Note Taking Basics - Fiction and Novels

now Robin how do you take notes from books how do you sit through auditing information on somehow you know retain them in your head so you're not just reading a bunch of stuff and forgetting a bunch of stuff like the way that you do at school you Jam why not crap in your brain not very efficiently maybe you know two minutes before the exam and you try to recite Otto's Otto's information for the next two hours and then you recited and you forget all about it how do you take notes from books as to veer away from the disaster that we've all encountered at school we're cramming is the only key to you know short-term success how do we take notes from books as to ensure long-term developing of wisdom of actually learning something from those books not just merely regurgitating stuff not just merely you know I know a bunch of facts but actually use knowledge to transform ourselves that is the topic of today's video I'm super excited because a lot of you people haven't leaving me comments talking about how we want to know your process of taking notes from books how do you take notes from novels how do you take notes from fact-based books how do you take notes from philosophy books yada yada yada yada so today we're gonna address all of it in a whole shabang I don't know how long the video is gonna be so I'm um I'm gonna try to convey everything I could ask succinctly as I could as as eloquent as I could and as easily understand it was I could just as a first disclaimer I don't have everything figured out don't come to me as the expert of you know note-taking on books don't come to me as the guru head with regards to self education everyone has a different path and if some of my tips don't work for you don't stick with them alright take what you want and go away I don't have her I don't have every pieces of information you need and don't look up to me as though I'm some definitive figure it has everything figured out so that is the disclaimer out of the way so let's dive into how I go about taking notes how I go about educating you know self education to go about self education and then we're gonna talk a little bit about the commonplace book commonplace book I don't really want to talk too much about it because we've covered the commonplace book at nauseam at this point so the first thing now we have to make clear something we've got wrong from school something that we've mistaken for one for the other which is that there's a very clear distinction there's somewhat of a clear distinction between fact-based learning and experience based learning there's fact-based learning and there's experience based learning an episode one of reading basics I talked about how different books demand different reading strategies well here's the first distinction there's fact-based learning and there's experience based learning and these two require radically different note-taking strategies these two are radically different books they need to be read differently and the way that they transform you they take on different forms one is not they're they're not mutually exclusive but they're distinct enough as to require different learning learning strategies so for the first section of the video we're gonna address experience based learning and then the second part of the video we're really gonna talk about you know fact-based learning and experience based learning it's intuitive but fact-based learning there's a little bit of a thing that I do with all the you know fact-based books that I have you know philosophy books or history books or books that convey information there's a couple of things that I do with these books that I want to share with you people and then again I don't have auditing information figured out don't come to me as the definitive authoritative head because you will be disappointed this is what have worked out for myself they're not probably probably not gonna work out for you try it him out if you don't think they're good well just you know like I said go away figure out your own method whatever method works for you that is the best for you don't take my advice if it doesn't work so first of all experience based learning what are we talking about here now one thing that I have against the English education at school high school specifically because that's the form of schooling that I'm most familiar with is that they begin to mix up experience based learning and fact-based learning so you have you you you look at these students at school for English classes they're reading books such as all the light we cannot see or ransom or you know some some Shakespearean text and then along the books spine they have tons of sticky notes tons of analysis and tons of these an overarching analysis theme that is a symptom of mixing up fact-based learning and experience based learning novels are written to offer you an experience based learning Oh novels are written to to transport your own heading to another person's head as to learn more or less install ooh la Giacomin alysus but through a process of sympathizing with with the character and the process of going through the adventure the process of slowly uncovering the morals of the story slowly getting your mind blown gaining critical insights and then once you read a book once you absorb yourself into the book enough you reach the end can you really go back to the book and to jewel onto analysis right so you have to really read a book first to immerse yourself into the book first before you can go back and to recall what you've learned all the mind-blowing points all the quotes that have changed your thinking entirely that once you've without reading the entire thing without experienced and experiencing the book in its totality there's it's impossible for you to pick up quotes to memorize quotes and to somehow get the author's message simultaneously because what a lot of students do nowadays at least this is a phenomena that I've I've observed is that when they when they first time when you try to read a novel they are paralyzed by this fear of what if it gets tested what if well my analysis is not good enough what if what if what if so they miss out on a point of a novel in its in its actuality it's to actually get you into the story get you absorbed into the tale and then once you absorb yourself invest yourself into the book we once you reach the end can you go back to it and to reinvest and reread and to recount all those memories that changed were your worldview can you really produce an excellent excellent analysis from that place it simply wouldn't work when you first time when you read the book to be looking out for quotes looking out for values and themes that's getting it completely ass-backwards first time reading for experience based learning is to get yourself into the experience first not to you know not to really look out for all these quotes from authors and to look for values and themes that's ass backwards things only make sense in retrospect you have to absorb yourself into detail first and ending retrospect can you really make sense of any of it right can you really make sense of any of it so the way that I like to take notes for experience based learning books is that these books if they're good if they really captured me if they really have it have a ring to it now once you're self educating you don't really want to read books that don't speak to you we've talked about this before you don't have to read all the classics pick out the books that you think would transform you you know the most drastically so first I want to read a book like this I would read it from its cover to cover depending on the genre of the book the speed will vary so I basically would read for example a book like 1984 or a book like secret history about Donna Donna Tartt I would read it cover-to-cover as fast as I could and it depending on the pace of the book I'll paste my reading asked to absorb myself into the narrative and as I'm reading I will be labeling quotes that really triggered something in my head that aha moment those quotes I would usually underline and I put a little flak next to it so that's for first time reading first time reading little flags and then next to the little flags I'm gonna I have a few little notes just along the spine here just along margin here denoting why did I label this quote what is it about this quote that really captured me just little you know for forwarded forward a little little prose next to the highlight just to denote to remind myself why did I why did I highlight it what's the purpose of it and why just just why did I highlight it so as I go back to the book and read it the second time I would I can really recall how how did that quote transform me and how did it really come to resonate with me how did it really come to sort of put things into pieces that I've never realized before so that is in a sense how experienced based learning books should be tackled you really want to find out an intuitive sense and it's gonna be different for everybody you really want to find out intuitively what touched you about the book and first time when you read something like 19 1984 or when you read something like the the secret history do not try to look for themes do not try to look for logical analysis do not try to look for overarching things do not collect quotes do not memorize quotes that's only gonna slow you down you need to absorb yourself into the narrative and learn through a process of sympathy instead of learning through a process of detached analyzing texts analyzing text has its purpose but only on the second reading first time reading don't worry about it absorption is all you need for narrative or experience based learning books and fact-based learning books a little bit different which we would address in next week's episode fact based learning and fact-based learning is a little bit more complex so it's gonna take a little little longer so for this week experience based learning I hope you guys have gotten something out of it have gotten something quiet interesting and stick around for next week's episode on fact-based learning because there's a whole lot of stuff there just just just just a lot of stuff to cover and I'm really excited to cover it so stay tuned for next week's episode we're only here from the quirky inquiry signing off right about now

Channel: Robin Waldun

Views: 188,814

Keywords: how to take notes from books, how to take better notes, how to take notes, self education, autodidact, how to become a renaissance man, how to learn from books, how to read more books, rc waldun, the quirky inquiry, the learned disguise

Id: P9gb3SnvXKU

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 27 2019