You don't read books. You just buy them and put them on the shelf and wait five years. After five years, you either go "I am glad I didn't waste my time on that DCOM stuff!" or "They are still talking about it, it must be something useful. Let me read it." How you read a book depends on how you learn things. Different people learn things differently. So what works for one won't necessarily work for others. Even the same person will absorb differently in different stages of life. So what worked for you when you were a teenager or in your twenties won't necessarily work for you when you are in your fifties. Pay attention is the most important tip I can give to anyone. When you are young and the subject is interesting, this is very easy. When you are older and have other things to distract you, it's often the case that you seem to be reading a book but you are really not, your eyes merely glance over the words and as soon as you a done reading a sentence, paragraph, its content is forgotten. Taking notes, highlight the topic sentences, read out aloud, tear off a page from a book when you're done reading it, etc., are all ways to force yourself to pay attention to the content. These are trained behavior. For example, I was trained to take notes, not to high light on the book when I was young. Therefore none of my books have any highlighter marks, they are all like new. :) Another thing that I'm trying to learn now is to "catch" myself when my mind wanders away from the book. Ultimately, what you read needs to become part of your memory. And there is a science about how to effectively achieve that goal. Several years ago, "Your Brain: The Missing Manual" was recommended by one of the Posses (I think Dick). It has some tips on how to improve your memory. -- Weiqi Gao weiqi...@gmail.com http://www.weiqigao.com/blog/
On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:31:09 PM UTC-5, Joe Attardi wrote: > Hi all, > > What are some ways you effectively absorb knowledge from reading > programming books? For language or feature specific stuff, obviously > working on a project with it is the best way to learn. But what about more > general things - stuff like *Effective Java* or *Head First Design > Patterns*? > > Do you take notes while you read? Skim and reread for detail? Any good > tips to offer? > On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:31:09 PM UTC-5, Joe Attardi wrote: > > Hi all, > > What are some ways you effectively absorb knowledge from reading > programming books? For language or feature specific stuff, obviously > working on a project with it is the best way to learn. But what about more > general things - stuff like *Effective Java* or *Head First Design > Patterns*? > > Do you take notes while you read? Skim and reread for detail? Any good > tips to offer? > On Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:31:09 PM UTC-5, Joe Attardi wrote: > > Hi all, > > What are some ways you effectively absorb knowledge from reading > programming books? For language or feature specific stuff, obviously > working on a project with it is the best way to learn. But what about more > general things - stuff like *Effective Java* or *Head First Design > Patterns*? > > Do you take notes while you read? Skim and reread for detail? Any good > tips to offer? > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Java Posse" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/javaposse/-/njs8HalY84kJ. To post to this group, send email to javaposse@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
