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How I read books: a guide on how to learn

denzhadanov.com

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Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#21

Post by gauchojs »

randomNumber7 wrote: post #3

My process: - Read the book from start till end - From time to time, I lay the book aside and think about what I just read People learn differently and I personally don't need notes nor fancy color maps like the author. Having an external brain like the author has the downside that you can't set things in context (same as wikipedia). For me the key to learning is this "aha" moment. Once I understand something I remem…

I'm probably missing number 2. Its only half a joke - I really don't reflect on stuff I read very frequently.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#22

Post by conjectures »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #14
kungito wrote: post #9

Sometimes I wonder how I would turn out if I did organized people stuff like this. What bothers me is these life advices always feel like bullshit. Like, check this guy out. He has his own website with a title "Den Zhadanov\nTechnology. Productivity. Inspiration.". This is life coaching 101. He writes about how burning man didn't change his life and has pictures of books on beaches. How does one take this person seri…

Yeah I had a skim of the submitted page only and this stuff is common sense to anyone who has studied to get good grades from age 14 onwards. However this sort of article might be useful to someone who struggled at high school and wants to give learning another shot.

I also doubt many of these things are even true.

I was always surprised in lectures watching people divide their attention between actually listening and trying to write structured notes. Most of the time there's a book which was structured by a pro. Rather than re-reading your own notes which reify misunderstandings from the 1st encounter.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#24

Post by jamesholden »

faceplanted wrote: post #20
quickthrower2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I had a skim of the submitted page only and this stuff is common sense to anyone who has studied to get good grades from age 14 onwards. However this sort of article might be useful to someone who struggled at high school and wants to give learning another shot.

Honestly, as one of those people who never studied or even did homework and basically got grades entirely a linear function of my interest in listening to the class without making any notes, I've thought for a while that I should just look up how organized, hard working people actually do anything, because it's predictably come back to bite me in that I now can't really teach myself anything unless it's in lecture fo…

This ^ Also, as someone else mentioned, use your own brain to think about how this particular method would work for you. Hell try it. Doesn't mean it works for everyone, or that someone else doesn't have another better method. But this is our area of interest as 'hackers' and hacking learning might be the format which better appeals to someone over another.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#25

Post by maccard »

conjectures wrote: post #22
quickthrower2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I had a skim of the submitted page only and this stuff is common sense to anyone who has studied to get good grades from age 14 onwards. However this sort of article might be useful to someone who struggled at high school and wants to give learning another shot.

I also doubt many of these things are even true. I was always surprised in lectures watching people divide their attention between actually listening and trying to write structured notes. Most of the time there's a book which was structured by a pro. Rather than re-reading your own notes which reify misunderstandings from the 1st encounter.

I don't know what textbooks you had but mine were generally enormous, hugely expensive, with average quality noted and explanations. The one that comes to mind immediately is https://www.pearson.com/uk/educators/higher-education-educat...

Meanwhile, sites like Paul's Math Notes and Khan academy are easier to digest, clearer explained, and much more available.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#26

Post by greenkey »

kungito wrote: post #9

Sometimes I wonder how I would turn out if I did organized people stuff like this. What bothers me is these life advices always feel like bullshit. Like, check this guy out. He has his own website with a title "Den Zhadanov\nTechnology. Productivity. Inspiration.". This is life coaching 101. He writes about how burning man didn't change his life and has pictures of books on beaches. How does one take this person seri…

I felt the same way reading it, but I also admire the ability to self-brand, even though personally I’ve given up on that, having gained weight and worn boxers to work most days recently. I could brand that, but it wouldn’t be original.

Organization and motivation are important, though.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#27

Post by kungito »

harperlee wrote: post #17
kungito wrote: post #9

Sometimes I wonder how I would turn out if I did organized people stuff like this. What bothers me is these life advices always feel like bullshit. Like, check this guy out. He has his own website with a title "Den Zhadanov\nTechnology. Productivity. Inspiration.". This is life coaching 101. He writes about how burning man didn't change his life and has pictures of books on beaches. How does one take this person seri…

I agree with your skepticism, and I think it is healthy, but on the other hand what is being said in the post is sensible. The best way to read this, or most of the internet really, in my opinion, is as if he were a friend, a colleague, family or an acquaintance, not as an authority; you listen politely, nod and smile, and reflect/research on your own on what it seems useful. At the end of the day, the web enabled an…

I mean, I'm visiting it because it showed up on HN high enough for some reason. It's not like I reached out to find him. And now he's in my face and I'm annoyed. I guess you could say I have anger management problems but these guys give off such a "punchable" vibe. Big smile, nice suit, lots of self promoting bullshit. And then people start calling it charisma and flock to it and we end up in the realm of populism and fad instead of getting shit done. Just remember that bitconnect guy; people ate that shit like chocolate santas

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#28

Post by adflux »

AntiImperialist wrote: post #19

I took the other route and decided to read 100 books in a year. Did that for 3 years. They were mostly top rated or highly popular or highly recommended non-fiction books of all time, including the one pictured in the article. Most books are highly overrated. They usually take some useful ideas, usually what author perceived was useful to them, and add things to them to make it sound useful to their target readers, w…

>- It's OK to read at night when you can't sleep.

I do this, but with the same book series. Have read them for what must be 10 times in a row now. They put me to sleep in minutes. I never stare at the ceiling for this single reason. One unfortunate side effect is that if I start reading in a bus or train, I get sleepy now.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#29

Post by Veen »

kungito wrote: post #9

Sometimes I wonder how I would turn out if I did organized people stuff like this. What bothers me is these life advices always feel like bullshit. Like, check this guy out. He has his own website with a title "Den Zhadanov\nTechnology. Productivity. Inspiration.". This is life coaching 101. He writes about how burning man didn't change his life and has pictures of books on beaches. How does one take this person seri…

Your comment reminds me of something Andy Matuschak wrote:

> But most people who write about note-taking don’t seem particularly accomplished in their own fields, whatever those may be. In fact, most such writers aren’t applying their notes to some exogenous creative problem: their primary creative work is writing about productivity. These writers offer advice on note-taking to help scientists and executives with the challenges of their work, but the advice was developed in a context disconnected from those external realities.

https://notes.andymatuschak.org/zUMFE66dxeweppDvgbNAb5hukXzX...

Essentially, be wary of taking advice about reading, research, writing, or anything else from people whose primary contribution to the world is telling people how to read, research, and write. Instead, listen to people who have used these techniques to make a substantial contribution to a field of knowledge.

The problem is that those people are far more interested in doing research and writing than teaching other people how to do it.

Re: How I read books: a guide on how to learn

#30

Post by fredrikholm »

AntiImperialist wrote: post #19

I took the other route and decided to read 100 books in a year. Did that for 3 years. They were mostly top rated or highly popular or highly recommended non-fiction books of all time, including the one pictured in the article. Most books are highly overrated. They usually take some useful ideas, usually what author perceived was useful to them, and add things to them to make it sound useful to their target readers, w…

Are there any books that stand out (to you personally) as must-reads out of these ~300?

I've come to a similar conclusion (Sturgeon's law) consuming CS/SE-books, and want to minimize repeating myself pursuing other non-fiction subjects.

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