
Reading habits that changed my life - manjotpahwa
https://blog.usejournal.com/10-reading-habits-that-changed-my-life-5c7673bc34bc
======
bonoboTP
I don't read for speed nor for retention. I spend the time to digest the
content, not to retain it. Just like you don't "read" math books, but engage
with them.

Now this is not necessarily the optimal strategy for sure, but for one reason
or another my personality is better fit for this style. I read very few books
but then "debate" it in my head, try to connect things to other things, life
experiences, news, other books. Is it true what the author says? Have I read
somewhere else that an implicit assumption the author is making has been
discredited recently? What could be the motivation? Could I argue equally
convincingly for the opposite view? What are the implications for other things
I care about or was wondering about perhaps long ago?

For a long time I was very ashamed of how few books I read, compared to what
is expected from an educated person, but I'm okay with it now. Same with
movies. I watch a movie and I think about it for days. Just watching them for
relaxation doesn't work for me, following who is who and what's going on
drains me more than relaxes. Especially when there's no "payoff" and the plot
can only be described with "and then they" sentences.

~~~
kiba
_I don 't read for speed nor for retention._

Your process certainly help with retention. It engage learning strategies such
as _active recall_ and _generation_.

Myself, I don't try to answer questions that much, but rather I like to
organize information into a bunch of interconnected facts like people, events,
claims, and look them up.

For example, I discovered that a professor confused which Ruska brothers
invented electron microscopy. He also made claims that I struggle to find
citation for with a cursory google search.

Then I goes a step further. I input the information into a spaced repetition
system. In this way, a book or an article or a youtube video gradually
disappear into knowledge and become part of my long term memory about things.

Intensive or incremental reading is extremely slow for sure(I probably spent
8x times as long on my notes than reading), but knowledge creation is
superior.

~~~
bonoboTP
Unfortunately I do have problems with explicit retention. Probably some of the
strategies in the comments would improve it a lot.

I have implicit retention of many things, but I often forgot the sources, I
cannot list my favorite books on the spot, but if we discuss a topic I'd have
flashes of relevant memories come back.

It's like I'd grapple with a book, dream about it, get confused, shaken,
startled, questioning, then I integrate it back into normal life. Especially
deeper books, like I had with The Selfish Gene which dispelled so many myths I
had and confirmed things I thought to be correct.

You have to go through the Baader Meinhof effect of seeing that thing
everywhere. With each book I view the world from an entirely new point of
view, that each seem all encompassing (how ads manipulate you, how social
status and prestige works, how the finance world works and cheats, how
employers manipulate, how sexual behavior works, how quantum physics works or
evolution or mental games we play etc), to get the smug feeling that this
current book explains it all. After going through this with 5 books, you
realize that no one story explains it all, but then what to do, read about
narratives, move to nihilism, then realize the boundaries of rationality and
faith, believing that "good" may be in one sense illusory but worth striving
for. Then you read up on more traditional views on this etc.

Trying to "retain" is a bit like measuring the quality of your friendships
based on how many life facts you've memorized about them. It's surely
correlated, but also misses the point. The time you spent together and the
experiences you had together are valuable in themselves.

~~~
kiba
_Unfortunately I do have problems with explicit retention. Probably some of
the strategies in the comments would improve it a lot._

This is pretty normal. For example, students who learned physics often forgot
to apply what they already know to situations that differ slightly.

If you want to bring that knowledge to the surface more often, you're going to
need to add cues.

~~~
bonoboTP
Another meta skill is to decide when to use which type of reading. You have to
do both the free-association, daydreaming, thinking-outside the-box,
connecting-the-dots, aha-moment style but also the practical get-things-done
down-to-earth concentrated reading.

