How do you digest information?

[Bob]

Yeah, it sounds simple.  I'm just picking your brain.

You have a book.  How do you use it?

[pianonut]

until i went to grad school, i would go to the library and just grab a book that had a title and entry pages that grabbed my attention.  now, after a few classes, i am realizing that it's all about the author.  is the author reliable (as a source) or is the type of author you read for pleasure?  once that is determined, then you can sit down and read your book for the purpose you want.

i just read a good article about alexander thayer.  he spent 17 years on his first volume of the 'life of beethoven.'  then 32 on the 2nd-3rd.  they weren't even completed in his lifetime (that shows you how precise he really wanted to be). he interviewed people in beethoven's day (ie anselm huttenbrenner, in whose arms he died; caroline van beethoven, widow of nephew karl, charles neate and cipriani potter, the english musicians that had been his pupils, sir george smart, who had visited him to learn the proper interpretation of the ninth symphony; moscheles, who had been his professional associate in vienna; otto jahn, who had undertaken a task like thayers, but abandoned it and turned over his gathered material to him; mahler, an artist, who had painted the composer's portrait; gerhard von breuning, son of beethoven's most intimate friend, and cheery bedside companion when beethoven was dying.  this is most helpful, to get closest to the source of the material.

[Tash]

i agree with what pianonut, with it being about the author. though i generally still pick books that have interesting topics, i'm starting to fuss over who the author is- so if there's 50 biographies on some composer i'll go looking up which is the better of them all.
but how do i digest the information? i find that when reading books i tend to forget most of what it's said like 2 seconds later, so if i want to remember it i'll re-read it, or read something on the same topic to re-spark the information in my brain.
if i'm trying to actually learn from the book, in terms of for studying or writing an essay, i'll make a list of dot points (i LOVE dot points!) and work with them. if i'm trying to remember the info, then i'll write it up in a million different forms and make them as artistic as possible- you should see some of my study notes, they're a mass of colour!
but yeah if i wanna digest information at one time i have to be really focused and not let my mind wander at all or i'm just staring at a page- i do that often!

[ted]

I have never been able to learn in a serial fashion. I learn little bits all over the place and connect them later on. If I read a mathematical book I frequently start at the end. If I can fully understand the end there is probably little point in reading it at all. If, as is more often the case. there are gaps in my understanding, I go backwards in the book for what is required and read similar topics in other books. It's the same with learning music and even more with creating it. I get many isolated ideas and connect them over a period of time, occasionally a very long time.

[bernhard]

Information is infinite, mostly irrelevant and therefore meaningless.

The way to digest information is to give it meaning by relating it to a pressing problem for you at that time.

This is called the pragmatic approach and it is very much in line with what Ted has described above.

So start from a problem and go after information that will solve that problem. As you solve problem after problem a pattern will appear and this pattern will guide you. But never lose sight of the fact that a solution without a problem is useless. (People with a strong personal pattern tend to easily fall into this trap).

Best wishes.
Bernhard.

[pianonut]

yes.  i've most respected teachers that were knowledgeable about whatever were their particular interests.  there are very few teachers that know everything about everything - and so sooner or later you have to sort of narrow down exactly what are your most pressing interests.

i happen to love music in general, so am very unfocused in the library (pulling anything and everything off the shelf).  soon i have about 10 books that i could never fully read in one evening right beside me and wonder what i am trying to do (ruin my eyesight?)

the way i approach things is sort of similar to Ted.  I don't read the last pages, per se, but more the (beginning and) middle.  if the middle is good (like a novel with the most interesting pages of the romance in the middle) i say - ok - i'll check it out and read more at home later.

then, there's just plain information you have to write down quickly.  i tend to scribble everywhere.  bad idea really, but i do it.  scribbled notes on the back of receipts, check stubs, misc. papers, acknowledging the book, publisher page number, etc. so i can use it if i need it in my final report or just for personal notes.

the best info. i have gleaned is when i have lots of time to just do what i want, instead of having a time pressure.  then, it is mostly for pleasure and i take in more information actually.

