Thanks for turning these sprawling threads into nice, organised posts!
Skimming through this again, I spotted that I’d said:
Since leaving university, I haven’t really made much use of textbooks, flashcards, or reaching out to experts who aren’t already in my network. It’s not really that I actively chose to not make much use of these things (it’s just that I never actively chose to make much use of these things), and think it’s plausible that I should make more use of these things.
Turns out that the flashcards part became outdated within weeks of me writing that comment! In January, I started making Anki cards as I read/listen to books, audiobooks, podcasts, articles/posts, and videos (like talks), and sometimes after meetings I have. I’ve made ~525 cards so far.
(See here for the article that inspired me to actually start using Anki properly. Hat tip to Michelle Hutchinson for linking to that article and thus prompting me to read it.)
I also now post my cards about a book to the Forum once I’d finished the book, as something like a very low-effort book summary. (See here for an example and for discussion of whether this is worthwhile.)
I also now make brief notes of “key updates” as I read books, and include those updates as part of my Anki card posts. This is both for my own later reference and for other people. (See here for an explanation and example.)
I now plan to do these things indefinitely. I guess this has been a significant change to how I learn.
I think that many EAs would probably gain from and benefit others by using a similar process—i.e., making Anki cards and noting “key updates” as they read books, and then posting the cards and updates to the EA Forum and/or LessWrong.
I should note that I think this is relevant both for getting up to speed on a new field and for learning more about a field one already knows a decent amount about.
Thanks for turning these sprawling threads into nice, organised posts!
Skimming through this again, I spotted that I’d said:
Turns out that the flashcards part became outdated within weeks of me writing that comment! In January, I started making Anki cards as I read/listen to books, audiobooks, podcasts, articles/posts, and videos (like talks), and sometimes after meetings I have. I’ve made ~525 cards so far.
(See here for the article that inspired me to actually start using Anki properly. Hat tip to Michelle Hutchinson for linking to that article and thus prompting me to read it.)
I also now post my cards about a book to the Forum once I’d finished the book, as something like a very low-effort book summary. (See here for an example and for discussion of whether this is worthwhile.)
I also now make brief notes of “key updates” as I read books, and include those updates as part of my Anki card posts. This is both for my own later reference and for other people. (See here for an explanation and example.)
I now plan to do these things indefinitely. I guess this has been a significant change to how I learn.
I think that many EAs would probably gain from and benefit others by using a similar process—i.e., making Anki cards and noting “key updates” as they read books, and then posting the cards and updates to the EA Forum and/or LessWrong.
I should note that I think this is relevant both for getting up to speed on a new field and for learning more about a field one already knows a decent amount about.
(This comment is adapted from a section of my post A ranked list of all EA-relevant (audio)books I’ve read.)