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A system to help you remember more of what you read

robertheaton.com

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Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#51

Post by elboru »

PuffinBlue wrote: post #16

I have a somewhat similar system but without writing anything in the book, because I use ebooks, and it's not quite as intensive. An example is here[0] but basically I keep notes on: Places Things Characters Plot Nothing too long and it's all filled in in a few seconds in an Evernote notebook/note as I read along. The main reason this is effective for me is that I can very quickly look up a character/place/plot in on…

I decided to do something similar after reading a Chinese Sci-fi novel (The Three Body Problem) it was a really cool novel but I found it difficult to retain a lot of the characters' names, I had to go back in the book several times looking for names and that made the reading a little tedious.

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#53

Post by iandanforth »

If this article is your cup of tea you might also be interested in "Learning How to Learn" a Coursera course by Barbara Oakley and Terry Sejnowsk. It boils down to a similar system but gives more background, science, and detail.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/we...

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#54

Post by spraak »

allworknoplay wrote: post #42

I find that simply sitting and thinking while -- and after -- reading nonfiction (or fiction, if it's got good ideas) burns the facts and ideas in as well as anything. I don't think most people allow as much time for reflection and mind-wandering as they ought to; expecting yourself to remember fact after fact without taking time to really absorb, reflect, and expand on them doesn't seem realistic. It's not unlike a…

So true! For that I like taking quick notes of what I'm reading or at least highlighting points that stand out and then later go over the notes alongside the book. The highlighted bits can even be somewhat arbitrary, as it still helps to make different parts more distinguishable and aids recall.

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#55

Post by obscura »

dragonwriter wrote: post #45
obscura wrote: post #44

To digress from the main point: the suggestion of writing in (physical) books makes me cringe. Once you do so, they become absolutely worthless to anyone but you. Trying reading a book that someone else has underlined and/or annotated - it's highly distracting and annoying.

That an approach minimizes utility to others of an instrument it uses does not rebut the idea that it is a valid means of maximizing utility for you.

Perfectly correct. However, my comment was not about the approach to learning - hence me labelling it a digression.

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#56

Post by shanusmagnus »

obscura wrote: post #44

To digress from the main point: the suggestion of writing in (physical) books makes me cringe. Once you do so, they become absolutely worthless to anyone but you. Trying reading a book that someone else has underlined and/or annotated - it's highly distracting and annoying.

Strongly disagree. There is nothing quite like the pleasure I get from a used book which someone has thoughtfully annotated. I would pay a premium for it, in fact.

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#57

Post by obscura »

mistersquid wrote: post #49
obscura wrote: post #44

To digress from the main point: the suggestion of writing in (physical) books makes me cringe. Once you do so, they become absolutely worthless to anyone but you. Trying reading a book that someone else has underlined and/or annotated - it's highly distracting and annoying.

I used to be a professor of American Literature. I literally owned thousands of books in the margins of which I wrote copious notes for research and teaching. When I left academia to move cross country, I had a yard sale and at the end of the day a few hundred books were left over. A young man who had come by earlier still had some interest in the books and so I bequeathed them to him. Then I moved cross country. Ove…

> So while some may find annotations distracting and annoying, there are some that can find those same annotations to be pointers to a fuller understanding of the material so annotated.

The problem is that there's no guarantee that your marks/annotations will add value for the next reader. It depends on who you are.

Of course, such value is subjective, so it depends on who the second reader is.

Because of this, my preference is to have an unmarked book.

Also, the way in which you mark is the book makes a difference. Using the margins is fine - I can live with that. But when the body text is underlined en masse or seemingly arbitrarily with pen and by freehand, I think it's really hard to argue that value has been added.

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#59

Post by obscura »

shanusmagnus wrote: post #56
obscura wrote: post #44

To digress from the main point: the suggestion of writing in (physical) books makes me cringe. Once you do so, they become absolutely worthless to anyone but you. Trying reading a book that someone else has underlined and/or annotated - it's highly distracting and annoying.

Strongly disagree. There is nothing quite like the pleasure I get from a used book which someone has thoughtfully annotated. I would pay a premium for it, in fact.

I stated my view rather strongly. Thoughtful annotation is fine; annotation that means little to anyone but you or messily underlining the body text isn't very helpful, IMO.

Re: A system to help you remember more of what you read

#60

Post by copperx »

allworknoplay wrote: post #42

I find that simply sitting and thinking while -- and after -- reading nonfiction (or fiction, if it's got good ideas) burns the facts and ideas in as well as anything. I don't think most people allow as much time for reflection and mind-wandering as they ought to; expecting yourself to remember fact after fact without taking time to really absorb, reflect, and expand on them doesn't seem realistic. It's not unlike a…

This is exactly what I do, however, it makes reading really slow. I could never match Alan Kay's 20,000 books in my lifetime in this way.
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