Web Excursions 2021-09-04
How to Remember What You Read
Active reading is thoughtfully engaging with a book at all steps in the reading process.
From deciding to read right through to reflection afterwards, you have a plan for how you are going to ingest and learn what’s in the book.
One of the reasons that we read books is because they offer a rich tapestry of details, allowing us to see the world of the author and go on their journey with them.
the plot of every book ever can be boiled down to ‘someone is looking for something.
Bayesian updating: What opinions should I change in light of this book? How can I update my worldview using the information in it?
When it comes to reading, you don’t need to finish what you start.
As a general rule, people who love reading never, ever finish a crappy book.
If you are unsure how to simplify your thoughts,
imagine that someone has tapped you on the shoulder and asked you to explain the chapter you just finished reading.
They have never read this book and lack any idea of the subject matter.
How would you explain it to them?
Apply the Feynman technique
choose a concept, teach it to someone unfamiliar with the subject,
identify gaps in your understanding and go back to the source material, and
review and simplify.
Books don’t enter our lives against a blank slate.
Each time we pick up a book, the content has to compete with what we already think we know
Go crazy with marginalia
Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive:
In the quiet spaces opened up by the prolonged, undistracted reading of a book,
people made their own associations,
drew their own inferences and analogies,
fostered their own ideas.
They thought deeply as they read deeply.
Availability bias
Are the books I have recently read affecting how I perceive this one?
How are my immediate past experiences shaping my reading?
Am I assigning undue importance to parts of this book because they are salient and memorable?
Having a framework of deliberately constructed concepts enables us to better understand and synthesize books
by allowing us to make connections to what we already know.
Knowledge sticks in our memories easier if it attaches to something we already understand.
Blank Sheet Method
Before you start reading a new book, take out a blank sheet of paper.
Write down what you know about the book/subject you’re about to read — a mind map if you will.
After you finish a reading session, spend a few minutes adding to the map with a different color.
Before you start your next reading session, review the page.
When you’re done reading, put these ‘blank sheets’ into a binder that you periodically review.
How to study effectively | Psyche Guides
research from psychology indicates that our ability to accurately monitor and evaluate our level of knowledge or skill (referred to as metacognitive ability) is often flawed.
These flaws tend to give us an inflated perception of our knowledge and understanding,
encouraging us to persevere with ineffective methods of studying that quietly, but persistently, undermine our efforts to learn.
It’s easy to demonstrate this by examining some preferred study practices and considering the misconceptions about learning that they reflect
thinking of memory as if it worked like a recalcitrant camera is misleading and really unhelpful when you’re studying.
especially for topics that are similar in nature and might otherwise be easily conflated.
Using our memory effectively is
less about maximising exposure to a new source
than figuring out how to use our prior knowledge, experience and expectation filters to integrate that source with what we already know
it’s the thinking behind what is being highlighted – why the highlighted information is significant – that counts
both success and failure to retrieve information are helpful for your memory.
Both outcomes serve to calibrate confidence in your perception of your knowledge
In terms of the number of sessions you use, too few is more of a problem than too many.
Focus on constructing your own understanding of a topic, not reproducing someone else’s
You can use an approach called elaborative interrogation to systematically incorporate the process of questioning into your reading.
This technique involves annotating your sources with questions that require an explanatory response from you
The testing effect: Testing is not just a way of measuring learning; it can also be a powerful mechanism of learning.
The read, recite, review (3R) approach.
studying (and learning generally) is a bit like visiting the gym: if you want the best results, you have to sweat a bit.
Research indicates that interleaving seems to bias your attention towards looking for differences between topics.
Therefore, it’s most effective when you’re studying topics that are similar (and require more effort to distinguish from each other).
It’s also effective under conditions where you have discretion about assigning information to a category
Space out your study sessions
In terms of the length of intervals between your sessions, research indicates that longer intervals tend to be associated (up to a point) with better retention.
However, since studying often takes place in a limited timeframe, you should prioritise the number of sessions over getting the longest possible inter-session intervals
On the rare occasions where a study has shown highlighting to have a positive effect on learning
blocking seems to focus your attention on looking for similarities between topics.
Therefore, it’s best used for topics that can be easily distinguished and/or when category membership has been predetermined
Make retrieval practice an integral part of your studying
Don’t just highlight material, think about it
Phrasing your questions so they begin with ‘why’ or ‘how’ will help you do this, as will thinking about concrete examples of more abstract concept
Alternate between studying similar topics
the benefits of retrieval practice are not simply limited to facts; they also extend to concepts and the transfer of knowledge from one domain to another.
Software Piracy and IP Management Practices: Strategic Responses to Product-Market Imitation by Wendy A. Bradley, Julian Kolev :: SSRN
Question: How do firms’ IP strategies respond to sudden increases in product-market imitation?
Methodology:
Using a 2001 technological shock that enabled rising software piracy,
we implement an instrumental-variables estimator
to compare a treatment group of at-risk-of-piracy firms
with matched not-at-risk control firms.
Findings:
Rising piracy increases subsequent R&D spending, copyrights, trademarks, and patents for large, incumbent software firms.
Copyright and trademark filings precede those of patents
Firms with large patent portfolios disproportionately increase copyrights and trademarks following the shock.
Conclusions:
Piracy and similar competitive shocks push firms to innovate to stay ahead of imitator products
this effect is moderated by their existing patent portfolios.
Limitations: Our findings have implications for managers seeking to capture value from IP in knowledge-based industries.