Well, what I tried to convey is that for quite a bit of my non-fiction
reading, I don’t have too many specific questions beforehand. Say, I pick up a
book about Neanderthals. My main question might be something really general,
like ‘how does this fit in with my general understanding of homonid evolution’,
but apart from that, I’ll just read it. For any questions that I have, I
usually check some other sources.
So, I was not really opposing the usefulness of goal-oriented reading, just
that for quite a bit of my reading, my goals are not very specific. When I
have some specific goal in mind, of course asking questions is a good way to
structure your information-soaking process.
Anyhow, for my next book (or probably when deciding what to read next), I’ll try to follow your advise, let’s see if it helps me to read more effectively.
How does this relate to the understanding of art, creativity, madness, motherly love? The notions of greed in children, in adults, in a capitalist economy, and how does that relate to the regulation of markets, conflicts of interests, incentivization and moral hazards? How does this relate to the notions of religion/theology, race, climate tolerance? How does climate tolerance relate to the social structure of Californians, and what does air conditioning mean for society going forward? How does early hominid tool use relate to our ability to drive cars, use computers, integrate robotics with human life, and parkour?
Obviously one can get lost in mindless ramblings of curiosity. But if you make an effort to be constructing an overall fabric of “how things work”, you have a reason and a direction for your curiosity. It combines being mindful with entertainment. Over time you create a your own grand unification theory (not specific to physics, mind you), and you have a framework into which you can easily slot new information (or update existing).
Well, what I tried to convey is that for quite a bit of my non-fiction reading, I don’t have too many specific questions beforehand. Say, I pick up a book about Neanderthals. My main question might be something really general, like ‘how does this fit in with my general understanding of homonid evolution’, but apart from that, I’ll just read it. For any questions that I have, I usually check some other sources.
So, I was not really opposing the usefulness of goal-oriented reading, just that for quite a bit of my reading, my goals are not very specific. When I have some specific goal in mind, of course asking questions is a good way to structure your information-soaking process.
Anyhow, for my next book (or probably when deciding what to read next), I’ll try to follow your advise, let’s see if it helps me to read more effectively.
But you can broaden the questions as well.
Looking at Neanderthals/hominids:
How does this relate to the understanding of art, creativity, madness, motherly love? The notions of greed in children, in adults, in a capitalist economy, and how does that relate to the regulation of markets, conflicts of interests, incentivization and moral hazards? How does this relate to the notions of religion/theology, race, climate tolerance? How does climate tolerance relate to the social structure of Californians, and what does air conditioning mean for society going forward? How does early hominid tool use relate to our ability to drive cars, use computers, integrate robotics with human life, and parkour?
Obviously one can get lost in mindless ramblings of curiosity. But if you make an effort to be constructing an overall fabric of “how things work”, you have a reason and a direction for your curiosity. It combines being mindful with entertainment. Over time you create a your own grand unification theory (not specific to physics, mind you), and you have a framework into which you can easily slot new information (or update existing).