Today I reread an article I wrote before and found this "old article".
This topic originated from a question asked by a friend in May: how to remember the essence of a book and use it whenever needed. I feel ashamed that it took me until now to answer.
I don't know if most people have seen this picture. Most people's learning ability may reach its peak when they finish the college entrance examination. I graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology, and the halo of my alma mater gave me some "confidence", thinking that the society would not be too difficult for me. But the moment I stepped into society from university, my confidence collapsed, and a series of setbacks followed. Without discussing the pros and cons of the education system here, I want to find the reasons within myself.
During my student days, my only purpose in studying was to prepare for exams. But after entering society and losing the "exams," I suddenly didn't know what to do. The school's education was not suitable for the needs of society, and I fell into confusion for a while.
After much thought, I realized that I still had to rely on learning to solve this problem, but I couldn't use the same learning methods as before. I remembered a plan from Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" - Reinforcement of the Future. The future space military political work force would be severely insufficient, so they used hibernation technology to send outstanding active political work officers to the future to reinforce the future space military political work. In the past, learning was for the "final exams"; now, learning is for "an uncertain future."
So let's go back to the question at the beginning of the article: how to remember and recall the essence of a book at any time. Here are two theories and two methods that I am currently exploring and practicing: progressive summarization, reinforcement of the future, Feynman learning method, and spaced repetition.
Progressive Summarization#
What is Progressive Summarization#
Progressive Summarization is a practical technique for designing discoverable notes proposed by the famous productivity expert TIAGO FORTE in his article "Progressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for Designing Discoverable Notes".
I think many people have had this idea. We already have search engines like Baidu and Google, so why do we need to memorize content? Acquiring knowledge is actually simple, but acquiring the knowledge we want is not. Ask yourself if your bookmarks are filled with various materials, but what is the probability of opening them a second time? Even if we have categorized and labeled them well, when we want to find them again, we will choose to reopen the search engine.
What we read is good, useful, and very important, but we read it at the wrong time. So how can we ensure that the knowledge we learn now can be applied in the future? TIAGO FORTE's method is "Progressive Summarization":
Progressive Summarization refers to summarizing and condensing certain information in small-scale at different time periods, and forming "atomic" knowledge fragments while maintaining their "discoverability and comprehensibility" as much as possible.
There are several key words in this sentence: different time periods, small-scale, condensing, atomic, discoverability, and comprehensibility.
Based on these keywords, we can design a note-taking mode that can reinforce the future.
How to Practice Progressive Summarization#
First, we need to have a sales mindset. Assume that our future selves are demanding customers or lazy people. We must do everything possible to "please" our future selves and give them sufficient reasons to buy the knowledge we have. This requires us to take good notes and make them attractive enough.
Second, TIAGO FORTE proposes the concept of "atomic notes" in the article:
Notes should be "atomic," with each atom having its own characteristics and the ability to form more powerful elements or molecular compounds at any time.
Atoms can form molecules, and everything is composed of atoms and molecules. When our notes have the characteristics of "atomicity" and are combined with double-linked notes, they can be freely combined. Our knowledge is no longer isolated points but a network. When knowledge forms a network, our thoughts can leap on this network, creating more connections.
Finally, notes need to be compressed. Compression needs to ensure "discoverability and comprehensibility." If compressed too much, although it has the characteristics of atomicity, our future selves cannot recognize its value. If not compressed enough, the content becomes lengthy and cannot attract the attention of our future selves.
Now let's take a look at TIAGO FORTE's practice method, which is performed at different time periods.
First layer: Original text. It doesn't have to be the original content; it can be a link to the original text, but there must be a summary of the original text.
Second layer: Bold. This is the rough processing of the original text, highlighting the key points and keywords in bold.
Third layer: Highlight. When we review the notes again, we highlight the "most valuable" content, which will be more prominent than bold.
Fourth layer: Summary. Here, we can use the Feynman learning method to summarize our understanding of the current notes in our own words.
Fifth layer: Sharing. The fourth layer of the Feynman learning method is for ourselves. If we have a need for output, we can use text or multimedia to explain the learned content to others, and the Feynman learning method will play a more powerful role.
Progressive summarization is a guiding theory, and not all five layers need to be executed. The key is to ensure the transmission of knowledge across time periods without losing the main points.
Here is my practice: Web (HTML) Reading Workflow - Progressive Summarization
Reinforcement of the Future#
Progressive summarization has already explained how to learn and summarize acquired knowledge. However, in order to be able to recall it at any time, in addition to designing note-taking tools that are easy to search, we also need to store the clues of knowledge in our brains. The Feynman learning method is a good way, but in addition, we also need to use spaced repetition.
Spaced repetition: Memorizing something only once will eventually be forgotten. Reviewing it every few days will make it more memorable.
We can use existing tools to help us implement this method, such as Anki and SuperMemo. Turn our condensed notes made through progressive summarization into flashcards and add them to memory aids. Arrange regular reviews every day, and after a period of repetition, these knowledge will leave clues in our brains. When we need them, we can recall the content at any time and find the original text, achieving the purpose of reinforcing the future.
For a scientific way to create flashcards, please follow Ye Junyao's article "How to Create Good Flashcards: Using Spaced Repetition to Create Understanding" on Zhihu: How to Create Good Flashcards: Using Spaced Repetition to Create Understanding - 知乎 (zhihu.com).
I personally use Obsidian as a knowledge management tool, and Obsidian has a flashcard function built-in with spaced repetition.
Finally#
Organize the concept of lifelong learning. Future you needs present you to "reinforce."
In addition to seeking external help, we also need to seek internally - awareness. This means entering the stage of knowing what we don't know, including some uncommon terms mentioned in this article. I will write articles to introduce them one by one later.