My learning goals for the year are somewhat intertwined, where one is āforming more viewsā and another is ādeveloping better models of the worldā. The things Iām doing are each somewhat focused on each, partly because I only want to form sensible /ā well informed views, and partly because I think Iāll only feel comfortable forming views if I am in some sense conscious of knowing about a topic. The thing most focused on the āforming viewsā side is writingāwhere that doesnāt need to be shared with anyone. But a few other things Iām doing:
Pay more attention to what rhythms/āhabits I can get into that make broad learning easy. For example:
I love quizzing people about their job /ā something they know about. So Iām aiming to talk to one person a week whoās in an area I want to know more about.
I go for a walk everyday, and my plan is that every day Iāll start that by listening to an article on pocket (after that I can just listen to music if I want, but often by then Iām into listening to pocket and continue). This is useful for me because I far prefer listening to things than reading.
I organised my bookmarks into better folders of things to read /ā watch with priorities, which means that so far (cross fingers I can continue!) Iāve actually been keeping track of things I want to read later rather than leaving the tabs open and hoping I get back to them later.
I also want to have a better sense of knowing that I know about an area, and a ready picture of what the landscape in that area looks like. I think the main thing to do there is to deliberately learn and memorise facts rather than simply reading around areas (so that I know that I read some book but am not sure how much Iād recall about the area unless asked specific questions). That involves reading /ā watching overviews of an area, and then putting into anki the key things I want to remember. (I think this is the article I found most helpful on using anki.)
My hope is that the combination of the above, and then sitting down to physically write down my overall take on some issue, will help. The final step then would be getting other peopleās views on my takes, if I get to the point of being happy to share with a colleague or others.
Iād love to hear other thoughts on how I could improve at this!
You might be interested in Readwise (which can integrate with pocket and Kindle and others) - it collects pages and highlights and has a tagging system. Also, it has an automatic system for spaced repetition/ārecall.
Weirdly not that much off-topic, but Iām curious about what else are you doing to āimprove at forming views on difficult amorphous topicsā?
My learning goals for the year are somewhat intertwined, where one is āforming more viewsā and another is ādeveloping better models of the worldā. The things Iām doing are each somewhat focused on each, partly because I only want to form sensible /ā well informed views, and partly because I think Iāll only feel comfortable forming views if I am in some sense conscious of knowing about a topic. The thing most focused on the āforming viewsā side is writingāwhere that doesnāt need to be shared with anyone. But a few other things Iām doing:
Pay more attention to what rhythms/āhabits I can get into that make broad learning easy. For example:
I love quizzing people about their job /ā something they know about. So Iām aiming to talk to one person a week whoās in an area I want to know more about.
I go for a walk everyday, and my plan is that every day Iāll start that by listening to an article on pocket (after that I can just listen to music if I want, but often by then Iām into listening to pocket and continue). This is useful for me because I far prefer listening to things than reading.
I organised my bookmarks into better folders of things to read /ā watch with priorities, which means that so far (cross fingers I can continue!) Iāve actually been keeping track of things I want to read later rather than leaving the tabs open and hoping I get back to them later.
I also want to have a better sense of knowing that I know about an area, and a ready picture of what the landscape in that area looks like. I think the main thing to do there is to deliberately learn and memorise facts rather than simply reading around areas (so that I know that I read some book but am not sure how much Iād recall about the area unless asked specific questions). That involves reading /ā watching overviews of an area, and then putting into anki the key things I want to remember. (I think this is the article I found most helpful on using anki.)
My hope is that the combination of the above, and then sitting down to physically write down my overall take on some issue, will help. The final step then would be getting other peopleās views on my takes, if I get to the point of being happy to share with a colleague or others.
Iād love to hear other thoughts on how I could improve at this!
Thank you, love it!
You might be interested in Readwise (which can integrate with pocket and Kindle and others) - it collects pages and highlights and has a tagging system. Also, it has an automatic system for spaced repetition/ārecall.