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This strategy can be applied to learning as well.

The concepts are very similar to those presented in “How to Read a Book”[0].

The general gist is: create a mental outline of the book/material (via the table of contents), dive into interesting chapters, resurface to the outline, dive again, etc.

This strategy is useful for quickly building a mental model and using your own interest as the guiding light.

Similar to building quickly, the focus is on your attention/what’s most important, rather than traversing from the beginning to the end serially.

Great post!

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book




In the top directory of my improvised library of electronic books, papers and pdf prints of valuable web pages there are three uncategorized files:

- How to read a book by Adler

- How to read a paper[0]

- How to study[1]

Serves as an entrypoint and gatekeeper. Reminds me every time how to spend my time effectively there.

[0] http://ccr.sigcomm.org/online/files/p83-keshavA.pdf

[1] https://cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/howtostudy.html


How to Read a Book, is ironically one of my favorite books.

I attribute a lot of my ability to learn to this book and a teacher in high school that forced us to read and understand it.


Can you explain the irony there? I don't get it.


Presumably they had to read it without knowing how to read a book, and yet they were still able to appreciate it.


It’s just the hermeneutic circle at work, nothing magical.




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