't really understand the question. When I read a nonfiction book, if it brings a new perspective that changes my understanding, then it changes my understanding as I read it, I don't do (or need to do) anything else. And if it has something that I want to apply to my daily/work life, then I apply it to my daily/work life when I read it (not as some special process after reading the whole book), handling it the e…

Ya same here these days if I like a book and it impacts me -- it will change me! If not, then not.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#37

Post by organsnyder »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #23

When I used to be an overintellectualizing, overacademizing nerd, I would use complex and regimented notetaking and review systems. The whole gamut from trendy notetaking wiki-type apps to flashcard spaced-repetition apps like anki. These things made me feel like I was learning. Flashcards and notetaking itself were fun games. I felt like I'd stumbled onto this hyper-optimized efficient way to learn whatever I wanted…

Beautifully put. It's been a while since I've read a book and immediately thought, "Wow, this is so inspiring, my life will be completely changed if I can apply this!" I think this is more a function of my age rather than the quality of the books I've read recently.

Just about everything I read—fiction or nonfiction—will impact me in some small way, whether it's a useful new phrase, a novel concept, something explained in a new way, or a new perspective. I'm fine with just absorbing what I can and allowing it to enrich my (hopefully) continuing process of gradual self-improvement.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#38

Post by rgrieselhuber »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #23

When I used to be an overintellectualizing, overacademizing nerd, I would use complex and regimented notetaking and review systems. The whole gamut from trendy notetaking wiki-type apps to flashcard spaced-repetition apps like anki. These things made me feel like I was learning. Flashcards and notetaking itself were fun games. I felt like I'd stumbled onto this hyper-optimized efficient way to learn whatever I wanted…

For languages, I think it depends on the language and the learner. Flashcards helped me learn all ~2,000 of the Jōyō kanji in about 18 months.

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#39

Post by mtippett »

qumpis wrote: post #22
themodelplumber wrote: post #8

As a systems-minded reader-person: I like to ask an LLM for 3-5 good ways to know that one really understands the content in question. Then I ask for examples of each of those, used in a specific setting (code for an app or script I need / project I'm working on, for example). I also like to pre-read the book based on podcast interviews, YouTube summaries, and so on. If the book is written from first principles, I wi…

On what level of topics do you query LLMs to help you learn? As you become a domain expert, the usefulness of LLMs diminishes, I imagine? Regarding the learning of learning from first principles vs from 'working interfaces', could this be said as 'learning top to bottom' (high-level ideas first) vs 'bottom to top' (low-level first, e.g. understanding axioms of real numbers before understanding algebra)?

ChatGPT (gpt-4.0) is crazy omniscient.

It doesn't diminish, the knowledge is like a fractal. You can zoom out, in, etc.

I created a prompt that asks me a set of questions on a topic. It then scores my understanding, gives me deeper insight into the topics, broadens my understanding with some extra information, and then provides a mind-map of related topics, and a mind-map of adjacent topics.

To bootstrap an area of understanding, I ask it for a mind-map of a topic. Like a fractal, you can choose a line item and go deeper.

Prompt 1: Give me a small mind map on the amygdala

Based on that, prompt 2: give me a mind map on the role of the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala in the creation of phobias

Re: Ask HN: How do you synthesize books that you read?

#40

Post by mtippett »

generalizations wrote: post #12

When I was a kid, I was taught to 'narrate' the books I read - fiction, nonfiction, whatever - just 'tell it back in your own words' at a reasonable level of detail. That helped a ton with retaining most of what I read, as it trained me early on to remember it clearly. Don't really have to bother with explicit retention methods. That, plus generally reading because there's specific information that I need to get out…

Externalization FTW!

You don't know something until you try to spit it out in your own words in a way that make sense.

As an example, you think you know what a bike looks like. You do, right? Draw it without cheating. 95% of people I've asked - can't. After drawing it have a look at https://www.gianlucagimini.it/portfolio-item/velocipedia/

Post reply on HN