For some reason the latter style has been difficult for me outside of exam
prep. So when people say college is just a prestige scam, the exams are
bollocks and pointless, I always remember how it at least got me to sit on my
ass and crunch through the material in a focused way. Pretending is not
enough. Learn it out of passion and enjoyment but solidify it with the boring
exam-style stragtey is best. The latter without the former is rote
memorization that many college students mistakenly equate with simply
"studying" and it leads to the issue of not being able to use it outside a
course context or quiz type scenarios.

------
keiferski
> To keep reading this story, create a free account.

I can't read the article, because I don't have a Medium account.

In any case, I'm guessing that SRS/Anki isn't mentioned. Personally, I've had
incredible success with retention by adding my notes from a book to Anki and
keeping current with the cards. I'll also add the Wikipedia page and other
general information about it.

I would almost argue that _reading for information_ (as opposed to aesthetic
enjoyment) is a hugely inefficient waste of time if you don't use a SRS system
to retain what you've learned. I've probably read hundreds or thousands of
books in my lifetime, but I can really only remember the minute details of the
ones I've added to Anki.

This brings to mind an old Schopenhauer quote:

 _As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but
well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it
will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought
it over for yourself._

~~~
mshekow
> I would almost argue that reading for information (as opposed to aesthetic
> enjoyment) is a hugely inefficient waste of time if you don't use a SRS
> system to retain what you've learned. I've probably read hundreds or
> thousands of books in my lifetime, but I can really only remember the minute
> details of the ones I've added to Anki.

I use Anki (and the classic version of "SuperMemo") a lot, too. However, I
mostly use it for learning languages (vocabulary), or for more complex
material in case a test/exam is coming up (to avoid "cramming").

However, I see two problems with such SRS systems, now that I've been using
them for over 10 years:

1) I can often not recall the knowledge in real life, simply because I study
_both_ the question and answer side of the card - in other words, if I'm asked
the question in a rather different way, I might not recall that I know that
fact at all. The most extreme example of this was that certain flashcards
broke after a while, e.g. showing a gray (instead of a white) background in
the question card, for some reason. Whenever that gray card comes up I know
the answer immediately, without even having fully read the question (which I
forget over time). So in the end, what my brain remembers is: <question card
with a medium-length sentence and gray background> comes up -> answer =
"propensity". (I'm learning English as a foreign language).

2) A lot of knowledge in books that I read (let's take the "Pragmatic
programmer" as an example) is not suited for flash card system learning. It's
knowledge of the form "if this happens, do that", e.g. "if you are about to
write a new method in your source code, think of how you would test that
method first, to improve the method's quality". Sure, I could create a flash
card that has the question: "what should you do when you write a new method?",
but it's pointless. These kinds of things require deliberate practice for the
specific situations, when you are in the IDE, not in the SRS software. It's
methodological knowledge where, in the end, it doesn't matter if you could
answer the question when someone asked you about it on the street, but it
matters that you remember when you're in the actual situation.

~~~
DecayingOrganic
I've also created an "Anki Vocabulary Program", all you have to do is
basically open the terminal and type "add targetWord definitionOrImageUrl" and
it does the following:

1\. Creates an anki card with basic word -> definition or image

2\. Creates an anki card with writing exercise for the word

3\. Creates an anki card with pronunciation exercise for the word (fetches
audio file on fly)

4\. Creates an anki card featuring a dynamic cloze exercise (fetches 250
example sentences for the word, stores it in a database, serves a random one
each time an anki card requests it, a custom-made card (in Anki) hides the
word in the sentence, provides the ability to request a new sentence or reveal
a letter as a hint)

