Is it just me or do other people struggle to read these kinds of very technical books? It's not that I don't comprehend, it's that my brain finds it boring and hard to focus. I think I have trained my brain so much on rapid skimming of websites for useful info, while throwing away most of the content, that I tend to do the same with books, which really doesn't work well. Has anyone found alternative ways to consume t…
My example is from the Windows Internals books, it’s a great book, but I don’t think the authors could write it in a “gripping” way, that’s just technical books.
What I do however be it books or video is chunks, takes MUCH longer to do but I find for me it sticks, so if in my learning season (I do bursts of learning, burn out leave it for a couple of months, rinse repeat),
- Read a section or chapter - Make quick, rapid notes in my notes app (or notebook, I use bear but whatever suits yourself) - Once I’ve done, go to sleep (I normally study at night, my brains more in a learning mode then for me) - Maybe at dinner time (at work) I go through my notes, if it’s something I feel may benefit my colleagues I make a brief PowerPoint, I try to translate it into a less technical write up, not everyone is super technical, it’s just a job to them!.
I have a terrible memory for learning, I remember things long term great, short term not so much, so I reference my notes a lot, it’s essentially my mind map/bank.
Video learning is very subjective, I’m currently learning Cisco Umbrella and it’s very boring to me, the creators voice is very mono tone and boring to the point I’ve nearly fallen asleep, but other creators (mostly in the Microsoft MVP zone) are very lively, a good mix of demos and theory that keep me engaged and actively want to learn, Pluralsight is the same, keeps me awake and motivated, I found CBT a little on the boring side in comparison.