How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens
On bias and systems
If one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirmation bias would have to be among the candidates for consideration.
A good system will force us to act more virtuously without actually having to become more virtuous.
The antidote: indiscriminate gathering of any relevant information regardless of what argument it will support.
A good rule of thumb: if insight becomes a threat to your academic or writing success, you are doing it wrong.
On building ideas bottom-up
Developing arguments and ideas bottom-up instead of top-down is the first and most important step to opening ourselves up for insight.
Focus on the most insightful ideas we encounter and welcome the most surprising turns of events.
What we are looking for are facts and information that can add something and therefore enrich the slip-box.
On writing as practice
Extracting the gist of a text or an idea and giving an account in writing is like daily practice on the piano for pianists. The more often we do it and the more focused we are, the more virtuous we become.
It is not possible to think systematically without writing.
Only in the written form can an argument be looked at with a certain distance — literally.
Writing brief accounts of the main ideas of a text — instead of collecting quotes — forces us to think hard about how they connect with other ideas from different contexts.
On understanding vs. familiarity
Reading, especially rereading, can easily fool us into believing we understand a text. When we become familiar with something, we start believing we also understand it.
Familiarity is not understanding.
The attempt to rephrase an argument in our own words confronts us without mercy with all the gaps in our understanding.
If you can’t say it clearly, you don’t understand it yourself.
On critical thinking
Always ask: what is not meant — what is excluded if a certain claim is made?
The ability to spot patterns, to question the frames used, and to detect the distinctions made by others is the precondition to thinking critically and looking behind the assertions of a text or a talk.
The ability to re-frame questions, assertions, and information is even more important than the answers themselves.
Trains one to shift attention towards frames, patterns, and categories — and the conditions or assumptions behind them.
On learning
The one who does the work does the learning.
A coach is not there to do the work, but to show us how to use our time and effort in the most effective way.
Aim for actual learning that helps us increase our understanding of the world, not just the learning that makes us pass a test.
Develop reference points for distinguishing the important from the less important, and new information from the merely repeated.