Do you take notes when you read books?

same user, but I haven't gotten to the point of wiki-fying it. what do you use?

reddit spacing etc.

but seriously most people need to actually do the "homework" to retain information. you can't retain information without practicing it. trying to learn, say, Haskell by just reading a book without doing the work, is a big waste of time.

Dokuwiki

Cool. I've been looking for a good tool to store my thoughts but I never thought about a wiki. I've been using evernote but the interface just isn't very good.

Which wiki do you use? Where is it hosted?

thank you

I just take notes as i read. Usually in markdown format .md
I also think its important to poke code snippets they give you, change something, rename variables, add stuff, optimise it, etc.

books are probably good for keeping track of all the details of a language, but honestly, i learn from using the language and reading online sites with everything i need to know about the lang.

Attached: índice.jpg (259x194, 13K)

If we're talking about lang books, I create folders for each chapter, copy the code from the book and I try to come up with other examples where whatever it is you're learning at the moment. Otherwise I'll forget all of it.

>tfw I've learnt more about programming from n00bs on SO than from books or classes

>I create folders for each chapter, copy the code from the book and I try to come up with other examples where whatever it is you're learning at the moment

This is a nice idea.

I don't even know. Reading a book cover to cover or doing exercises mid-read doesn't work.
However what has worked is just diving into making something and only later reading material on it. Sort of like backing up the learned practical with theory. Story of my life

>read the book and to exercises
>most of the things goes over your head and you won't remember when to use what in practical circumstances
>try and do things on your own and struggle a lot
>make a couple things with absolute shit tier code
>read the book again
>things makes sense as you see where you could apply the things you read about where
>remember shit easier when it makes sense
probably not optimal but it's what I have to do since things just won't stick with me the first time I read about a language I'm getting into

>ctrl+f "spaced repetition"
>0 results
Everybody in this thread is a retard. The only guaranteed way to remember literally anything and retain it with near perfect fidelity for as long as you want is with spaced repetition[0].
I used Anki[1] to ace every single class in uni. People were in disbelief in how easily I could retain everything and pass every exam. Even years later, I still keep up with my decks (takes about 10 minutes a day) and retain it all.
Even better, spaced repetition helps me not just retain all the factual information but my mind seems to work on the information in the background and build a scaffold/web between the different concepts so I understand a subject better and more deeply than most other people. It's like magic.
And before any retards ask, yes it works for maths and programming. Probably even better as these subjects are more easily broken down into atomic bits of information

[0] gwern.net/Spaced-repetition
[1] apps.ankiweb.net/

I already readed about Spaced Repetition but never heard about Anki, sounds interesting.

I've been using anki for Japanese for years, any good pre-made decks for technology stuff?

Is this a good book? Should an aspiring programmer read it?

if you never programmed before, or only did hello world - yes

My brain.

>if you don't do what I have to do you're retarded
good post

Well i could be considered an "intermediate level beginner" in C.
I understand poimters and basic principle of structs. And Im currently doing the cs50 course.
Since im not doing a CS course, what other things should i know about? (like discrete math, algorithms & data structure etc)?

It sounds like the book could be useful to you, it teaches principles of programming, rather than the "this does this" approach of simpler tutorials. I suggest you check out the /sci/ sticky, it has a nice collections of resources:
Jow Forums-science.wikia.com/wiki/Computer_Science_and_Engineering

Much obliged, sir.

>And before any retards ask, yes it works for maths and programming. Probably even better as these subjects are more easily broken down into atomic bits of information
Give us some examples

