Living Ideas

Reading books isn’t as popular as it once was.  Computer games, TV, movies, and internet surfing all compete for our attention, and reading rarely wins. (Although the Harry Potter books have brought a new excitement about reading to many children)

Most of my kids are rabid readers.  They go to the public library and check out piles of books. My oldest daughter doesn’t read books; she inhales them.  I read pretty fast, but not compared to her.

Many of my children read just for pleasure, not to remember what they learn. The great surge in reading that took place in the 19th century came from the availability of entertaining fiction, not non-fiction.  Still, there are many people, like my wife and I, who read mostly to learn. There’s tremendous pleasure in it, but we want to learn, and we want to remember.

People who love to read and learn have to face an unpleasant truth.We forget most of what we learn. Ok, we enjoyed the reading, but is it learning?  Is there much of a point doing it if I forget it?  Six months from now when it’s forgotten, the time spent will be all wasted.

Even those who remember what they’ve read don’t always put it to use. Maybe the new ideas involve making changes in my life, and change doesn’t come easy. Also, there’s a relatively small amount of information in a book that’s really useful. The key points often get lost in the 200 or 300 pages that fill up the book.

What can I do about it, right now, today? Make an idea file.

As you read (or listen) to instructional books and other media, take notes about the essential points.  Boil it down to its essentials.  Get your notes into some program that will let you search through the text, and assign your own keywords.  There are many possible software programs you can use.  One that I use which has a significant learning curve, but is extraordinarily powerful, is the Literary Machine.

Why do you need keywords in addition to text search? Each of us looks at the world in her own way, and has certain concepts that resonate.  I pick the words that most powerfully represent (for me) certain categories and ideas.  Then I assign my keywords to different book notes, or sections of book notes where I feel that there’s something important to the category or idea.  I set up a review schedule to go over the brief notes from each book, and keep the ideas fresh in my head, keep them alive, and put them to use.

You can also use your notes to put together your own articles or books or courses.  I’m not talking about copying the books you’ve read.  Instead you take some of the key ideas from multiple books, and arrange them in your own unique ways with additional material of your own, and filled with your passion.

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