Become an Expert in (Almost) Any Subject Using Commonplace Books [Philosopher Explains]

there are a lot of different ways that you can use commonplace books I use mine to become an expert in particular topics I'm a philosopher and theologian and there are a bunch of sub-disciplines in these fields and I want to be an expert in them so I have a lot of commonplace books hey welcome to park notes I'm Parker and this is a channel where I help you study and think more deeply in this video I'm going to show you how you can use commonplace books to become an expert now when I say expert I mean about propositional knowledge I mean you can know all sorts of different facts you may not gain know-how knowledge I don't think you can make a commonplace book about riding a bike and then know how to ride a bike but you can make a commonplace book about the history of bikes and the philosophy of bikes and become an expert on the topic of bikes even if you can't ride a bike but with that caveat in mind make sure you watch the whole video so you can learn how to become an expert in using commonplace books to become an expert in almost every area of knowledge let's Jump Right In now when it comes to making a commonplace book for expertise on a particular topic the idea is really simple and actually making the book is pretty simple all you need to do is grab a notebook I like these moleskin or Moleskine mole skin a classic collection squared notebooks I'll use these or a Lloyd term 1917 A5 I really like the graph some some people like line that's whatever I'm not trying to Hawk anything I like using these two I also like my Saddleback leather covers this is a medium moleskin cover but it's perfectly suited for the like term 1917 A5 I also like nerdy creatives these are amazing beautiful leather notebooks he's got his own like system in here with the little locking mechanism he's got three of these leather clasps and a Parker Pen locks all three together pretty cool so you can use whatever you want uh you don't have to use these this is just what I use I found that when I put leather around my commonplace books it helps me write in them it helps me take them more seriously I spent a lot of money on my philosophy of mine commonplace book and so I better fill it out I better actually use it so the idea behind an expertise commonplace book is really simple this is a One-Stop shop for you to become an expert in the topic you want to be an expert in so I'm a philosopher I want to be an expert in philosophy of mine I created a philosophy of mine commonplace book in here I'll put really important quotes I'll put important arguments key themes and Concepts anything that I think an expert philosopher of mine should know I'll put that in here I'll review it before bed I'll definitely review it before podcast episode before a YouTube video before I'm publicly speaking on a topic I'm going to review the notes that I've taken on that topic so let's say you get a notebook you get a cover if you want one if you want to help yourself take it more seriously now what do you do well you take the topics that you want to be an expert in so let's say philosophy of mind could be like banking I don't know what you guys do whatever you guys like and want to be an expert in this is your notebook for that you need to read the things that experts in those fields read you need to read their work you need to read the work that they read you need to read and read you need to listen to podcast episodes YouTube become an expert do the hard work of learning the actual topics something that helps me learn is taking marginal notes in the books that I read this is also called margin alien I'll leave myself marginal notes marginalia in order to help future me who's coming back reading it a 5th 6th 8th 20th time now making the commonplace book is pretty easy all you need to do is review the resources that you've read over that you've read to become an expert in that field and you abstract out the important stuff and put it into your expertise commonplace book so here I have the mystery of consciousness and it's chock full of all sorts of good Arguments for and against a computational theory of mind John Searle gives his Chinese room argument against strong artificial intelligence and that's something I have to know if I'm going to be a philosopher of mine or a philosopher of artificial intelligence I must know this argument in and out but instead of returning to this book every day I'm going to take the important details from this book and put it in my commonplace book so here I have John searle's own summary of His Chinese room argument he's abstracted it down to three premises and a conclusion boom I have this I can even memorize this but I'm going to reflect on it and ruminate on it until I own this until I can give it coal I also include my own notes in this commonplace book and that's why I call it a commonplace book and not a compendium if you want to know the difference between a compendium and commonplace book it's just a distinction I've made a compendium is a common place for quotes and a commonplace book is a common place for ideas so in a commonplace book I'll also add my own thoughts on different ideas in the commonplace book so my philosophy of mine commonplace book is fairly new I don't have it filled out all that much so I don't really need a table of contents yet I know what's in here but as I fill it out more and more I'll need to create a table of contents so I can find the topics more easily one important difference between a mole skin and a like term 1917 is that a mole skin does not have numbered pages but a like term does and so that is much easier when it comes to creating a key for yourself to just look at the page number in the bottom this is really easily remedied you can just add a page number to your moleskin notebooks as well here's my deep thinking commonplace book I've been at it since 2021 and so I have already started making a table of contents thankfully the like term notebooks have page numbers so it's really easy for me just to look up the page number and put it in my table of contents I wouldn't create a table of contents before you start writing I would go back ad hoc after the fact and I would add the page numbers of where you discussed different ideas okay so let's sum it all back up if you want to become an expert on a particular idea or a sub discipline or whatever area of study then you need to know the history of that area or that idea you need to know the key players you need to know important dates you need to have memorized really important quotes you need to have a good grasp of the key Concepts the founding ideas you need to be an expert on this sub-discipline on this idea now you can use commonplace books to capture all that information key dates and key figures and key ideas and themes and most importantly if you're going to become an expert on this topic then you need to have your own thoughts about the topic about the ideas about the key players about the key themes about the history of the idea you need to have your own thoughts you need to develop your own opinions and arguments using a commonplace book is a really good practice for you becoming an expert on just about any field of study now I want to hear from you guys what areas of study are you going to start using an expert commonplace book to become an expert in so if you guys like this video If you learned something make sure to leave me a like and drop me a comment let me know what you guys learned make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss out on the study tips in the future or any crazy out there wild thought experiments aimed at luring you deeper into philosophy and theology I'll see you next time

Channel: ParkNotes

Views: 831,395

Keywords: commonplace book, commonplace books, Journaling, journaling tips, study habits, study tips, Jared Henderson, philosophy, learn philosophy, John Searle, Chinese Room Argument, philosophy of mind, how to study, how to make a commonplace book, Daily Stoic, marginal notes, Ryan Holiday, Matt D'Avella, how to keep a commonplace journal, journal like a philosopher, saddleback leather, Murdy creative co

Id: LTbjlUe7vMk

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023