>any good tech decks?
I'm sure there are a few but I'd strongly suggest you make your own as that is a huge part of the learning process. Actually that literally is the learning process. As you work through whatever material you have, you force yourself to reason about what you're reading. The act of making the cards is you reifying your own understanding. If you must use pre-made decks, I'd still suggest making your own first that way you at least have a foundation to build on then as you go through others' decks, you will be seeing what you already know through someone else's eyes. That way you're enhancing your understanding rather than frustrating the shit out of yourself trying to rote memorize someone else's notes. That said, try this guy's stuff[0]. I think he shared some programming decks.
Fair enough. Hey, you don't have to agree. I'm just saying what worked for me. Not only what worked but what completely BTFO'd by a mile any other learning technique I ever tried.
Yes, you can highlight, re-read, interpretive dance, what the hell ever any other way that works for you. I'm just pointing the thread to what is scientifically proven as the most efficient way to retain information which is specifically what the OP asked. I'm not saying it's the most fun or anything else. I'm emphatically saying this: for a given body of knowledge, spaced repetition is the most efficient way to remember and understand it. Say you spend 10 hours learning something including everything you do, reading, highlighting, whatever. If you spend that 10 hours on spaced repetition, you will retain much more and have a much better understanding than with any other method. Nothing else comes even close.
>examples
For what, maths and programming? Anything discrete unit of information you can think of. Chain rule in calculus, the json api in Golang. The thing is, you easily memorize the info then your subconscious connects the dots.

[0] sivers.org/srs

Usually not, I found that if I take notes DURING reading, I end up focusing more on writing notes than actually reading the book.
I do sometimes write down a short summary, but only AFTER I'm done reading.

You should read the CPP programming language exercices pdf and do them. The author of the book published it on his website, free of charge

>cont.
An example in my own life is I'm a programming polyglot. I make liberal use of PHP, Golang, Python, webshit HTML/CSS/Javascript, Android programming with Java, I work extensively with Numpy, Scipy, Matplotlib, etc. for some data science stuff I do.
There is a lot of obscure shit that I might only need once every month or so but years or months ago depending on the language, I spent a couple of days going over the docs and making cards for the respective api. Now I never have to open the book and can program in whatever language or on whatever project at the speed I can think rather than at the speed of looking shit up on stack overflow like most people do. I'm 5x as productive as any other programmer I know. Not only that but I have a deeper understanding of the tools I use and have a better feel for what to use and when. I intuitively "feel" how it all fits together.
As a result I'm the go-to guy. I'm faster, I make more money, and I'm respected. Nobody even knows my real secret, they just think I have a photographic memory or have about 30 more IQ points than I actually do.
The reality is I've found a mind hack that takes like 10 minutes a day to maintain and I do that while I'm on the toilet.
Pic related is my anki notes for today. 49 cards that'll take about 10-15 minutes to go through. For that daily price, I have perfect recall of 10 programming languages and quite a few other esoteric topics. It's fucking amazing.

Attached: Screenshot 2019-01-02 at 7.18.01 AM.png (1154x501, 39K)

When do you use `std::function` over an abstract class with a single virtual member function, user?

Can you show some examples of your cards? Also are you on amphetamines currently or do you just like typing paragraphs that will go into obscurity in 10 hours or so?

org-mode

Not that user but you shouldn't use either ever unless circumstances compelled you to take leave of your senses.
Virtual functions are just pointless nerf because you don't have access to the vtable (you could of course rely on undefined behavior but that's dumb).
std::function has long articles written about it for how to avoid performance problems. It doesn't even fit a shared goal with what you described.

I would consider either to be indicative of poor design decisions in most cases.

There's really only three kinds of people when it comes to study methods. Those that do completely retarded things like reading the material a billion times thinking they will magically remember it, those that use proper study methods (retrieval based practice, spaced repetition), and those that are fucking geniuses and just understand and remember everything.

I appreciate the value of these methods but how do you actually apply this effectively to specific types of problem solving?
The obvious answer is to just face the problems at regular intervals. But that's very time consuming.

