5 ms·

One form this takes is that, even when you forget the details, you retain the general shape of the subject matter. You might not remember all the details about

by thorum 2y ago

One form this takes is that, even when you forget the details, you retain the general shape of the subject matter. You might not remember all the details about XYZ, but now at least you know XYZ exists: your internal map of the world is expanded and corrected, even if parts are a bit fuzzy.

ahazred8ta 2y ago
There's a trick when reading nonfiction: read the table of contents, then flip ahead and read the entire index. You now have a good understanding of what topics the book covers, and where in the book they are. You can crank through a stack of 10 or 20 books and get a good sense of which ones are really worth reading. 'Half of all knowledge is simply knowing where to find the knowledge.'
- bashd4 2y ago
  Thank you for commenting this. I can imagine this being supremely useful, especially if you decide to go ahead and read a book and it tells you much more than you would've guessed :) (either the titles/index are bad, or the content is good)
- vasco 2y ago
  Also read the last page of every chapter, and you can avoid 90% of the fluff if it's non-fiction. Authors start with a short draft that is only juice and then add spam to make it into a book. That initial juice is the summaries of chapters that you find on the last page or two. The initial part of the chapter is just fluff and examples to drill the point down because they think you need 10 examples for each concept in order to justify paying as much for a blog post as you would for a book.
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  Some authors even put fanservice in the index.
rramadass 2y ago
Well put! This is exactly why i tell people to always get a book on any subject that catches their fancy and browse them at the very least. Many parts will be fuzzy if you are not using/working with them but that is no excuse for not knowing about them. Once the mind is exposed to various concepts/ideas it automagically stitches them into a coherent whole without you being conscious of it. A good way to think about it is the description of Mycroft Holmes by Sherlock Holmes; "The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience. We will suppose that a minister needs information as to a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question; he could get his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would affect the other. They began by using him as a short-cut, a convenience; now he has made himself an essential. In that great brain of his everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed out in an instant."
squeegmeister 2y ago
Yes, and because you now know it exists, and you later look it up again if you need the specific details. Which you otherwise wouldn’t know to do

by thorum 2y ago

ahazred8ta 2y ago

There's a trick when reading nonfiction: read the table of contents, then flip ahead and read the entire index. You now have a good understanding of what topics the book covers, and where in the book they are. You can crank through a stack of 10 or 20 books and get a good sense of which ones are really worth reading. 'Half of all knowledge is simply knowing where to find the knowledge.'

bashd4 2y ago
Thank you for commenting this. I can imagine this being supremely useful, especially if you decide to go ahead and read a book and it tells you much more than you would've guessed :) (either the titles/index are bad, or the content is good)
vasco 2y ago
Also read the last page of every chapter, and you can avoid 90% of the fluff if it's non-fiction. Authors start with a short draft that is only juice and then add spam to make it into a book. That initial juice is the summaries of chapters that you find on the last page or two. The initial part of the chapter is just fluff and examples to drill the point down because they think you need 10 examples for each concept in order to justify paying as much for a blog post as you would for a book.
082349872349872 2y ago
Some authors even put fanservice in the index.

rramadass 2y ago

Well put! This is exactly why i tell people to always get a book on any subject that catches their fancy and browse them at the very least. Many parts will be fuzzy if you are not using/working with them but that is no excuse for not knowing about them. Once the mind is exposed to various concepts/ideas it automagically stitches them into a coherent whole without you being conscious of it. A good way to think about it is the description of Mycroft Holmes by Sherlock Holmes; "The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience. We will suppose that a minister needs information as to a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question; he could get his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would affect the other. They began by using him as a short-cut, a convenience; now he has made himself an essential. In that great brain of his everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed out in an instant."

squeegmeister 2y ago

Yes, and because you now know it exists, and you later look it up again if you need the specific details. Which you otherwise wouldn’t know to do