And adds these cards to a specified deck. It's proved very useful so far.

~~~
danielscrubs
I've created my own flash card software that haves each deck in Markdown (the
writing of the notes are as important as the study) and predicts when the deck
will have been learned (for goal setting and motivation).

Anyway you have some really great ideas. Mind if I have a look at your
solution?

------
mshekow
Another post of these "I read N times faster than the rest and still remember
>= 90% of it" high-achievers ;) (no hard feelings).

There's ample evidence that such kinds of speeds are not generally possible
with every kind of book. See e.g.
[https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2015/01/19/speed-reading-
re...](https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2015/01/19/speed-reading-redo/)

I did take speed reading courses myself. Sure, it helps you speed-read,
skimming over sections that seem unfamiliar, and detect when you need to slow
down, because the subject matter becomes too unfamiliar/new. I've also had the
impression that retention improves a bit after the couple of training days -
at least that's what the workshop instructor makes you believe (it's their job
to sell success and good feelings so that you recommend the course to your
peers).

In the end, I highly doubt that anyone who claims to have such high speeds is
sincere. The simple fact is that marking text with a highlighter, making notes
(with a pen) and thinking about the content (do you?) takes time. If you
accounted for that and took the average, you'd get lower numbers. And that is
fine.

~~~
Cthulhu_
I do think people who read a lot can read faster simply because sentences and
subjects look similar to things they've read before. I mean if you read three
Steve Jobs biographies in a row you can skim read some segments that look
familiar, just scan for things that are new / told differently.

I can't read books fast because I don't read enough. Not books anyway,
comments on the internet on the other hand, far too many. But I skim / skip /
don't retain most of them.

------
NOGDP
> I read about 3 books in a month and 60 pages per hour. Not quite the same as
> Bill Gates who reads about 150 pages in an hour with 90% retention but I’m
> slowly getting closer.

Reading books and trying to remember the maximum information seems rather
pointless unless you're specifically studying for an exam or something. Your
brain already optimises and retains the most relevant/interesting information
for you. We don't have limitless memory and we need to forget things in order
to learn new ones. Reading 3 books per month and retaining 90% seems both
highly unlikely and pointless in the long term.

~~~
1123581321
A principle of increasing retention is to change how much is relevant and
interesting to you. Based on the notes he publishes, Bill Gates seems to bring
a lot of prior experience and context to his reading. This lets him remember
much more of the new information by being able to associate it with what he
already knows.

You can test this theory by reading three similar books in a row on an
unfamiliar subject. You’ll remember more of the third book than the first.

~~~
NOGDP
> You can test this theory by reading three similar books in a row on an
> unfamiliar subject. You’ll remember more of the third book than the first.

That's not a very useful scenario when talking about reading X books a month
and retaining Y percent. If you don't control for how much of the information
is new, then the % retention is pretty arbitrary. You can read the same book 3
times and I'm sure you'll get better retention on the third repetition.

~~~
1123581321
My point is Bill Gates, and anyone who reads for retention, does control how
much of the information is new by picking books they bring a lot of context
to. But you are right that reading the same unfamiliar book three times would
also be a way to bring more context to the third reading.

~~~
NOGDP
Yeah, I agree with what you said. My point is that it's pointless and
misleading to bring up retention numbers if most what you're retaining you
already knew previously. It's not a measure of how much you're actually
learning.

~~~
1123581321
True. I originally jumped in to object to the original poster’s idea that
trying to control retention is pointless or impossible. There are too many
variables that go into how much is objectively retained and for how long,
especially since not every subject, author or title is read for the same
purpose so success varies. I would, though, assume Bill Gates could retain 90%
of a given book with less context than most people would need, i.e. retain a
higher volume of new information than most people. That would be true whether
measuring retention of everything in the book or just the new parts.

------
JoeAltmaier
I wish I understood how reading worked, for me. I just re-read an anthology
(Dragon-themed short stories) I'd last read as a young adult (decades ago).
All seemed new again. Saves me a bunch on books, since I've kept every one I
ever read.

But halfway through there was a story I remembered. Not just a little; every
detail of every character and scene. Emotionally and intellectually.

No idea why one story stood out, while the rest left my brain completely. Wish
I could do that on command.

~~~
Mirioron
Did you remember any of the stories after the one you remembered in detail?
Because if you do then maybe it took your associative memory a while to match
the pattern.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
No, nothing else was familiar. The story was "St Dragon and the George"

------
Ozzie_osman
I tried to write summaries of all the books I read and it made me retain and
understand the key concepts a lot better. I just couldn't keep it up.