I'm no a Chromebook so taking good screenshots is a non-starter but here's a card that shows some code from an Android xml file and asks how you would get a reference to it in Java. Simple question and answer.
The idea is to use the "least information principle". You want to have the answer be as simple and discrete as possible. This makes it easier to remember and easier to recall on the fly. As you answer a card, use the time to actually think about it. Picture using the information in practice and roll it around in your mind a bit. It only takes a few seconds but this gives your subconscious something to chew on later.
No, lol, no amphetamines. I'm just passionate about learning in general and the spacing effect in particular. I could go all day on this shit.
>org-mode
Yes, if I were not using Anki, I would be using Emac's equally great org-mode.
>How to apply spaced repetition to problem solving
Well, here's the thing. Problem solving basically boils down to using crystallized knowledge and your own intelligence to deal with novel situations. Spaced repetition is the freaking root password to accumulating crystallized knowledge. Not only does it make remembering stuff easy but, and I want to really stress this, your subconscious mind is always working but it needs things to work on and it needs data. The more information you have swirling around in your brain, the more effectively your subconscious will be at turning that data into useful solutions, i.e., problem solving. You begin to see the connection between some Calculus trivia and some economics problem. And the connection is intuitive, not something you have to grasp at.
I've been using spaced repetition for years and I can honestly say it has changed my life. Previously I was a mediocre student with a mediocre memory and middling ability to excel in any domain. Now I fucking rule. I mentioned above how it is with my coworkers. Literally like adding 30 IQ points.

Forgot to attach the card. It isn't much but the cards don't have to be. Actually they shouldn't. Don't put too much thought into it that you stress yourself out. The only way to make good cards is through experience of making them and seeing what works for you.

Attached: Screenshot 2019-01-02 at 7.33.20 AM.png (549x487, 24K)

Interesting, I guess I will try to makes some cards and see how it works form me, Japanese was amazing, but it took some time getting used to it. I guess the first step is always the hardest. Also thank you for making actually good contributions, if only everybody actually put effort into their posts

Thank you, Anki looks great. I've used spaced repetition before, but I never found a proper program for it. This will make learning easy again.

Attached: brain.jpg (710x823, 90K)

>Yes, if I were not using Anki, I would be using Emac's equally great org-mode.
I fell for the spaced repetition meme in undergrad 2007 so i already have my disgusting hacky elisp file that implements that for org-mode, otherwise i'd probably use anki now that i'm looking at it.

that's really interesting user, i've had my own little wiki thing on my site for a couple months now but i never thought about actually adding actual knowledge on there. usually it's just for shitposts

i create a web of ontologies

I've wanted to to this for some time, but it takes so much time to write up a wiki article for everything that I just never bothered. How do you quickly and efficiently maintain the wiki without putting in too much work?

Glad I could be of service. Here's a nice bonus to make visual information easily memorable. It's called image occlusion and is basically cloze completion for pictures. Imagine you have some anatomy or geographic or whatever you need to remember. You just load it up in Anki and select the parts of the image you need remember and it drills you by showing you the image and asking you to recall the occluded part. Check it out if that's unclear. There are youtube videos too.
When I was feeling particularly lazy, I used to download textbooks from library genesis and just image occlude entire pages. Shit works.

ankiweb.net/shared/info/1111933094

Ị'm trying to figure out a workflow to take notes from pdf with org-mode.
I want to be able to browse the notes with hyper links to the original papers, and also maybe get the notes hyperlinked in the paper.

Not sure I'm communicating this well.
Consider the difference between of a specific algorithms and the general claims of its applications compared to knowing the situation where the algorithm can be an improvement over the current solution.
Yes I could certainly train myself to know the ins and outs of a specific algorithm. To spot the connection to a specific domain problem is a complicated thing though. Especially now with how modern computers are. I don't see how I could possibly solve CPU pipelining problems with dependency chains, cache locality concerns and fitting the datastructure AND algorithms (which feed into usage pattern which feeds into cache...) problem just by having a good memory of algorithms and datastructures.
Most of the problems I deal with call for hybrids aswell. A drastic complexity explosion.
My strategy is usually to try to prioritize the factors of the problems by their magnitude (if attainable or i just go y experience). But that has landed me in local maxima before. So even that in combination with what I do know and remember (which I don't think is inconsiderable) isn't really good enough.
I understand that some problems are hard and you'll never really solve them trivially but some of these solutions don't feel like they are that.
The solutions where I accept my failures are more within seeing relationships as you might in math while solving something. The language has helped me there. I feel. Perhaps it's just that my intuition for other things is greater and I have more reliance on it there. Where I would actually want something like mathematical language for software design to guide me.

