4 ms·
How much of a topic clicking is just reading from several different sources, rather than one source being particularly "good"? I often joke with a coworker that
by stagger87 4y ago
How much of a topic clicking is just reading from several different sources, rather than one source being particularly "good"? I often joke with a coworker that we don't fully understand a topic until we have read several textbooks/papers on it. It doesn't really matter how good any one text is. I've always wondered what the mechanism is for this. Is is just a certain amount of exposure to a topic? Or is there truly something different enough about the way different authors present material that once you have read from a few, things connect differently?
That being said, how many people are citing specific sources, when it was really just additional exposure to a topic that helped something "click"?
- redog 4y agoIt's just focused practice. Something about the brain requires frequent breaks but with repeated focused practice it seems to reach almost an autopilot like ability.
- sixhobbits 4y agoCame here to say this. Often I give too much credit to the "last" source, but it's a bit like "your keys are always in the last place you look". You definitely get good sources and bad ones, and discovering a good one after weeks or months of wrestling with bad ones is hugely satisfying, but sometimes the journey really is the destination.
- hiq 4y agoAlso called "syntopical reading" in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book.
- antognini 4y agoThere is a joke in physics that the best textbook on any topic is the third one you read.
- hateful 4y agoI'd imagine this is very similar to why you have to tell someone something 3 times, 3 different ways for them to understand it.