My current trick is to use a product called Readwise. I highlight stuff I want
to remember in Kindle, and it syncs with my Kindle and everyday emails me a
random set of my highlights. It's a paid product but I pay for it and
recommend it to everyone I know who reads. Was game changing for me.

~~~
ciarannolan
There is something fundamental about my right to read whatever I please, in
total privacy. Readwise violates that principle. [1]

I've been thinking about writing a simple script to transform my highlights
into Anki [2] cards to achieve the same thing but without sharing my reading
habits and highlights with a private company.

[1] [https://readwise.io/privacy](https://readwise.io/privacy)

[2] [https://apps.ankiweb.net/](https://apps.ankiweb.net/)

~~~
guildmaster
This sounds like a great idea. Where are you on that?

~~~
ciarannolan
Still at the "thinking about it" stage :)

Maybe I'll get started tonight...

~~~
hoodwink
This article has my Kindle highlights + Anki setup at the end:

[https://blog.readwise.io/remember-more-of-what-you-read-
with...](https://blog.readwise.io/remember-more-of-what-you-read-with-
readwise/)

~~~
ciarannolan
I ended up throwing this together:
[https://pastebin.com/2fCKPsGr](https://pastebin.com/2fCKPsGr)

It creates an Anki deck with one card per highlight. The "hint" side of each
card shows the book title and the 5 most important words/phrases from the
clipping (as determined by Rake [1]). It could also be pretty easily modified
to do cloze deletion (fill in the blank) using the "most important" words as
the "blanks" on the hint card.

My thinking was that this would help sort of jog your memory of the highlight
without just showing the whole thing immediately.

I made a deck of several hundred cards and it seems to work great. Would love
if someone tried it out too.

[1] [https://pypi.org/project/rake-nltk/](https://pypi.org/project/rake-nltk/)

------
DecayingOrganic
I've tried to "ankify" some books to increase my retention of the facts and
concepts, in the hopes that I'd be able to talk about a book with friends and
family in much more detail.

However, soon my misconception about how memory works made itself very clear.

Even though I made hundreds of cards regarding a book, when we started talking
about it, I quickly realized that all of that information that I so
meticulously added to Anki and studied was not available to me.

It was because I needed my retrieval cues, the questions I've used to create
Anki cards, and I couldn't access the information I had in my brain without
them.

~~~
keiferski
Try making cards that mimic the situations you plan on using the information
in. Sort of like a choose-your-own adventure game. For example:

“You’re at a conference and you start talking to someone about [The Great
Depression.] What are some key points to remember?”

Then have an outline or key points on the reverse card. This works better than
simply filling in the blank Cloze cards.

Basically, every piece of information or memory has a trigger. The trick is to
make this trigger relevant to the scenarios in which you want to use the
information, rather than just other words in the Anki card.

~~~
rajlego
I don’t think cards like that work over 10 years because they violate minimum
information principle (rule 4 here: [http://super-
memory.com/articles/20rules.htm](http://super-
memory.com/articles/20rules.htm)). I agree though that you have to find the
right cue to initialize recall or else the card is pointless. I think
incrementalism in incremental reading is better for this since it’s easy to
modify and improve your cards over time.

~~~
keiferski
The link isn’t loading for me. I also don’t really see how that matters if
your cue is inherent to the situation in which you will use the information.
To use a real life example, returning to a place you haven’t been in twenty
years still conjures up hidden memories.

You can also make multiple cards/cues for the same information.

~~~
rajlego
Maybe this link will work:
[https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/20ru...](https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/20rules)

If we go with the example you mentioned as a card: “You’re at a conference and
you start talking to someone about [The Great Depression.] What are some key
points to remember?” there are a few issues

tl;dr by being complex but still a single card SRS isn’t actually going to
strengthen the memory very well and you’ll be stuck with short intervals on a
card that will take at least 10 seconds each rep. It will still work but it’ll
take up much more time than it should. (The link explains it much better)

But it’s not a bad idea. If you answer the card and write out an answer,
memorizing pieces of that answer in accordance with minimum information
principle will leave better memory effect. While you might have 20 subcards,
over time these will get much more accurate intervals from being atomic and
actually take less times in rep than your massed question.

