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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

#31

Post by pelario »

kungito wrote: post #27
harperlee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

I'm with you. I mean, already the title perspires arrogance. I'm not going to click on it, even though there might be good advice there. I probably have already heard it and probably will heard it again from someone without that attitude.

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

#32

Post by meghdeepr »

mluts wrote: post #10

> Instead of reading 100 books, it’s better to find one that really changes your life. You can't know whether book will change your life or not until you read it. If you treat every book too seriously you just waste your time and kill the pleasure of reading. Everyone should master skimming and their ability to regulate "depth of understanding" based on perceived value.

Alan Kay said that you need to read bad books to know a good book. You need the context to know what makes something good and thus no reading is truly wasted.

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

#33

Post by CraigJPerry »

>> Instead of reading 100 books, it’s better to find one that really changes your life

This is just flat out wrong for non-fiction. This is not a good way to use books or any research material, except perhaps meta-analysis’ but even then with caution.

It doesn’t matter how many 5 star reviews it has, or who wrote it. You will be far better served by reading many writers on the topic and using your learning from each to compare and contrast between the materials and arrive at a deeper understanding.

For example, there are thousands of books with a theme that could be written as “how i got rich”. Every single one of these books tells the version of the story the author would like you to believe rather than the actual truth because the simple fact is the author themselves, despite living that life, may not actually know the truth of the matter themselves. Plus some actively seek to deceive.

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

#34

Post by ycosynot »

kungito wrote: post #27
harperlee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

You don't have to be so cynical, because some people might have deep-down issues, and the posturing is a way to hide it. They just want to be liked, and so they "cheat", and that's why they are biologically "punchable". Cheating is punished.

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

#35

Post by sean_the_geek »

Veen wrote: post #29
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…

This. The best advice I have received is from people who never intended to share it and were almost shy about it. It's only thorough my observation that I learned about their skill.

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

#36

Post by sdevonoes »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #15

Articles like this should start with at least some reason we should think the author is actually in a position to give advice on this subject. Reading a bunch of popular bestseller self help books doesn't actually teach you anything, even if you read 5000 of them.

> Reading a bunch of popular bestseller self help books doesn't actually teach you anything, even if you read 5000 of them.

Agree. Your time in life is finite, so one should read only the good stuff (and yes, objectively, some books are better than others).

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

#37

Post by rglullis »

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…

If my friends made a habit of giving unsolicited advice for things that they don't have the results to show for what they are preaching, we wouldn't be friends for long.

So, yeah, I wish people applied some self-restraint when posting these things. As much as we can develop a bullshit detector, there is only so much time we can spend calling out BS vendors in our lives.

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

#38

Post by throwaway7281 »

Veen wrote: post #29
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…

One exception may be Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist, who was a prolific writer. His note taking method was part of his philosophical process, I assume.

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

#39

Post by Veen »

throwaway7281 wrote: post #38
Veen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One exception may be Niklas Luhmann, a German sociologist, who was a prolific writer. His note taking method was part of his philosophical process, I assume.

He is an exception in that he wrote about note-taking from the perspective of someone who used his system to make serious contributions to systems theory and various other fields.

But he's a great demonstration of Matuschak's point. Luhmnam wrote dozens of books about a wide range of topics, enabled by Zettelkasten, and then wrote a couple of essays towards the end of his career about how he did it.

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

#40

Post by randomNumber7 »

gauchojs wrote: post #21
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.

I think it depends on the text. When I read something complicated I have to reflect a lot.

On the other hand it's pointless to reflect on something you already know, understand or simply agree with...

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