/lit/ - Literature

http://www.maebrussell.com/Articles%20and%20Notes/How%20To%20Mark%20A%20Book.html

you do what works best for you. I usually just write down the key words, which are highlighted, with definitions, formulas, and sometimes examples.

>>15237460
>>15237469
I meant generally really, not just on what you are reading. Personal journal/notes, meetings, whatever. Thanks for the ideas though anons.

>>15237497
I personally have a journal but I tend to use it more to write down what happened rather than what I'm thinking. As a consequence, because if the social distancing this is the first instance in more than two years that I agglutinate multiple days because nothing worth noting has been happening at all.

>>15237497
>I meant generally really, not just on what you are reading. Personal journal/notes, meetings, whatever. Thanks for the ideas though anons.
bump. also interested.

>>15237469
>you do what works best for you.

>>15237435
>Unironically how do I take notes?
Ironically - with a pencil.
Unironically - with a pen.

>>15238644
Your post angers me. Pls no bully.

>>15237435
Retrieval >> Recording

>>15237435
I write read and write political philosophy so the only notes I take are arguments. If I see an argument in a book or something in a book makes me think of an argument. I write it down. These are the only useful things in philosophy books. So learn what an argument is and copy them when you see them.

>>15238716
Would you mind expanding on that?

>>15238716
Also would like more on this pls anon.

>>15238733
Okay cool thanks anon.

>>15238741
>>15238766
Note taking and highlighting are forms of recording. Retrieval involves accessing your own memory and checking for errors. Turns out that the latter is far more effective in learning and understanding new information than the former.

So instead of taking notes, highlighting, mindmapping etc. it's better to just write a short summary from memory and then check for errors. Doing this periodically ensures long-term retention.

>>15238741
Read the book “make it stick”

The poster means that actively engaging with whatever information you are taking notes on is better in the long term than simply copying directly what you are gleaning information from. Unless it is an important quote that you must directly word for word quote, rephrasing, shortening, elaborating upon, integrating with your own past experiences, extracting underlying themes or rules, or any number of other ways to play with your food will make long term retention of the information last. Me writing this post right now is an example of that. I am rephrasing into my own words, without looking at reference, what I learned in that book.

>>15238903
>it's better to just write a short summary from memory and then check for errors. Doing this periodically ensures long-term retention.
So you make no notes in situ and then afterwards write out what you remember and review the material to double check? Interesting. Thanks anon.

>>15238941
Extremely based. Thanks anon. Got a torrent or download link by any chance?

>>15239208
If you were reading something and paused after a paragraph/section and asked yourself some questions of: what did I just read? What does it mean? What do I think about that? What do I know that’s similar or different? Have I experienced something like this?

You could just ponder these questions out, and continue reading, which you probably should do. But when you reach the end of something like the whole book or a chapter, maybe the answer to these questions should be written down.
>>15239218
Nah, my kindle died and my family has audible but never uses the credits. Good luck finding it though, I bet it’s on libgen or something. If not just use a throw away email for the first free audible book.

>>15239218
You don't need it. Just look at the first chapter in the amazon's preview mode it summarizes everything you need to know. The rest of the book is just anecdotes and references to supporting research

the only reason to write anything down is to commit it to memory. I have never once taken notes on something and then gone back to look at them. I don’t even know what the hell I wrote down most of the time

>>15237435
Note taking is for brainlets. If you can't remember it, it obviously wasn't important. Read, filter, and discard the trash.

>>15239284
While this is true, I personally enjoyed the rest of the book. I feel like I needed to be convinced that the past 25 years of education was built on lies.

>>15239284
Wow perfect thanks anon

>>15239249
I do normally ponder a lot on stuff I find interesting, but I find I can linger forever that way. I really would like to race through and make notes if that meant learning whilst also getting through stuff.

>>15237435

I had my own system with indented arrows. Took lots of notes in history classes, very few notes in some other classes where I would mainly just doodle and write in the margins about how much I wanted to go back to sleep.

This is from something like 15 years ago or so now though.

>>15238903
>>15238941
Peterson said something close to that in one of his Q&As. Interesting to know from multiple sources that it works. Might as well try it. Thanks, lads.