~~~
keiferski
I'd generally recommend making more than one card per topic. But yes, it will
take more time, but (in theory) it should be more effective.

------
vira28
I am one of those old schools that love physical books. I take notes while
reading books. Later, I publish them on my site. This made me not only read
more, but also share it with more people.

[https://viggy28.dev/book](https://viggy28.dev/book)

~~~
metrokoi
I've always been hesitant to write book reviews or synopses because I believe
I have nothing new to add, but this is a novel idea that also benefits the
reader by increasing retention. I believe I will start doing this; thank you
for the inspiration!

~~~
Steve44
I was taught a long time ago that it's the act of jotting down notes which
helps you to remember things. Yes you can always refer back to them, but there
is something about the action of physically doing it strengthens the memory
retention.

I'm fairly sure that the feeling was typing notes didn't have as strong an
affect on retention, the notes needed to be physically written.

------
Brajeshwar
I won't say I've mastered it but I have started forming a pattern when reading
books. As the article's author mentioned, I usually have few books 'on-read'
at a time (both physical and kindle).

Once upon a time, when I used to travel, I tend to finish a single book of
decent size/page. Now that I read more at home, I use tiny post-its and stick
them across pages and let a small portion of it stick out of the book's page.
I find it useful for me to quickly go through afterwards or when done as some
sort of revision.

For a more intense/focused reading, I combine the above with notes. Recently
(a year since), I moved to a text-based life (kinda org-mode) and I have a
folder just for books where I write key points and write out what I read.

I don't mind skipping, and/or speed reading at times when the content is
similar or not-so-interesting. Many a book shares similar sentiments, phrases,
and key points which you can just do a fly-by kinda reading.

Btw, with the current COVID-19 circumstances, I might have completed my target
to read 50 odd books this year. I have increased myself to 100, which I
believe won't make it. I might actually be re-reading a lot more of the old
ones.

------
hectorlorenzo
“I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It
involves Russia.”

\- Woody Allen

------
rajlego
I highly encourage any of you wanting to retain more from wha though read to
use SuperMemo’s incremental reading [1] feature.

What it does summarized in a sentence: allows processing of thousands of
passive materialS in parallel to convert them effectively to active recall
item.

It’s a pretty bold claim but it’s not so fancy and complicated as it seems.

First half of the power of incremental reading is systems for processing
materially efficiently (more things in less time). If I import an article into
SuperMemo, SuperMemo has good tools for breaking it down (incrementally) and
processing it manageably. While there’s a bit of a learning curve to being
efficient, given an hour with a textbook chapter I could convert and retain
the core content better than a note taker or an anki card maker. One of the
things I like the most about it is that it makes processing manageable. It
doesn’t make it easy but I never have to worry about needing to do too much at
once. It’s all incremental and stress less (after you get over the figure out
how to use it phrase).

The second thing it does well is allow you to learn effectively (the right
things with your time). It has a priority system and a queueing algorithm that
allows you to focus on highest yield material. It also has a system for
allowing you to learn things in an order. That might seem trivial but if I’m
reading a Wikipedia page and want to go back when I’ve learned something else,
that’s a huge pain to manage traditionally. SuperMemo makes that fairly easy
so you’re always able to make sure to learn background info as scaffolding
before harder things.

I highly recommend people try it even though starting with it is pretty hard.
If you’re interested you can either email me (email is in my profile) or join
the SuperMemo discord servers also linked there.

[1]
[https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/help/read](https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/help/read)

~~~
misiti3780
I want to try it, but I do no use windows. As far as I can tell, that means I
cannot use supermemo currently - correct?

