Some time ago I've read a bit of pretty good advice: "Every time you encounter a piece of new information (lecture, blog post, book, etc), you should try to recall it immediately after". I understand the importance of active recall, and I've been pretty much hard on myself since most of the time I'm on auto-pilot just skimming everything.
Nevertheless, I struggle to make efforts to consistent active, mindful reading, questioning and engaging with information.
How to stop consuming and begin to think?
* Focus on active data consumption, eliminate passive consumption. For instance, when I read books I use a highlighter and I'm excited to find a section worth highlighting. I've gamified the consumption process.
* Separate data collection from data processing. When highlighting I'm just collecting data, not really thinking deeply. I process the data later by reviewing my highlights, then writing about them. Both are bulk operations. In my experience, separating collection from processing also helps my consistency because I've lowered the barrier to keeping the collection streak alive (days in a row reading).
* Write a brief summary highlighting the top ideas. After I finish books, I blog about them (link in bio) which clarifies my thinking and connects the dots to other books, further solidifying the knowledge.
What I love is spaced repetition of the highlights. I don't do it time based though. I do it based on subject, and this gets a lot more powerful when it's more than one book on a subject.
For example - go through my highlights on Influence (Chialdini), Thinking Fast and Slow, Poor Charlie's Almanac, and think about how they complement each other.
Seeing the same subject from multiple points of view, sometimes conflicting, other times corroborating each other is very helpful to build a more wholesome base of knowledge.
Probably having a blog helps with that since it has a desired output.
2. Don't speed through books/blog posts. I was always confused when people said they read 1 book a week (unless it was a fiction book). When I read a non-fiction book, I take weeks to read it - even if it is not something dense. I read a chapter of a book or one blog post and let the ideas wander in my head as I shower, walk, or exercise ;)
3. When you get an idea, write it down in a simple app like Notes or Trello.
I think consuming and producing information should ideally go together. Usually, I first talk about something I read with friends. Through these dialogues, where together you talk about what you have read, you gain new insights.
Some years ago I started taking private notes and shortly writing thoughts about events and articles I had read, which can be accompanied by sharing more elaborate thoughts on social networks. If I made a short note for something I read, I already started to read more carefully, because I knew I would have to write about it. It might have also made me more critical about the value of certain sources of information.
I'm now in the process of writing my first blogs publicly, on specific topics that interest me, but where I also know that at least certain friends / groups of people are interested in reading it. For me these are the first steps to make sure that I spend time on sharing thoughts and ideas that have value for others.
Here's a free sample: https://www.learninpublic.org/v1-principles-learn-in-public....
Then I went to law school and ever since I have said tongue-in-cheek I didn't know how to read until law school. I terms of recall, many classmates would highlight and write notes in the margins, but I would typically draw pictures of the case.
Coincidentally law school (at least my 1st year when I went) employed the Socratic method, it is certainly not everything regarding deep thinking or wisdom (probably nothing is a better teacher than experience itself) but it forces you to confront your own ideas, beliefs, and biases (good and bad). Lawyers are often the butt of jokes, and in most cases they deserve to be, but having insight into a wide breath of legal opinions spanning a few hundred years and the legal minds that wrote them does tend to reveal how shallow and poorly thought out most people's ideas are with respect to issues they feel so strongly about in the law (1st amendment rights, 2nd amendment), and its not even that I always disagree with someone's ultimate positions or conclusion, just how there is no meat on the bone.
I am not really sure how you might go about understanding my experience, but maybe you could find some law classes that have been recorded and put on youtube, find an are of the law you are interested and watch a few classes (1st Amendment, criminal law, torts, contracts might be good if they interest you)
So those would be the types of things students highlight/annotate in the margins, whereas more than 50% of the time I would draw pictures. That said I don't think I have ever met anyone who says making notes or even rewriting what they read doesn't help them memorize it, of course memorizing isn't always the goal.
