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My research involves reading "big, difficult books" all the time. It usually takes me 5 books on the same subject to get a firm grip on the subject. The first
by daly 7y ago
My research involves reading "big, difficult books" all the time. It usually takes me 5 books on the same subject to get a firm grip on the subject.
The first book gives me the important words.
The second book gives me the paragraphs that show how the words are used.
The third book strings together the ideas.
The fourth book shows how the ideas are used.
The fifth book makes sense and I get a grip on the subject.
Breaking into a new area where you don't even understand the words, such as in biology, is a very time consuming task.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoConsidering it seems like you're just building up your understanding one step at a time, wouldn't you also be able to read the same book 5 times?
- DelightOne 7y agoPerspectives make the picture. None is complete, and all have assumptions.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoBut that's not how the process was described. The first book is apparently only for vocabulary, the second for diction (not sure about a better term for this), third for basic concepts, fourth for application, and then finally a holistic understanding of the subject. If the case was looking at various ideas, I'd agree with you, but if the first book only "gives me the important words" and the second "gives me the paragraphs that show how the words are used" then it's not really giving you different perspectives as you're still very much in the "understanding what the book is talking about" phase.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- TeMPOraL 7y agoI think this list could be written as "after finishing book one, I have the important words; after finishing book two, I have a grasp on how these words are used", etc. I.e. the process is additive, each book lets you tease out another layer of understanding, and it's best if these are different books, because then there are more things for your brain to diff, making the understanding process faster.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoTotally fair, but given that you only pulled out the basics the first time through the book, why not go through it again to see what the book has to say about those basics? You clearly didn't get everything out of the first book on the first run through.
- jacobolus 7y agoSure, after you have skimmed 2 or 3 other books, go back and read the first one more carefully again. * * * I strongly endorse this method. Doesn‘t have to be books either. Want to learn about some cutting edge research topic in a highly technical field, but don’t want to first go through 3 years of grad-student-level coursework? Jump right in, but don’t start with a textbook or a survey paper. Start by skimming 10 or 20 (or more) arbitrary papers about related topics. Don’t worry that many terms seem like nonsense. Try to get the gist (to the extent possible) of each paper quickly. Let the methods and terminology wash over you. After that go back and read the survey paper, which should hopefully start to make sense after prior exposure to some of its ideas. Then if there are parts of that which still don’t make sense, go find the relevant textbook(s). It’s not worth reading research papers in an unfamiliar community too carefully right off the bat; most of the papers are garbage and without some exposure/context it’s sometimes hard to tell which ones. Sweating all of the details before you have the right high level impression is going to confuse you and waste your time.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoAs I said - picking a different book lets your brain make a diff. You get to see words/ideas used in different contexts, by different authors. It's like trying to approximate a relationship between a set of points. It's better to look at many points than to try and sample the same point multiple times.
- datashow 7y agoIt's very dangerous to sticking to one book. Because you don't know the field, you don't know which book is the best for you. Different introductory books can organize the topics very differently. Some introductory books could miss the crucial explanation of the most important concepts. Sometimes you can just find one single sentence in one book connects all the dots together, and you will be like: this sentence solved my so many questions, why didn't all the other books mention this?
- agumonkey 7y agoSome book may not fit your mind at the time and you may very well get stuck. I spent 10 years on a one big abstract algebra reference book. Lots of honest and long efforts: zero knowledge out of it. Someone here mentioned another book (5$ on ebay). It was an operational view on linear algebra (more data manipulation and applications than dry theory). Took 2 days to get me started. The difference was hard to believe for me. Since then I never stay with one book on a subject.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoWere you then able to understand the book you'd been fighting with for 10 years?
- agumonkey 7y agoHalf way now, you know the issues are mostly conceptual transfer block, morphism, kernel.. I couldn't see the simple idea behind the terminology and the reference book behind very dry let me sink in my own doubts. Also, to be totally honest, some ideas in functional programming have a similar flavor, so my brain was also a bit more open to these ideas.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoI'm wondering if the second book was straight up just written better.
- agumonkey 7y agoI don't think they can be placed on the same map. this is the book https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763746312/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763746312/ref=dbs_a_def_r... My ref book is high up in abstraction and concepts, it expects the reader to see the forest behind the notation tree. Williams' book is almost high school level mindset. It just takes your hand and go through the motions step by step. So that the notation's meaning is all but obvious. People with confidence and a free view of mathematics are probably capable of bridging the gaps in the ref book style. But if you're not in that mood you'll drown.
- ncphillips 7y agoCould you give some real examples of topics and the books you chose?
- TuringNYC 7y agoHow do you decide the ordering of the 5 books?
- datashow 7y agoI spend lots of time to compare the table of contents. I'll try to find the one I feel most logical to me as the first book. And then I will also find the most comprehensive book for reference.
- agumonkey 7y agoFunny I ended up liking the idea of having multiple authors on a subject to swerve around my misunderstandings. To the point that I thought that a book with two authors (two columns layout) at once may be a nice idea.