~~~
rajlego
Incorrect :)

I use SuperMemo via parallels on my hackintosh. I know a lot of other people
also using parallels on Mac.

On Linux, a kind soul got SuperMemo working via wine:
[https://www.supermemopedia.com/wiki/SuperMemo_for_Windows_un...](https://www.supermemopedia.com/wiki/SuperMemo_for_Windows_under_Wine)
(though were I still on Linux I’d probably stick to VMware because of a few
features that don’t work)

~~~
misiti3780
thanks.

------
Marcus316
The mechanical _how_ people read at higher speeds might be an interesting
topic.

What I often do when I am "reading" for knowledge can probably be simplified
down to "I read fairly quickly", but there's no nuance in that statement to
talk about what I'm doing when I'm reading and how I move so quickly.

I am often doing some combination of:

\- scanning (moving quickly across sight-words, finding relevant points of
entry into the subject matter)

\- absorbing (slower process of gathering words surrounding the entry point to
gain better local context)

\- backtracking (taking local context and fixing it into a broader context)

\- full-on processing (often this looks like deep reading, but it is more like
deep thinking; I take in fewer words from the page, but connect them to
concepts I already understand)

This is not a linear process, at least for myself.

This is different from when I read for pleasure. My pleasure reading can only
really be described as "scanning" I think. Authors who craft their paragraphs
so carefully would probably be horrified by how I enjoy their works of art,
but I appreciate their works in my own way, and I find that this reading for
pleasure is probably the fastest reading I do. I could easily consume a book
of fiction in a day or two, and I always enjoy re-reading.

Another reading skills facet: my reading out loud is pretty clumsy (or it at
least feels that way). I read often to my children, and it feels pretty slow
and clunky. I enjoy doing it, but it's not the same type of "reading".
Different skill, different goals. It's something I'm working on.

~~~
jwdunne
Re. the part about reading for pleasure: I do this too and used to think it
was a bad habit. But, actually, after years of re-reading particular
favourites multiple times, I uncover something knew that clicks more of the
story into place. It’s a delightful experience that increases the re-
readability of your favourite works :)

------
leokennis
The reading habit that changed my life: enjoy reading.

Why does everything have to be a chore?

~~~
noir_lord
Because of the mistaken belief that doing something 'productive' is better
than doing something you enjoy.

Somewhere along the line lots of people decided that if they aren't running
everyone else is running past them.

The runners then posted endless blog posts about how they are faster runners
and run for longer and it became it's old vicious circle.

I opted out, Yesterday I spent two hours sat watching a working harbour (with
the odd walk to get a coffee) - the boats coming and going, the change on the
surface of the water as clouds floated past, the gulls swooping around and it
was amazing - after that I spent a couple of hours riding around aimlessly on
a motorcycle visiting villages I'd only seen as a name on a map before and
running across interesting old buildings/memorials (socially distancing) and
then headed home as the sun set.

It was the closest I've felt to at peace in the last six months, nowhere to
go, nothing that needed to be done.

You don't have to be on a treadmill _all your life_ , running without a
destination is just running.

------
adrianmonk
> _Write notes every single time. Don’t copy paste notes from your kindle or
> phone, write manually, typing every single word. Also try to paraphrase,
> this way you are forced to actively think about the material you’re
> reading._

This basically got me through college.

With some of the less interesting stuff, my eyes would glide across the page
without my brain being engaged at all. So I'd restart, and 10 minutes later
I'd find I had read the same page 5 times and retained nothing.

Probably this happened because I impatiently wanted to get to the end ASAP, so
I would try to rush the process, ironically slowing it down.

But knowing that I was going to be writing notes was enough to make my brain
engage. I'm impatient, but I'm also too proud to write down something that I
know isn't right, even in my own notes. Also, I guess it feels good to produce
some kind of concrete work output.

