Deep Learning with Books and Reading

[Buck Edwards]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

At this point, no. It's all just pure intuition for me now. I rapidly flip through videos, websites, news, books, audio books, speeches, podcasts -- and rapidly and intuitively sort the crap from the gold. It's all about finding the gold in a ocean of crap.

I used to hold books and people in high regard. Now I just pick through their bones like a vulture looking for the organ meat. If I see no organ meat I fly off to the next carcass.

#EpistemicVulture

Did you hone this skill over years and years or were you always really good at this from the start? I really struggle in this area and I have been struggling for 7 years now. I see very little improvements in myself and really slow. I wish I could read like you, it would be awesome to do that. I get very bogged down and tired after just reading a few lines. Are there any special tricks you use to make your reading interesting and motivating? I suck at it and I'm still trying hard to make reading as palatable as possible. Also what's better for you, reading versus listening to audio books. I struggle with autism so listening to audio books is an over stimulation for me. 

Edited October 1 by Buck Edwards

[bazera]

@Leo Gura 

Quote

But 95% of my "reading" is audio books now.

When do you find time to listen to so many books? During driving, house chores, walking, exercising, etc?

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, bazera said:

@Leo Gura 

When do you find time to listen to so many books? During driving, house chores, walking, exercising, etc?

All the above and I can just take days off to listen.

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Buck Edwards said:

Did you hone this skill over years and years or were you always really good at this from the start? I really struggle in this area and I have been struggling for 7 years now. I see very little improvements in myself and really slow. I wish I could read like you, it would be awesome to do that. I get very bogged down and tired after just reading a few lines. Are there any special tricks you use to make your reading interesting and motivating? I suck at it and I'm still trying hard to make reading as palatable as possible. Also what's better for you, reading versus listening to audio books. I struggle with autism so listening to audio books is an over stimulation for me. 

Once you found a good book there is no other skill but to sit and focus and listen. And if a section of a book gets too repetitive you can skip forward 10-20 minutes and see if it gets any better.

[Alex4]

If I realize the book is good but didn't fully absorb its content, I read it again a few months later. And when possible I try to watch documentaries on the same subject. 

[LukeZ]

On 9/30/2024 at 3:54 PM, Leo Gura said:

It mostly takes too much time.

You can make a small list of top take-aways at the end of each book.

Have you ever tried mind-mapping as you go? I've been experimenting with this and it takes way less time. Although the things it helps you remember will be different and less detailed than notes.

@Buck Edwards

I would recommend Justin Sung on Youtube for these kinds of things. He has a lot of videos on reading difficult texts, motivation, learning science, and more.

[LukeZ]

On 9/30/2024 at 4:13 AM, Brandon Nankivell said:

If I were studying for an exam, doing school work, or writing for a work project - I would be more intentional about using processes like copy and pasting to a doc, deeper internet research on stuff I don't understand, cross-comparing highlights with stuff I've highlighted in other books.

I often do a general 'book scan' for the nuggets or point of interest by examining the table of contents and reading the first and last bits of each chapter.

That is interesting, I've been doing something similar to the book scan but with chapters and longer articles for school. I suppose with school it's been harder to identify points of interest or important sections because I'm following someone else's curriculum. So far I've noticed it at least keeps my mind active as I read because it's easy to just passively read going linearly.

[Nemra]

@Leo Gura, great post you posted on your blog about multi-modal learning!

Edited October 2 by Nemra

[Human Mint]

I want to add, it's a good practice to contemplate why you want to read books, or what are you interested in, so that after years of reading you'll gain a better understanding of exactly that which you contemplated about. Sort of like creating a "Life purpose" but of the topic of reading, or I should say finding your "Reading purpose".

Also, a good book speaks for itself.