Grappling

I'm sitting here on a Snowy day, working through my notes on my last book. It wasn't a great first start back to reading, I didn't follow any particular process, but that's okay. I am glad that I went back through this book and started capturing some notes. On the first pass through, I had it in my mind I would do this, so I didn't bothing capturing notes as thoroughly. I think what I like about this book is that it has practical advice. I think a lot about workflow and how to get the most out of every day. I don't believe in #hustle in the modern, burnout envoking implementation of the word. Instead, I aspire to more of an eastern, reduction of waste mentality. I have only 168 hours a week, and those hours vary in value significantly so the goal is to dedicate the most effective time to the most important activities. Some day I should probably write more on how I've worked out my time, but in all honesty I feel like it's something I'm still working out.

I have decided that my next book I'm going to take a stab at implementing Adler's reading method. I think this time though, I'm going to change it up from the past. Before, I would read with a pen and note cards, which is pretty effective because it slows me down in capturing my thoughts, but on reflection, I think it was a mistake. While I want to pay attention to reading, the short answer is that I don't need to memorize what I'm reading- that's kinda the point of the sources section of this blog, I can always review information- the friction is minimal.

Instead, it makes a lot more sense to spend my writing time grappling with the ideas and fitting things together. I'm not sure if that means for me that I'm going to be trying my hand at a manual zk or simply journaling in a structured way, but I think seems like a much more effective use of time. If I need to, I can always go back to my notes or even the source if I need to flesh something out a bit more.

The downside is that I'll probably read with 2 devices at hand, but that's okay. I know people have worked out workflows where they highlight in kindle then export, but I find a lot of value in trying to write things in my own words, so I don't see the benefit in that. I will say that if I could figure out a way to get the works cited out a book efficiently that would be helpful. Just as a quick aside, I have found a weird value in looking through those more when reading. I think as I get more efficient at reading that is going to create an interesting web. There are a bunch of authors and books that come up often, so it'll be fun to go down the rabbit hole. I'm kinda excited to see what books the often cited books cite - do they just get older or are there some real gems out there?

Well, I think I'm going to go back to my notes- I should be finished soon with the current ones and then on to Kahneman, speaking of often cited books.