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How to Remember What You Read

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Re: How to Remember What You Read

#11

Post by mpalczewski »

The best way to remember what you read is to apply it. If you read a book about programming in python and you want to retain that knowledge, write a program in python.

Unfortunately writer's writing advice for other writers but pretending like it's for everyone is too common.

>> 1. Quality matters more than quantity. If you read one book a month but fully appreciate and absorb it, you’ll be better off than someone who skims half the library without paying attention.

Maybe, or if you read the wrong thing, get a bunch of dumb ideas in your head that you would have been better off not having and nothing to counter act that can mess you up.

Furthermore, quality is hard to gauge ahead of time.

>> Speed-reading is bullshit. Getting the rough gist and absorbing the lessons are two different things. Confuse them at your peril.

That's hyperbole. When I read about speed reading it suggests that you vary your reading speed according to the subject matter. e.g. if you are reading Atlas Shrugged(if that's your cup of tea), I highly recommend speed reading through certain parts(you'll know when you get to them).

>> Book summary services miss the point. A lot of companies charge ridiculous prices for access to vague summaries bearing only the faintest resemblance to anything in the book. Summaries can be a useful jumping-off point to explore your curiosity, but you cannot learn from them the way you can from the original text.*

Depends on why you are reading the book. (e.g. Unfortunately much of school was nonsense, this can help with that).

>> Fancy apps and tools are not needed. A notebook, index cards, and a pen will do just fine.

Fancy apps and tools can be a purpose of their own. If a fancy note taking tool helps motivate you to take notes, and note taking is useful for you, you should get a fancy note taking tool. This is a personal decision.

>> We shouldn’t read stuff we find boring. Life is far too short.

Sometimes that nugget you need is in a boring book. I thought this wasn't reading for entertainment.

>> Finishing the book is optional. You should start a lot of books and only finish a few of them.

Yes finishing the book is optional.

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#12

Post by Koshkin »

mpalczewski wrote: post #11

The best way to remember what you read is to apply it. If you read a book about programming in python and you want to retain that knowledge, write a program in python. Unfortunately writer's writing advice for other writers but pretending like it's for everyone is too common. >> 1. Quality matters more than quantity. If you read one book a month but fully appreciate and absorb it, you’ll be better off than someone wh…

> you should get a fancy note taking tool

I have one, but every time I turn it on, it wants to run Windows update…

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#13

Post by Koshkin »

npatrick96 wrote: post #2

The 3rd 'truth about reading' in this article states that: "Book summary services miss the point." Then a couple of lines below, we are given this disclaimer: "By the way, the book summaries we write for Farnam Street members are definitely not in the same class as the standard fare." As the old saying goes, 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'!

… unless the glass house is “not in the same class,” of course.

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#14

Post by charles_f »

Koshkin wrote: post #10
charles_f wrote: post #6

> Consuming information is not the same as acquiring knowledge Yes but this: > Getting the rough gist and absorbing the lessons are two different things. I only partially agree with. I organize my knowledge using zk, and go through a) writing notes as I read then b) digesting them into ideas. Most books I read cover to cover prior to doing that, I remember only the gist of ; while books I occasionally speed read doin…

> Yes but this: The next sentence was: “No idea could be further from the truth.” (I know, this is how we read today.)

Oh, I misinterpreted that entirely

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#15

Post by kej »

simonw wrote: post #5

I've had some success using the Kindle app highlight feature - highlighting key points as I go along, and then later reviewing just my highlights (which can also be exported). You can add notes to the highlights too.

I do this with Google Play Books, and my notes magically appear as text files in Google Drive.

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#16

Post by gjm11 »

charles_f wrote: post #14
Koshkin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes but this: The next sentence was: “No idea could be further from the truth.” (I know, this is how we read today.)

Oh, I misinterpreted that entirely

I'm pretty sure what they mean is "No idea could be further from the truth than the idea that consuming information is the same thing as acquiring knowledge". In which case, unless I misunderstand badly Koshkin's implied criticism of charles_f is entirely unfair.

Koshkin, if in fact you think that what OP means is "Actually, consuming information is the same thing as acquiring knowledge", why do you think that?

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#18

Post by shannifin »

> Mark up the book

Good for a book's first reader. What I really hate is browsing a used bookstore and finding something interesting or ordering a used book online, only to find it covered in markings (especially as some readers seem to highlight the most banal things). Very distracting.

I usually can't bring myself to mark up my own books for fear that I will distract my future self (or some other future reader if I sell or donate it), but will take notes separately. Although I've found that most books usually have hardly anything at all worth noting, and I'm not sure taking notes for its own sake, without any idea of its future usefulness, is necessarily worth it. Perhaps the hope is that a bunch of random knowledge just sitting in your memory will somehow automatically make itself useful when the time comes, which to be fair happens now and then, but usually if its not useful for very long, into the land of the forgotten it goes.

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#19

Post by nousernamegiven »

charles_f wrote: post #6

> Consuming information is not the same as acquiring knowledge Yes but this: > Getting the rough gist and absorbing the lessons are two different things. I only partially agree with. I organize my knowledge using zk, and go through a) writing notes as I read then b) digesting them into ideas. Most books I read cover to cover prior to doing that, I remember only the gist of ; while books I occasionally speed read doin…

what is zk

Re: How to Remember What You Read

#20

Post by ngai_aku »

etherio wrote: post #9
simonw wrote: post #5

I've had some success using the Kindle app highlight feature - highlighting key points as I go along, and then later reviewing just my highlights (which can also be exported). You can add notes to the highlights too.

I do this too using my remarkable (reader tablet )and then scripts that export highlights / notes which I then index for as plaintext - it makes this process much more seamless.

I’ve heard that the Remarkable does not function well as a reader. Is that true?
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