Have you ever read a book or learned something that changes the way you see the world?
I’m not talking about Earth shattering changes in your worldview, just things that, once you’re aware of them, you see them everywhere.
For example, I read Anti-fragile by Nassim Taleb a few years ago. Since reading it I almost automatically categorize things by how fragile, robust, or anti-fragile they are. It’s become a part of how I make big decisions. It’s become a sort of decision making heuristic for me. There have been a few other things I’ve picked up over the years from books, articles, speakers, etc. that have had this kind of effect. I still find myself thinking about and referencing them.
I recently decided to go through all the books I own and have read and make a re-reading list. The books on the list were ones that gave me actionable information that I use for better decision making and better thinking.
The goal is to re-read these books and create a set of heuristics or little “tidbits” from each one that I can commit to memory. For example, I’m just finishing up Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. I’d like to write some of the principles of negotiation from the book in my own words and memorize them so they are more accessible to me when I need them.
Anyway, this group seems like a group dedicated, or at least interested in, self improvement and learning. Any advice on how to memorize lots short tidbits of information would be sincerely appreciated. Also, any book or article recommendations!
Hi Bennet, Learning principles from books is such a great application of the techniques.
Keep posting to this as you go. I’d love to see it.
As far as recommendations go, I read two books about learning: Make it Stick by Peter Brown and A Mind For Numbers by Barbara Oakley. I took the main principles from these books and have them in one memory palace. I did the first book in 2020, then added the second book in 2021. I’ve been tweaking them recently with re-reads. I recommend both of those books and they are relevant to your project.
As far as how to do it goes, you decide on a memory palace. Then after reading the book you decide what principles you want to remember. You encode one principle at each loci. You translate words into images and see them at the loci. Then you do retrieval practice to lock them into your memory.
I have read both the books you mentioned, the Chris Voss book recently, and they are both great candidates. I read a lot of books since the covid times started and I’ve encoded fewer of them. I need to get back on it.
Keep us posted. I know you’ve only got two responses to your post so far but it’s a topic that quite a few people have been interested in based on past posts. I’ll do both of those books along with you.
I’m a fan of both books you mentioned. A book that I’m now rereading is, The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath. It’s helped me realize what needs to be done to make special occasions special, and how to go about increasing the number of meaningful occasions we have. I’m still in the early stages of implementing what I’ve learned.