Coincidentally the school I went to was majority Hispanic so one day in my study group there was an interesting discussion about the language everyone thinks in, no one asked for obvious reasons, but what I found interesting was I realized I don't really think in words but images.
To each their own, but thinking in images and drawing pictures for notes went hand in hand with recalling a given case/case law when examining or issue spotting a given set of facts in the future. I think the take away is not to do as I do, but consider your biases, strengths, weaknesses and work on them accordingly and leverage them to your benefit, and don't be afraid to adjust your own strategies as your skillset develops.
I am lucky in that I have that natural curiosity that I see talked about a lot on HN, I might even go so far as to say I am passionate about learning in general.
1. Before 2. During 3. After
The first "Before" section is to list down your preconceptions about the topic you're going to read about. What do you think you already know about the topic? What do you feel about the topic? And so on.
Next, as you go through the book page by page, contrast whatever you encounter with your preconceptions. Is there anything new or interesting there? Actively seek interesting-ness or novelty. Or is there a fact that contradicts or supports your preconceptions? Note all of those down.
And once you're done with reading, spend some time listing down your thoughts in the "After" section. Have you become wiser due to the book? Do you feel better at knowing more? Have you clarified your understanding of the world or yourself? Or at least, do you have more questions on the topic with you for further study?
If you have additional time, restructure everything you store into a blog-post. I modified this idea originally from Farnam Street (https://fs.blog).
In the long run, this sort of delta-maximization framework can become powerful and addictive and a great addition to your life.
Stop reading and find time to think.
Also start doing or it remains theory and there's no reward, nothing gained. Can be writing, can be implementing stuff, can be teaching. Doesn't matter. But without doing there's no feedback on the validity of your thinking.
Reading for pleasure is something else. That's the reward.
Start small and be forgiving as you build a habit. Per BJ Fogg’s “Tiny Habits”, if you remember the next day that you forgot to practice guitar, celebrate the fact that you remembered!
Edit to add: [1] https://apps.ankiweb.net/
Congratulations, if you do that, because you've solved your active reading and deep thinking problem. Habitually, you will read actively and think deeply. Keep in mind, you'll still have your other bad habits. You'll still read mindlessly and procrastinate during other times. However, you won't always be doing that. You're going to have a better base to work from.
Later you can read books like Miracle Morning to improve your morning habits, Bullet Journal to create short notes for yourself to work from later, and How To Take Smarter Notes to get a deeper dive on the topic of active reading than anyone in the other comments has had time to go into.
* I have a separate virtual desktop with only my note taking tool (always open). Copy/paste or use a plug-in to feed anything interesting to note taking app / tag it. I use Roam Research (allows bidirectional linking, but you can use anything).
* I often use the "5 whys" technique as a BS detector as I manage my team. I do that with myself too lately and find it quickly tells me when my understanding bottoms out (often by the third "why")
* I have been using a voice memo app to talk to myself when outside. I form narratives better when I speak (out loud) and retain information much better than when I write (though writing is better than nothing or "saying it in your head")
I totally agree with the advice about getting a blog. But don't just write about a narrow field, write about everything you can think of. You don't know where your next passion will come from.
And then accept feedback from other people. Think about why they're disagreeing with you. Test your ideas, and throw them away if they're wrong.
Try to be humble. Accept that you will not change the world in week one. But keep pushing yourself, keep trying to understand better and explain better, and you will get better all the time.
Start with question “why” and the moment you find concrete and important answer — you stop asking generic “how” questions.
Books (IMO) tend to be better for than webpages for retaining information because they take much longer to read. Prefer books over webpages.
...that if read (uh, slowly, for that first paragraph or 2 in that section on skimming) has ideas that help me a lot: reading the beginning/end, decide whether to read more, based on life purpose and priorities, and whether I am trying to focus on a task or just relax and enjoy. Also depending on the kind of material and how it is written.
ps: lately I have been thinking I have so many "actionable" ideas and things piled up in my notes, that I try (sometimes?) to read or note only those things that are >=85% likely to change my thoughts or actions for the better in the next 3-4 months; very questionable whether I am good at that. YMMV.
