If you do these 3 things daily:
1. Read about ideas you love
2. Take notes from your reading in your own words
3. Create pointers from your notes to your reading
You can't help but write. Eventually, your notes will relate to themes – and writing will take care of itself.
1. Read about ideas you love
2. Take notes from your reading in your own words
3. Create pointers from your notes to your reading
You can't help but write. Eventually, your notes will relate to themes – and writing will take care of itself.
When you read actively every day and put ideas into your own words, you’ll never be at a loss for ideas.
The most creative people are on a constant search for the best sources they can find about subjects they love.
Then they systematically harvest the best thoughts they find in those sources.
Their goal is to take mental ownership of everything they read.
Then they systematically harvest the best thoughts they find in those sources.
Their goal is to take mental ownership of everything they read.
Taking ownership of what you read requires putting it in your own words.
In the same way “talking around” a concept in a foreign language necessitates mental gymnastics, putting things in your own words tests your understanding of what you're reading.
In the same way “talking around” a concept in a foreign language necessitates mental gymnastics, putting things in your own words tests your understanding of what you're reading.
Restating what you're reading in your own words force you to figure out what it is you're trying to learn -- and based on that, what it is you’re trying to say.
Which is the hardest part of all writing!
Which is the hardest part of all writing!
Half of what you read on Twitter fits this description, and that’s okay.
Putting things in your own words (key: in your OWN words) means you’ve taken ownership of a concept:
You understand it well enough to state it without borrowing language from someone else.
Putting things in your own words (key: in your OWN words) means you’ve taken ownership of a concept:
You understand it well enough to state it without borrowing language from someone else.
Once you’ve read actively and taken ownership of concepts you now understand, you shouldn’t feel bad about sharing the understanding you’ve earned.
You assume everyone else knows and accepts this feature of knowledge development and proliferation.
You assume everyone else knows and accepts this feature of knowledge development and proliferation.
In fact, you should share realizations and learnings as you have them; it’s the way the collective conversation progresses.
This thread is self-exemplifying.
It started from reading a sentence, living with it for a moment, looking at the ceiling and asking, “what does that sentence mean in the context of the things I care about?”
It started from reading a sentence, living with it for a moment, looking at the ceiling and asking, “what does that sentence mean in the context of the things I care about?”
“We tend to think we understand what we read — until we try to rewrite it in our own words.” -@soenke_ahrens
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