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Ask HN: How Do You Read?

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Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#111

Post by leemac »

shadowmatter wrote: post #109

I have a horrible memory when it comes to the detail of books, movies, etc. (But thankfully I can remember what I've coded, or else I'd probably be out of a job.) I mostly read non-fiction. To improve my recall over the past 7 years, I type up notes as I read. It's made the process of reading much slower, but it has helped when I've needed to recall some example or detail or framework of a book. I did this (selfishly…

Very cool, thanks for the link to your notes repo. I share your pain with a horrible memory. I may very well start taking notes and storing it similarly to how you've done it.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#112

Post by philwelch »

guidoism wrote: post #84
guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

Somebody wrote "Not to sound rude, but how can one judge what idea one needs to see as 'important' while skimming through the book if they have no clue of what the book is about?" and then deleted it. I'd still like to reply because it's a good question. Here goes... That's a perfectly good question. I used to think that skimming was worthless, only something that people who didn't actually care about information did…

Indeed, that makes a lot of sense.

Also, while sometimes this could backfire, it's often useful to come to a book with some idea of what you want to get out of it and go digging for it specifically.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#113

Post by read_if_gay_ »

pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #76
bnjemian wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things I’ve come to feel is that so much of the reading I do on the web (news, etc.) is fundamentally ephemeral in it’s relevance to my life and goals. Put another way, 90% of it doesn’t actually contribute to my knowledge or personal growth — it won’t matter tomorrow or once I realize some immediate goal. Sure, I get entertainment out of it, but that’s mostly it. In my view, non-fiction books can be a goo…

on the contrary, I have found that reading stuff on the web is 90% of what contributes to my knowledge. I can say that whatever I am today (in terms of what I know), it is most probably because of the internet. Not just in terms of computers, but just daily life, directly or indirectly. I think it is just a matter of the source in your case, which may have led you to feel that 90% of what you read doesn't contribute…

I used to feel the same way, then I started reading books. So it might also be that you picked out the wrong books, or that whether you mostly read books or stuff on the web, whatever you go with you’ll put more effort in and hence find higher quality material.

In any case, mind sharing your favorite sources?

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#115

Post by theWheez »

grumpy8 wrote: post #39

I'm always reading about 5 books in parallel, depending of my mood, the context and my focus. Usually: - biography or fiction book that I listen to while driving - hard science book when I know I can focus for a few hours. (I.e. Quantum mechanics or advanced algorithms) - 1-2 business or technical book that I read on kindle (Either from PC, ipad or my iphone) - various blog or pdfs open on my pc / iphone The business…

I'm nearly the same! I've found that I can't stick to a single book at one time--when I'm jogging, I don't want to think about technical things, I want to think of big picture ideas.

When I'm driving a distance, I want to get into the nitty gritty of something technical or informative with an audiobook.

When I'm relaxing, I want something interesting but not directly related to any of my work--I don't want to get my mind running on tasks I "should be doing"

Very much the same with browsing the "eye candy" type forums, Twitter, HN, Reddit. If I've got a good book, it seems to permeate my life for the duration of reading.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#117

Post by iNate2000 »

8ytecoder wrote: post #48
guidoism wrote: post #16

Great question! In my fourth decade of life I’m finally figuring out the optimal way to do this myself. I’ve forgotten so so many books over the years that I supposedly read. Read How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer Adler. ( https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/... ) I’ve given this book to a bunch of people on my teams as it also helps with communicating id…

One of the reasons I love the kindle. I highlight my favourite quotes and phrases regularly and then after I finish the book I summarise it into an essay. For instructional books I make a bullet point list of key learnings.

I annotate my Kindle books as well. But at least twice now, I've lost all my annotations because the publisher "updates" the book.

I'm sure that problem won't exist forever (and it doesn't exist for titles that are never updated). But it certainly reduces my trust in the platform. Which reduces how much I take advantage of it.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#118

Post by mkagenius »

manjana wrote: post #68
mkagenius wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wasn’t paying enough attention. This is a problem. For few weeks I am trying to conquer it by focusing eyes onto infinity while looking at the computer. It helps me wade off thoughts other than whats printed (and I just read) on the screen. So read a line, focus to infinity (and picturise what was said in the line), read next line. Experiment is on only for a few weeks now, but it surely helps in attention and wa…

What do you mean by focusing your eyes onto infinity?

Focusing far away, you know how eyes focus very near when you try to see your nose, focusing on infinity is the other extreme.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#119

Post by yodsanklai »

shadowmatter wrote: post #109

I have a horrible memory when it comes to the detail of books, movies, etc. (But thankfully I can remember what I've coded, or else I'd probably be out of a job.) I mostly read non-fiction. To improve my recall over the past 7 years, I type up notes as I read. It's made the process of reading much slower, but it has helped when I've needed to recall some example or detail or framework of a book. I did this (selfishly…

Very cool! It's been a few years now that I started taking notes more systematically too. I mostly use the Notes app on Mac OS, and to a lesser extent README.md/github. Unfortunately, Notes is a bit limited compared to markdown in a specialized editor, but it's just very convenient.

So far, my notes concern mostly technical and work related stuff, but I should follow your lead and take notes for non-technical material.

Re: Ask HN: How Do You Read?

#120

Post by SiVal »

manjana wrote: post #68
mkagenius wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wasn’t paying enough attention. This is a problem. For few weeks I am trying to conquer it by focusing eyes onto infinity while looking at the computer. It helps me wade off thoughts other than whats printed (and I just read) on the screen. So read a line, focus to infinity (and picturise what was said in the line), read next line. Experiment is on only for a few weeks now, but it surely helps in attention and wa…

What do you mean by focusing your eyes onto infinity?

Pretend your computer screen is a window with text printed on it. Look through the text, through the window at the distant mountains on the horizon. The text blurs and you see it with double vision because your eyes are focused at infinity.
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