Become a Better Reader by Forgetting More

You often see people in the reading sphere show you methods on how to remember everything, but is that even a reasonable goal in the first place?
Why should we remember everything? I argue the opposite. That value is found in forgetting. If we can let the irrelevant insight of a book fall out of our memory's bounds, we let the truly important points shine in their place, never drowned out by the flood of information surrounding them.
I also cover how we can apply this theory into our daily reading habits by dividing the ideas we encounter into three categories, then processing them accordingly.
00:00-1:15 The Curse of Perfect Memory (Solomon Shereshevsky)
1:15-3:55 Why Remembering Everything is Bad
3:55-6:12 Actionable Advice to Improve Reading
6:12-7:40 My Method
TWITTER:
/ odysseas_px

Пікірлер: 21

  • @justinloke
    @justinloke7 ай бұрын

    That is like a short story by Jorge Luis Borges’s ‘Fune…’ but I forgot the title

  • @odysseas__

    @odysseas__

    7 ай бұрын

    Interesting.. curious how that would go

  • @19eugen94
    @19eugen947 ай бұрын

    I always have seen forgetting as a positive ability. All the nerd stuff during adolescence was basically just training the brain, creating memory capacity for real world information.

  • @susannahdijkstra3260
    @susannahdijkstra32607 ай бұрын

    Listening to your anecdotes is always so nice!

  • @rohanbidi
    @rohanbidi7 ай бұрын

    A very insightful video. I guess it feels counter-intuitive to make "don't remembering everything" a mindset because of the education system where you have to cram into your brain as much information as you possibly can. Perhaps the admins of the education system can give this idea a thought. It will be so much easier if you can develop this skill at a younger age.

  • @odysseas__

    @odysseas__

    7 ай бұрын

    Thanks, and I agree. The goals that school prepares us for (tests usually) are not usually in line with the goals we have as readers afterwards. A lot of our success comes from unlearning the weird habits we were taught

  • @expeditioner9322

    @expeditioner9322

    2 ай бұрын

    It is for this sort of reason that some social thinkers have questioned the motives and priorities of the education system. What really is it for? And who does it really benefit?

  • @user-xn4wq4sv3r
    @user-xn4wq4sv3r7 ай бұрын

    Yes, we should not remember everything we read. We have to remember truly important points only. The reason why I am not quite comfortable with history in its conventional form is that one should remember everything about the events: names, dates, and all the other curious details, not addressing seriously truly important points: WHY did that kind of events happen and why do they still happen? Or, what are the laws of history? It seems to me that there exist the laws of history, too. But don't tell politicians this because they would discover those laws and destroy the world in a much more impressive way.

  • @franw5802

    @franw5802

    7 ай бұрын

    Just my guess, the law is that human will make the same mistakes again and again

  • @odysseas__

    @odysseas__

    7 ай бұрын

    This seems especially true in the context of school, since their systems often emphasise the memorising of details rather than linking and elaborating upon big ideas

  • @user-xn4wq4sv3r

    @user-xn4wq4sv3r

    7 ай бұрын

    @@odysseas__ Yes

  • @expeditioner9322

    @expeditioner9322

    2 ай бұрын

    Two points catch my curiosity: 1. How to decide what is important and what's not important? Seems tricky to me if you go into nuances of decision making. 2. What laws of history? Hope you don't mind.

  • @expeditioner9322

    @expeditioner9322

    2 ай бұрын

    @@franw5802 That is just a truism about human behaviour. Can we call it a law of history? Hope you don't mind.

  • @hassan07e
    @hassan07e7 ай бұрын

    very informative indeed

  • @odysseas__

    @odysseas__

    7 ай бұрын

    Thank you

  • @expeditioner9322
    @expeditioner93222 ай бұрын

    One of the biggest lies of today is the idea that if you don't understand a book then the problem is with the book. The writer is bad. I disagree. The problem is with you. You need to level up your brain to understand that book.

  • @odysseas__

    @odysseas__

    2 ай бұрын

    Depends on the book -it's a mutual effort from both writer and reader

  • @expeditioner9322

    @expeditioner9322

    2 ай бұрын

    @@odysseas__ This had become a trend now. PPL blaming the writing right away if it's effortful for them. And I think this attitude is also being encouraged by the media. What's Dummy's guide to _____? What is the connotation there? After reading it do you still remain a dummy? How many would venture to read Kant or Hegel today? How many relish the mental challenge there lies in reading these kinds of works? You cannot simplify everything. Simplification has its own burden.

  • @odysseas__

    @odysseas__

    2 ай бұрын

    @@expeditioner9322 I agree -its a case by case situation. We have the duty to put effort in, but at the same time, some writers are just shit at getting their points across. Even if it's a tricky one, there's no reason to force your readers to struggle with the passages

  • @expeditioner9322

    @expeditioner9322

    2 ай бұрын

    @@odysseas__ Judging writers is tricky. Is the writing shitty, or am I not there yet? How to know? There is no easy answer. Also I might use the excuse to shy away from the effort, hide my ignorance, and preserve my ego. It requires a degree of self honesty, which, again, is a scarce trait.