I notice a disparity between my ability to parse difficult texts when I’m just “reading for fun” versus when I’m trying to solve a particular problem for a homework assignment. It’s often easier to do it for homework assignments. When I’ve got time that’s just, “reading up on fun and interesting things,” I bounce-off of difficult texts more often than I would like.
After examining some recent instances of this happening, I’ve realized that when I’m reading for fun, my implicit goal has often been, “read whatever will most quickly lead to a feeling of insight.” When I’m reading for homework, I have a very explicit goal of, “understand of dynamic memory management works,” or whatever the topic is. Upon reflection, I think that most of the time I’d be better served if I approached my fun-exploratory reading with with a goal of, “Find something that seems interesting, and then focus on trying to understand that in particular.”
The useful TAP would be notice when I’m bouncing off a text, and check if my actual reasons for reading are aligned with my big picture reasons for reading, and readjust as necessary.
This flared up again recently. Besides “wanting insight” often I simply am searching for fluency. I want something that I can fluently engage with, and if there’s an impediment to fluency, I bounce off. Wanting an experience of fluency is a very different goal from wanting to understand the thing. Rn I don’t have too many domains where I have technical fluency. I’m betting if I had more of that, it would extend my patience/ability to slog through texts that are hard for me.
I notice a disparity between my ability to parse difficult texts when I’m just “reading for fun” versus when I’m trying to solve a particular problem for a homework assignment. It’s often easier to do it for homework assignments. When I’ve got time that’s just, “reading up on fun and interesting things,” I bounce-off of difficult texts more often than I would like.
After examining some recent instances of this happening, I’ve realized that when I’m reading for fun, my implicit goal has often been, “read whatever will most quickly lead to a feeling of insight.” When I’m reading for homework, I have a very explicit goal of, “understand of dynamic memory management works,” or whatever the topic is. Upon reflection, I think that most of the time I’d be better served if I approached my fun-exploratory reading with with a goal of, “Find something that seems interesting, and then focus on trying to understand that in particular.”
The useful TAP would be notice when I’m bouncing off a text, and check if my actual reasons for reading are aligned with my big picture reasons for reading, and readjust as necessary.
This flared up again recently. Besides “wanting insight” often I simply am searching for fluency. I want something that I can fluently engage with, and if there’s an impediment to fluency, I bounce off. Wanting an experience of fluency is a very different goal from wanting to understand the thing. Rn I don’t have too many domains where I have technical fluency. I’m betting if I had more of that, it would extend my patience/ability to slog through texts that are hard for me.