How I Let to Read to Comprehend
A short story of how I created a process to stop reading to start to comprehend.
I still remember the old days at school — when to read was part of an important learning process, where the students needed to think deep right while reading. The teachers demanded a “reading record” of the book: the actors, the screenplay, the scenarios, the time and so on. In the end you should act like a teacher: explain to your pairs about the story. What better than that? There was no big deal: no comprehension, no explanation.
At school I really learned to love reading, but all of a sudden I had lost that feeling.
Recently, I have been in a hiatus and decided it was a reasonable time to rethink about it. Good books were an ally (and still are), but people gave up this, to be anxious, frenetically searching and reading everything - by search I mean, your favorite search engine (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc) */ing. Indeed, this is not bad. Since you do it consciously. For “consciously” we will see a bit better, so let’s go to the next steps.
A strange phenomena
Being a programmer and always willing to help people, I’m always called to help or to discuss something (code, technology, entrepreneurship, among other things). I love this so much! Since I got on people’s desks, a curious phenomena called my attention: how frequently they looked for solutions that were nose ahead or that was a just a matter of reflecting.
It’s really common that people read across the web. It’s practical, easy, give you results in magic pass. More curiously, to chat can be mind opening, a great help to spark the solution. So, why anxiously keep searching? I thought was always in my mind: “Are we really learning this way?”.
As companies already know, convenience is king.
Why not to use dedicated web pages to read more, to learn something, to look for solutions? As companies already know, we, as human beings have a strong tendency to go for convenience. Less cables, more space, less typing, delivery and automated tasks in general. It’s great, but creates a lack of confidence in what we read, learn and teach. It’s the “hell’s cycle” as I use to call it. Once you start, you can’t stop it. It’s always there, 6 words typed from success, showing a lot of results. The big picture is: fast food is convenient, but is it healthy?
What did you read today? Then a hiatus appears.
The way you practice the better you get
Thinking of it, I wouldn’t call it a formal method, but some kind of workflow to help you improve the way you read and learn things. Whatever you read, be a hardcover book, a web site any other “media”, looks convenient too.
I’m a 20-something years old guy, web oriented, still reading books (hardcover), e-books and much, I said - much more, across the web. I’m among the 5% of most avid readers from Pocket last year. I read much, so I needed to find a way to be more effective.
The relief workflow
Particularly, I just had to change the ways I use my tools. Not much of what I use, but how I use. I kept almost all the same tools I was mistakenly using. I had to find a way to truly love reading again.
A brief introduce of how I start my days: Fast check my e-mail, open Feedly, NY Times and some other pages for news reading. Read a bit about local issues, my community, about the world and finally my inner interests: brain, cognition, computers, design, economy, entrepreneurship, intelligence, technology and what else calls my attention. Between some breaks during the day, I keep reading. And talking about reading, there’s a good article that I always remember: The Buffet Formula — How to Get Smarter.
Warren Buffet
Warren Buffett once said: “I just sit in my office and read all day.”
The toolbox
What’s been effective to improve my readings: browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc), Pocket, Evernote, Feedly, Google+, Quora and e-mail.
Nowadays, my choice as default browser is Firefox (OSX and Windows). I let it so minimalist that I can easily focus. Pay attention to my Firefox Sync account configured (intentionally omitted) [1]. It gives me flexibility whenever I am.
History, tabs, add-ons, preferences and passwords anywhere. Someone send me a link? Once It open, it’s kept. Read something through a social network? Idem. You got the power, you got the control.
Is an amazing service on the web to help you “read things later”. We usually don’t have much time, so why not to read later? I swear Pocket is something I’d like to have developed a long ago. I created a similar add-on for this, but haven’t prospered. I was so amateur for this. Thanks Pocket (it was known as “Read it later”) appeared. For this workflow, Pocket is my main tool, coordinating everything. Once it’s in Pocket and Firefox doing the job of recording my history, I can remember it anytime. One of the best things of Pocket is that you keep the articles, delete it or archive it, besides a efficient tag system. It’s quite easy to find anything.
Evernote
Evernote is responsible for keeping my drafts, ideas, studies and to keep web clips records. If I see something curious, notorious or even amazing, I simply clip it. Evernote Web Clipper is a great tool for this. I consider Evernote fuel for my writings and ideas.
Feedly
If you are on the web for a long, you’ve probably heard about RSS. I might say you were a fanatic Google Reader user before it died. Feedly came to fill the blank and is a great tool to keep your mind working. What is good? Read all your things aggregated, neatly organized. If there’s something I like, it goes to Pocket.
Google+
Since I realized Facebook was narcissistic, where people love to express themselves, for themselves, by themselves, I tried Google+ again. I believe it’s more about what people are doing good: news, new tools, new projects, etc. If I find something exciting, it goes to Pocket via Firefox add-on.
Quora
What to say of this Q&A page where people interact in a big variety of subjects and you can discover really curious things? I love it. People in Quora are usually really helpful, respectful, telling amazing stories everyday.
Through e-mail is where I read newsletters and where the news comes to me, like a magic. Any service you may be using, I hope it gives you flexibility: starred and tagged messages, besides a great search mechanism inside your Inbox comfort. Here my choice is Gmail. Considering most of the content are links, Pocket is king again.
If I read this text and it wasn’t mine, I would ask: “Tools are just tools, isn’t it?” Sure. Besides using tools and observing how eager people are looking to read and consume information I noticed the following behaviors in how people act:
- They don’t care about where they read information;
- Prefer to search again, instead of spying their own backyard (browser history, tools, etc);
- Usually don’t remember which terms were used for search, resulting in different results;
- Can’t keep a mind record of what they read;
- Never take notes of the reading.
From these 5 points, I realize people are losing a great opportunity to learn. Worst yet: to look like an empty speaker, not an avid learner, even a teacher. We are losing a great opportunity to track our thoughts, to fall in love with reading again.
What If I need something and I know where I can find that, then I go directly: type in the address bar and it’s ready. Each page has it’s own proposal. Why not to search there?
Search engines are great with a lot of resources and advanced use, I’m not discussing this, obviously. They are an amazing tool for a lot of things: search detailed information, different sources, research, etc. These kind of mechanisms are even better for things you have no idea, terms you really don’t know. What we have to think a bit more is how those search engines are making us less concerned, lazy and losing the opportunity to connect the neurons.
“The right tool for the right job.” I used search engines, but couldn’t find who told this first.
For almost 7 months I have used these techniques and I dare you to ask me anything about the things I read: where, when, discuss and send you the link.
This article reflects my thoughts and tools I have used to improve my memory, learning and teaching capacities. Feel free to contribute, to give your opinions and tell us a bit more of what you use in your daily worflow.