3 ms·

>density of high-quality information in a book is unmatched. Do you not get tired from this? Books I read 3 years ago are typically purged from memory by now.

>density of high-quality information in a book is unmatched. Do you not get tired from this? Books I read 3 years ago are typically purged from memory by now. What remains are understandings and intuitions on a topic, which have value, but sometimes I wonder if the time is always well spent.

theonemind 8y ago
Paul Graham's thoughts on this, if you haven't seen it: http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html I don't know if I agree. It just seemed relevant.
tasty_freeze 8y ago
I keep a log, just a simple text file, where I spend 5 minutes to 30 minutes after I finish a book to write my thoughts on it. Title + Author + 7/10 (or whatever) overall rating and a few paragraphs. The log might mention how I came to the book, what the big themes were, and for non-fiction, I write down the page number of important points that I might care to reference later.
Regardsyjc 8y ago
I love the physical books in my library because I can easily see the titles and I can turn to them easily when I need to jog my memory. This might be really weird but when I have a tough question, I like to think about what my favorite authors in my library might say, and I'll take the book out and flip through the pages, looking for their thoughts on the subject. When I spend hours reading a book, I internalize that author's voice, beliefs, and thought process. I don't need to remember all the tiny details but I remember their thought process which I consider priceless. I was going through a book called Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger and they have pages of questions to ask in the back and I realized I was automatically asking all of them on a daily basis. I had internalized that thinking.
sunstone 8y ago
Even though you can't recall things you've read on command relevant things are very likely to surface in the context of a discussion or reading something similar. The brain does a lot of this hide 'n seek stuff on you when you're not paying attention.
ulisesrmzroche 8y ago
I like to read the same book over and over if it's really good. It's like how people get encyclopedic knowledge about star wars
eatonphil 8y ago
I get more tired having to piece together the world on a topic via the Internet when no book exists (or I don't know one). Just because the density is better doesn't mean every book is dense. In terms of memory, I keep notes and titles in Goodreads. Over time I may use a more durable store but I enjoy Goodreads.

theonemind 8y ago

Paul Graham's thoughts on this, if you haven't seen it: http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html http://www.paulgraham.com/know.html I don't know if I agree. It just seemed relevant.

tasty_freeze 8y ago

I keep a log, just a simple text file, where I spend 5 minutes to 30 minutes after I finish a book to write my thoughts on it. Title + Author + 7/10 (or whatever) overall rating and a few paragraphs. The log might mention how I came to the book, what the big themes were, and for non-fiction, I write down the page number of important points that I might care to reference later.

Regardsyjc 8y ago

I love the physical books in my library because I can easily see the titles and I can turn to them easily when I need to jog my memory. This might be really weird but when I have a tough question, I like to think about what my favorite authors in my library might say, and I'll take the book out and flip through the pages, looking for their thoughts on the subject. When I spend hours reading a book, I internalize that author's voice, beliefs, and thought process. I don't need to remember all the tiny details but I remember their thought process which I consider priceless. I was going through a book called Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger and they have pages of questions to ask in the back and I realized I was automatically asking all of them on a daily basis. I had internalized that thinking.

sunstone 8y ago

Even though you can't recall things you've read on command relevant things are very likely to surface in the context of a discussion or reading something similar. The brain does a lot of this hide 'n seek stuff on you when you're not paying attention.

ulisesrmzroche 8y ago

I like to read the same book over and over if it's really good. It's like how people get encyclopedic knowledge about star wars

eatonphil 8y ago

I get more tired having to piece together the world on a topic via the Internet when no book exists (or I don't know one). Just because the density is better doesn't mean every book is dense. In terms of memory, I keep notes and titles in Goodreads. Over time I may use a more durable store but I enjoy Goodreads.