[alentred]

To unlearn this year: reading too much and too fast, without taking notes.

I am a very regular Hacker News reader, visit here almost daily and find lots of interesting reading. However if you ask me today what did I learn in the last year, my answer will barely scratch the surface of everything I have read. Effectively, it means that the time I have spent reading was merely spent on a diversion, not learning. I still hope that everything I have read is somehow absorbed in my unconsciousness, but being honest with myself I understand that should I have taken at least a few notes, and should I have reviewed those notes at least once or twice during the year, I would have probably learnt much more.

Tangentially: unlearn to read mostly blogs and learn to start more books; unlearn to be only motivated by doing things and spend more time learning new things; unlearn to pile up open tabs with "things to read later because I don't have enough focus for it now" (and I don't know how to solve the latter yet).

A single blog post (oh the irony...) that acted as a catalyst for the thinking process that lead me to this decision: https://maartenvandoorn.nl/reading-guide (It was previously shared somewhere on the HN by the way).

[mapster]

I think we greatly underestimate what we learn. If we had a conversation that touched on the subject of a book you read 6 months ago you would be surprised how you can recall something from the book. Reading for diversion is the best - both relaxing and passive learning.

[tcbasche]

I have made the decision to take daily notes, almost like a diary, in the hopes that I can look back on the past and have a full history of things that I read, learnt, took in etc.

Like version control for your brain :) (except without the merge conflicts ... hopefully)

[noobrunner]

I can relate to this. Thanks for sharing the blog post