Can I Improve The Way I read?

My attention was drawn to a YouTube video. First off was the clickbaity title – The Smartest People Read Books Like This (You Can Too). Like most of us, I’m wary of the promises in YouTube video titles. But this one was by Python Programmer. I’ve watched a few of his and they are generally pretty good. I think his name comes from his coverage of the computer language Python rather than any involvement in the Python comedy programmes.

His thesis is that in order to remember what you read, you need to engage with what you are reading by thinking about it and working to understand it. You need to create your own version and your own metaphors.

He suggested that one of the best ways to do this was to take notes. Famous people often write in the margins. The most famous example being Pierre de Fermat who proposed his last theorem in the margin of a book.

Writing notes should aim not to create a concise summary but to explore the ideas that are being presented and to create a new shape to them.

This all sounds very plausible. In fact it isn’t that different to how I normally read, but I don’t generally take notes. But perhaps I should? So immediately after watching the video I set my egg timer for 5 minutes and covered a sheet of paper with my attempt at conveying what PP had been telling me. I then leant the notes on the bottom of my screen and fired up the Most Dangerous Writing App and set off on a ten minute session to write a blog post based on what I had just done. If this works I will add it my blog and I will give it a try next time I am writing a review of something.