~~~
mleonhard
Taking notes helped me to stay attentive during lectures that were not
engaging. In several courses my classmates photocopied my notes and used them
to study for midterms and finals. I think taking notes during lectures is more
efficient than sleeping through lectures and spending many hours studying.

------
CawCawCaw
These ideas apply mainly to nonfiction and maybe literary fiction, if one is
so inclined. For other kinds of fiction, keeping notes is distracting and
detracts from enjoyment of the text.

~~~
Brajeshwar
Yes, for fiction, you're supposed to be part of the flow, and the story. Do
not need to worry about notes or trying to 'absorb' anything in particular.

------
misiti3780
I do not see it mentioned in the comments anywhere, but the method that has
worked for me, especially for hard subjects, is to start by reading a few
books and get a "macro" view of the topic.

Example: Right now, I'm trying to learn a lot about quantum mechanics, so I
read two books and learned about the standard model, Schrödinger equation, the
three generations of matter, relativity etc. I try to determine how they all
fit together. I don't draw memory maps, but I basically try to calculate one
in my head (probably should just draw them). Then I stick all of those
concepts + new vocabulary into anki and review them daily. After a month or
two, I pick up another few books and get deeper ("micro" view). When I get
bored, I stop and move on to a new subject.

I have done this with microbiology, physics, some time periods of history,
computer science, etc. You just need to read a lot. I do not think speed
reading matters but skipping over parts of books that are not relevant will
certainly save you time.

~~~
rajlego
Have you seen quantum country [1]? A relevant cross between quantum mechanics
and SRS

[1] [https://quantum.country/](https://quantum.country/)

~~~
misiti3780
yes, i went through the first two articles a few while back. i like the idea a
lot, but i wish they would offer cards for offline (the author has a great
article on srs:
[http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html](http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html))

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guest2143
The best tool to read with is a pencil.

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rlv-dan
> Pick up multiple books from the same area to go deeper in an area. That way
> to genuinely learn about a topic.

My problem with this is that when I encounter something that I _think_ I
already know I tend to skim it, making it hard to pick up additional knowledge
that I might have missed.

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guevara
I'll second "take notes" and "paraphrase". My retention has drastically
improved when I paraphrase a piece of text and then write it down.

~~~
rajlego
I unfortunately don’t have a link on it but this is mainly because active
recall is far better than just passive review for memory effect. Memories are
like muscles: the more you struggle (without actually failing) the stronger
the memory gets. Reading isn’t a struggle so the memories stay weak,
paraphrasing and notes are thus much better or strengthening recall. SRS can
take you a level higher than that and guarantee much longer term recall via
repeated active recall

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cambaceres
> _Speed read parts that might not be useful to remember. My brain cache is
> limited, there are things I like to keep and things I just discard. Learn to
> recognize those parts of the book that you need to remember and those that
> can be discarded._

Why read those part at all if they are not meant to be remembered?

~~~
ben_
Context for the next bits that are worth remembering, or maybe the tone of the
paragraph/section changes and suddenly an interesting or exciting part pops
out and you read that normally.

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ulisesrmzroche
Only way to remember what you read is to read the same book multiple times.
It’s like how people get encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars.

The real trick is figuring out what’s worth reading twice.

There’s no value in reading fast or shallowly. Bill gates does not remember 90
percent of what he reads, urban legend.

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CharlesMerriam2
"Love is the Killer App" is great book on reading.

It discusses how to take notes in books, review them quickly, retain
information, choose books and so on.

Like all great business books, it has a wrong and misleading title. It has
nothing to do with apps.

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otikik
> Ayurvedic healing

Oh, ok. Have a good day.

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kmarc
Off-topic:

For all who complain about the paywall: [https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-
paywalls-firefox](https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox)

Yes you are right, and no, it's not nice to the author / medium / whatever.

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vs2
A blog with a paywall!!!!

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CharlesMerriam2
Yes. Medium. There's a comment above on this: private tab or delete the
cookies.