[jas]

I've been thinking about this quite a lot recently, actually, because I'm doing a dissertation next year for uni and I'm worried that I won't be able to learn enough!

I don't think my methods are the most effective -- I write as I read, which I think means I'm concentrating less on what I'm reading and more on writing it down. Then I end up with pages and pages of written information that's no easier to sort through than the books I took it out of. Sometimes, if I'm really organised -- not a state I find myself in very often -- I break stuff down into bullet points and things, but I think that's a good way to oversimplify and miss the finer points of things. I'm a stickler for detail, too, which I don't think works in my favour a lot of the time.

To me, it's easier to learn if you're not trying to. If you can read a book with the attitude that you're just reading it for pleasure, then it's easier to become absorbed in it and take it all in. But if you read it knowing that you're supposed to be learning from it it's becomes harder to do that (IMO).
Unfortunate but true!

Jas

[pianonut]

dear jas,

i've been learning a lot this year.  one thing i have learned is just what you mentioned (about losing my scribbled notes).  this is what i do now.  take that day's info and go home and right away start typing on your dissertation (or the next day).  it may not be in the order you need the info.  but all sources are quoted and page numbers.  then go back to it each time you gather info.   in a couple of months, review all material and put it into the order that seems the most flowing.  sometimes a paper can start or end with humorous material gathered as well as learning opposing points of view.  arguing with oneself is one method to finding out if the authors you are quoting are on the right track. 

[jas]

dear jas,

i've been learning a lot this year.  one thing i have learned is just what you mentioned (about losing my scribbled notes).  this is what i do now.  take that day's info and go home and right away start typing on your dissertation (or the next day).  it may not be in the order you need the info.  but all sources are quoted and page numbers.  then go back to it each time you gather info.   in a couple of months, review all material and put it into the order that seems the most flowing.  sometimes a paper can start or end with humorous material gathered as well as learning opposing points of view.  arguing with oneself is one method to finding out if the authors you are quoting are on the right track. 

That's a really good idea, thanks. I wouldn't have thought to do it that way, but it makes sense! Normally I'd have a mad rush trying to collate all my notes and get nowhere with it. But I'll give that a go. Cheers!

Jas

[ted]

It is very easy to fall into the little trap Bernhard describes. Somebody once gave me one of those Rubik’s cubes. It came with a set of “instructions” which told me how to “solve” it. I, like a fool, read these for a day and, even worse, borrowed a treatise from the library about the groups of rotations in the cube.

Precisely what not to do ! Lots of knowledge, absolutely no understanding ! There is a gulf, an abyss, between knowledge and understanding.

After a day of this nonsense I did what I should have done in the first place – I solved it myself in my own way. After three days (it’s a surprisingly hard little puzzle !) I didn’t just have a glib procedure and a collection of other people’s results in my head. I had discovered a new, at least to me, general principle of thinking about invariants I could apply to a wide range of puzzles and problems.

Another example, this time concerning similar foolishness imposed on me:

Twenty-five years ago I had to learn to programme computers or risk losing my job. My company spent a lot of money sending me on a course with IBM. A lot of arbitrary rules, pseudo-knowledge and nonsense ! After two days of progressively embarrassing the class by continually asking “why?” I spent most of the class time absent, improvising on pianos in the music shop up the road. I simply could not understand a thing they were talking about in that class.

Fortunately, a few hours fiddling on the computer in the evening at work told me the only thing you really need to know to write programmes – everything, absolutely everything, even the most complicated structures, can be reduced to a series of forks, decisions between two things – either go on or jump somewhere else. Once I understood that (and many programmers don’t) I knew at once that I could make a living out of it for as long as I wished.

[pianonut]

that's very apt for writing papers for class, too.  you can spend hours and hours, or take a 'fork' as you call it, and just glean the part you are absolutely narrowed down to.