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Your brain has a policy of use it or lose it. If what you are reading is relevant to what you are doing, you would remember it otherwise finer details would mos
by sytelus 12y ago
Your brain has a policy of use it or lose it. If what you are reading is relevant to what you are doing, you would remember it otherwise finer details would mostly evaporate rather quickly. This is not just about books but for other things in life too, for example, your past travels or people you meet day to day. Some people are fortunate to have photographic memory way in to their 30s but that's rare.
For most things in life, I would suggest using this philosophy: You don't want to or need to remember everything, rather you want to figure out what insight you attained from something. For example, after reading a book, writing down the summery, your opinions and insights at that point would help you more than remembering every detail. Some people use margin of the book or highlight passages that they find useful and that's good technique that really works. Similarly for your travels, instead of writing down every tiny details if you just maintain logs of surprises and insights you attained each day would be great way to remember it. Lot of people just go through one book after another and that's actually significant waste of time as you are not taking time to digest and reflect on the effort you put in to go through the thing. Writing things down jogs your memory, forces you to ask questions and brings up the critical insights that you are otherwise just passing by. In essence, 3 things helps you the most: write, write and write :).
- Brakenshire 12y ago> If what you are reading is relevant to what you are doing Or relevant to what you are thinking. I think you really start to pick up knowledge about history, for instance, when you start connecting things you are reading with what you already know.
- ljk 12y ago>For example, after reading a book, writing down the summery, your opinions and insights at that point would help you more than remembering every detail. I usually type up notes "on the cloud", what's your opinion on writing up notes v.s. typing the notes?
- cristianpascu 12y agoI find using a computer while reading a book to be very distracting. Or a phone. I don't like scribbling on a book. I'm hopeless. :)
- ics 12y agoSee my response below regarding note cards. As an alternative, a twice-folded sheet of letter size paper may be more available and gives you much more space. I lay the card down either beside the page I am reading or on the back cover (you can affix with tape if this makes it easier) depending on the size of the book.
- sytelus 12y agoI type my notes in "the cloud" too. Typed notes vs written notes, there is pretty much no contest. Searchability, longevity, mobility etc points are too strong to ignore. Most books/papers I read are in fact in pdf form these days. I use GoodReader on iPad to do annotations as I read and that stays with my PDF. The one thing I have yet to figure out is how do I do that with audio books. My commute allows me to read 1 audiobook each week but because of lack of annotations and systematic reflection, it's super hard to get true value out of them.