When I have too too many tabs open I'll save the entire set using a bookmark manager, then start afresh, go through the previous tabs one-by-one, and reopen the really interesting ones, and do a bit more research around them.
I'm not sure this really counts as a rational or sane process though!
Specifically, the notion of reading with a pen in hand for making “fleeting notes” as I read, then returning to those (shortly thereafter) to rewrite the information in my own words into single-idea “permanent notes”.
Read more, from different sources. Compare and contrast.
Read all again. Compare and contrast.
Write down your own synthesis.
Congrats, you are a thinker now.
For depth, rinse & repeat by reading about different-but-similar subjects.
As for deep thinking be hyper critical. Do not trust the idea provided, especially if it requires any social contract for validation. That is the difference between agreement and disruption.
2. Abandon the “consistent” part of this goal. Curiosity and creativity is inconsistent.
3. Talk with other people about this.
Copy and paste them to a text file. (Think of not doing that as throwing your life away.)
Arrange them by topic later, as the file size gets unwieldy. Read and reread them, which hopefully will be hard not to do, as they are your favourite quotes. Write little comments and commentaries on them as you wish – illustrative examples from your life, things it reminds you of, parts you don't quite agree with and why, etc.
I've also started writing my thoughts to the notes file, e.g. all ideas I have for something to do. Without doing this they'd just be idle thoughts soon lost. I've started making LaTeX PDF books out of stuff from the text file, one for the current year and others for particular topics as they become big enough and branch off. I just wish I'd started 30 years earlier! To the notes file goes anything of any significance that passed through my head and might be of value later. Sorting that into topics, and whether it's my or someone else's words, comes later.
I've come across many mentions of writers (from the last few hundred years) always carrying a notebook, and writing thoughts, ideas, images down in a notebook. Other people then read their books and think they're deep thinkers. Maybe, or they just realized the value of their thoughts — priceless — and never let one go to waste. e.g. Emerson's notebooks, Lichtenberg's "waste books" (more concentrated nuggets of thought, from a scientist/thinker). Emerson couldn't write the way he wrote – his essays are stuff from his notebooks of many years stuck together.
This Book is my Savings Bank. I grow richer because I have somewhere to deposit my earnings; and fractions are worth more to me because corresponding fractions are waiting here that shall be made integers by their addition. – Emerson, journals, Nov-Dec 1833
When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book? – Lichtenberg
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking. – Lichtenberg
The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, – 1. Never read any book that is not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed books. 3. Never read any but what you like… – Emerson, (VII 196)
You must keep two objectives constantly in mind when you are reading if you are to read wisely and judiciously: firstly to retain the matter you are reading and to unite it with your own system of thought, then above all to appropriate for your own the way in which other people have viewed the matter. That is why everyone should be warned against reading books written by bunglers, especially when they include their reasonings and arguments: you can learn of various matters from their compilations but – what is to a philosopher just as important, if not more important – you cannot learn from them how to bestow upon your mode of thinking an appropriate form. – Lichtenberg
Edit: I have very many thoughts on this (at my web sites), and I use www.onemodel.org (AGPL, text-oriented, desktop) software to organize all those thoughts like you describe. But I need (sometime) to make it easier to install.
Edit2 (noted elsewhere but seems to apply here too): lately I have been thinking I have so many "actionable" ideas and things piled up in my notes, that I try (sometimes?) to read or note only those things that are >=85% likely to change my thoughts or actions for the better in the next 3-4 months; very questionable whether I am good at that, or whether it applies to other situations. YMMV.
If you have a science background then read 1) Good to Great 2) Life 3.0
If you don't have a science background 1) Future of Capitalism. 2) Good to Great
"Good to great" is a fantastic book for every entrepreneur out there.
Go! read them right now.
