How I Learned to Read

If you're anything like me you have trouble focusing - a lot. For the longest time I simply did not think I possessed the attention span, or even a derivative of one, that was necessary to sit down and read a book. I would find myself blankly staring at the same page and having to read paragraphs over and over.

How did I solve this? Well, I haven't completely yet, but what I have figured out is that I have to get excited about what I'm reading. If I'm not completely convinced that I can take away something that will benefit myself then I begin to put off reading, loose interest and end up doing something else. This of course brought an influx of books that covered controversial topics. Flash Boys is a perfect example of a book that excited me; it was all over the news, people were debating high frequency trading left and right. I had to read it, I value intelligent conversation and conversing more than anything else; Flash Boys was something I wanted to discuss.

I have found that reading is much more enjoyable when you talk about what you're reading with someone else; this has helped me become more motivated to read as well as get much more out of the exercise. This blog is one of my outlets for discussion. Here I get to discuss what I'm reading and what I have read; it has been very beneficial and I highly recommend participating in both oral and written discussion. What's more is that I am far more likely to read and enjoy a book that someone lent to me than one I find organically, this is because I have both reputable source that says it's worth my time, and a resource that will discuss the material with me throughout the process.

Recently, I read a blog post by Shane Parrish discussing a system for remembering what you read. While many of the suggestions were focused of remembering, I find many of the point's relative for motivating:

• Start with the index, table of contents, and the preface. This will give you a good sense of the book.
• Be ok with deciding now is not the time to read the book.
• Read one book at a time.
• Put it down if you lose interest.
• Mark up the book while reading it. Questions. Thoughts. And, more importantly, connections to other ideas.
• At the end of each chapter, without looking back, write some notes on the main points/arguments/take-aways. Then look back through the chapter and put anything down you missed.
• Specifically note anything that was in the chapter that you can apply somewhere else.
• When you're done the book, take out a blank sheet of paper and explain the core ideas/arguments of the book to yourself. Where you have problems, go back and review your notes. This is the Feynman Technique.
• Put the book down for a week.
• Pick the book back up, re-read all of your notes/highlights/marginalia/etc. Time is a good filter - what's still important? Note this in the inside of the cover with a reference to the page number.
• Put the notes that you want to keep in your common place book/resource.

-Luke