>>15238903
This is fine if you don't have back to back to back classes or meetings on different subjects. But it doesn't work (at least for me) if you're ping-ponging between subjects/meetings.

I might have been able to get away with that in school, but these days I have probably 4 or 5 meetings a day, plus normal work and managing staff, and by the time I would have time to write down a summary of what happened at one meeting, I would have forgotten some key details and wouldn't have a good way to verify what I had forgotten.

>>15239735
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f-qkGJBPts

>>15239698
Wow that is cool anon I will steal this idea if you don't mind. Interesting system.

>>15239756
This is an important caveat to note. The retrieval method only works if you can get some sort of (preferably objective) feedback otherwise you're playing a game of telephone with yourself. For live lectures/meetings/seminars etc, recording is a viable option (make sure you ask permission if its something formal). Or you can just take notes and then use that as the feedback. Making cheatsheets from memory is useful.

Bump. Anyone use a personal wiki or other similar note taking system?

>>15241265
I started using a personal wiki based on a recommendation from a previous note-taking thread posted here a while back. Personal wikis are good for making connections between notes while maintaining an outline type of format.

I would recommend using a personal wiki, and on each page using the retrieval method from earlier in this thread. This seems like the way to go.

In terms of how to outline your notes, i'm admittedly a bit stuck since i was never good at taking outline notes in school. If another anon has other suggestions, feel free.

>>15241306
Outline notes kinda happen after the fact. Part of the importance about creating an outline is parsing the information and figuring out its higherarcical structure. When you take notes you’re going to put into an outline, chunk them out and think about how they relate, then figure out the umbrella section they go under, then figure out if that section goes into a bigger section eg. Law -> torts -> negligence -> duty -> general duty rule -> all cops are bastards. But having one with that many levels takes time. When just starting out I’d suggest each lecture/session as a subsection of a class, which is a subsection of a field of study. So that day’s class/session would only probably cover one general topic, with its few rules/facts that go under it. Another sample would be history -> American history -> texas history -> texas revolution -> the Alamo -> bowie was dope but also a fuckin asshole. By the end of the class Or the book, everything that was covered will generally have a place. Looking at the table of contents of textbooks generally helps too. Someone is already telling you the broad strokes of what’s being covered.

Read once, only make little marks if something is interesting, no written notes, which would interrupt my reading flow.
On a second read I will make bullet points. Then I list those bullet points in a numbered order that makes sense -- the first will remind me of the second, the last point is a recapitulation or conclusion, etc -- while removing any redundant points and merging closely associated points. Always rephrasing in my own words when doing this. After I have a numbered list looking the way I want, I make one broad question that covers the whole list along with the number of points; e.g. 'What's the deal with Aristotle's final causes? - 3 points'. Generally, you want one question to cover about 5 points. So if you go over just split em up and assign some points to new questions. Or you can have nested questions -- one of the points is a question with further points under it. This is my process for learning something new.
After that, it's just a matter of repetition if I want to memorize it. If I return to my notes I try to answer the questions/draw diagrams/write equations before actually reading the notes to check if I was correct. If I do particularly poorly on recall, I'll return to it the next day or revise my notes if I feel like they are just incorrect. I don't really have a system for recall & repetition, but then again I'm not studying for any express reason. I just return to my notes when I need a refresher on the topic.
To me the 'Feynman technique' just seemed like common sense; I'm always doing those steps: constantly rewriting and referencing the source or google.

>>15241823
I used to mark all my philosophy reading with symbols for 'argument,' 'premise,' 'conclusion,' etc but I found this doesn't really help with understanding. You could use it to make a beautiful flow chart/mind map but it just doesn't answer the 'why?' questions, at least for me anyways. I always find it preferable to ask/write myself questions and follow through by answering them, not to search for where and how the author answers them. This is for two reasons, it sticks better in your memory which aids in finding the answer/evidence and when you eventually come across the authors account, it will act as a reply or rejoinder to your own ideas about the topic at hand. This way, it feels more like your knowledge rather than the author's that you just internalized by rote.