

Ask HN: How do you track progress of reading technical books? - tripplez

You have a (big) technical book that involves, for example, learning a new API/library/programming language/OS/etc.<p>How do you track the progress of reading the sections and chapters, the programming examples tried, the references and additional articles read related to something from the book?<p>Maybe I'm a bit anal about that but every time I started reading a technical book after the first 50 or so pages I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with the inability to have a clear log of what was read, when it was read, what examples have been tried out, what was left to be read, etc.
======
imp
I use Curious Reef (<http://curiousreef.com>), which is a learning website
that I created. You can create a class based on a book, break it down into
smaller lessons, and then add assignments to each lesson. As you progress
through the book, post your work, and your progress indicator increases.

For example, I'm working through the Bash Cookbook
(<http://curiousreef.com/class/bash-scripting/>), so I broke each chapter into
a lesson and turned it into a class. Even though it's been a while since I've
worked on it, I have a log of what I've learned and I know right where to pick
up with it. Also, taking a big book and breaking it into smaller chunks makes
it less overwhelming and easier to progress.

~~~
smiler
Awesome site! Well done

~~~
imp
Thanks! Let me know if you have any suggestions for the site. It's a project
I've been bootstrapping for about a year, and I'm always looking for ways to
improve it.

~~~
smiler
Do I have the ability to create private classes? I might be interested in
setting some up with friends, but we wouldn't want to make it public

~~~
imp
No, all classes are public right now. Would you want the entire class to be
completely hidden from others, or can it be publicly viewable and require an
invitation to join and participate?

~~~
smiler
Both would be cool

------
motxilo
In my case, I am currently working through SICP (mid Chapter 4) and I use a
highlighter to mark the key concepts presented in the book. Once I'm done with
a chapter, I have a Google spreadsheet where I maintain lists of the concepts
explained in each chapter. Every now and then, I sift through those lists at a
glance and see all the new knowledge that I have been exposed to.

Also, I am doing all the exercises which are saved in my Dropbox folder.
Again, once I am done with a chapter, I post them in my blog. That helps me a
lot in keeping a feeling of progress and accomplishment.

------
talonx
If it involves learning a new language/framework/API etc, a good idea would be
to work out the examples/exercises given in the book, and create a github repo
for it. Keep pushing in your code to the repo regularly as you work through
the book.

You can also include exercises that you have found elsewhere on the
Internet/other books. You can arrange the code according to the sections.

------
julius_geezer
Make a directory on your machine for the book, with subdirectories for each
chapter. Put the code files for the problems/examples in the proper place and
you should have no doubts.

Mark up the book (well, if it's paper) as you go. And the expression
"bookmark" did not always involve URLs.

------
ld50
for me the key has been to develop a surgical/tactical approach to knowledge
acquisition. whereas in school it's important to read the textbooks cover to
cover, after having established a solid foundation in the fundamentals of
computing and language my approach now is to read only exactly what it is i
need to read to solve the problem at hand.

