
Ask HN: How do you remember the best stuff from non fiction books? - ismail
I read quite a bit of non-fiction books. I often find that as time passes i forget the techniques, methods or key insights.<p>What is your process for remembering the most important things from non fiction books?<p>I have been experimenting with the following:<p>1. Highlights in Kindle<p>2. Once the book is complete, copy to evernote<p>3. Revise, Delete, reorder and organize<p>4. Create a mind-map<p>Depending on the number of highlights it can be quite time consuming.
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brudgers
I use a bookshelf. When I'm trying to remember something I read, I find the
book and read it again. The advantage over taking notes, which I used to do,
is that between the time I've read something and the time I'm trying to
remember it, I've read lots of other things and my understanding has
changed...well there's other advantages as well. I can spend time reading
instead of taking notes. The book is the source and the notes are always more
vague.

There are some caveats. I like physical books. I don't worry about trying to
remember everything based on the realization that there won't be a test next
week. I don't try to write down every idea I have as I read because I have
many many ideas and the most important ones bubble up naturally from synthesis
over time -- they're not little facts, they're big abstractions.

Interestingly, yesterday I was reading a technical book I bought about four or
five years ago (a used copy of _ANSI Common Lisp_ ) and read a note I had
written in the margin perhaps a year after buying it (I'm on Norvig's 21 day
plan for learning Common Lisp, apparently). Anyway, the epiphany I'd had and
written down was obvious in the text I read up to the point of the marginal
note as I read it yesterday and it took me longer to understand the note than
the text.

One of the good things about getting older is rereading (fiction and non-
fiction) books. After a few years good books are different books when they are
reread.

[http://norvig.com/21-days.html](http://norvig.com/21-days.html)