I have errors that really wreck the readability of this post. Sorry.

Passing around raw function pointers is antiquated and should be avoided in almost all cases. I'm writing C++, not C.

What you're describing sounds a bit subjective and I'm trying to resist delving into a treatise on metacognition which would be a little out of scope on Jow Forums even for an effortpost but trust I'm not talking past you when I say simply this, just try what I'm saying. Try spaced repetition. It is more than the sum of its parts and the only way to really get it is to do it for at least a few months.
You obviously are well informed but having perfect recall of intricate complex domain knowledge which spaced repetition can give you has a higher order effect than learning any other way. It even feels different. As if it puts you in a more rational frame of mind. An interesting fact is if you are bilingual, simply thinking about a problem in your second language forces you to approach it more deliberately and thoughtfully. The reasoning being is you aren't loaded with the emotional baggage of the life experience that went along with learning your first language (or whatever). Pulling information from memory you put there with spaced repetition is a similar experience. You will read a card and it will trigger a solution to a problem you have been working on. This has happened to me many times. That new novel insight can then be used to make yet another card. At some point, these new cards will trigger new even more novel insights ad infinitum. That's the real magic of this thing. A cascade of insight you will get no other way. The feeling can't really be explained though so you'll have to try it for yourself.

>bilingual
I am.
>second language
In the domain of programming that line is blurrier every day. I mostly think in English when programming already. As you might imagine the load of translating words to mockeries of their original in my naive language is both onerous and counterproductive when socializing.

I'll consider your suggestion though. I've never really felt the need to remember past what I consider the salient aspects of datastructures or algorithms, and I consider myself knowing that very well for anything I wouldn't consider esoteric. It's really not hard to keep track of. In a sense CS is just about breaking down problem solutions into pieces that fit in categories. And programming is (usually) the intersection of domain problems with those generic pieces. So there's a lot of automatic associations that come with every atom.
I'm really not sure what you'd suggest I would practice actually. Just more algorithms?

>I'm really not sure what you'd suggest I would practice actually. Just more algorithms?
Sounds like you're a little past the studying more algorithms stage. I don't know if it'll help but what I did at that point was look for how better programmers than myself solve interesting problems.
Go to stack overflow and search for your favorite languages, libraries, etc. and order by most voted, most popular whatever and start scrolling. Read answers and you're guaranteed to find a few interesting solutions that aren't algorithmic or textbook and not anything you would have thought up on your own. Think through what you're reading and make a card for the salient points.
Also do the same for your favorite open source software. Find stuff written by talented programmers and you're guaranteed to see things in there that'll have you seeing things in new ways.
Your subconscious is what spins out new levels of understanding and you have to feed it. The problem is you don't really know what's going to be the key piece of information so you have put work in to find it.
Good luck. I have to go but hopefully something here will help and won't seem too elementary.

I highlight the book as I read along and also write notes in the margins. Sometimes at the end I'll go back to the first page of the chapter and write my own little summary of what's been covered.

Sometimes I will write the notes up into a org mode file, and if I do that I'm autistic enough to ensure what I'm writing is correct and terse enough that I can skim it and understand it which generally means I read and re-read the part I'm taking notes on a few times.

I think the key is taking multiple passes of the material to make it stick, and with programming stuff definitely doing the exercises and writing your own little programs.

Attached: image.jpg (3270x3381, 1.24M)

>I knew a guy that would read through a book without retaining anything.
That would be me. If there's no value in it I forget it.

scribble in the margin

then why read it in the first place?

im the third one but I can only do it for 10 dense pages a day and have to be interested in it to retain it.
heh, you could say, I am a genius

Attached: 1457885609907.png (773x591, 84K)

> Not just remembering all of the key information from a book while speed reading.
Seriously though, it depends on the aim of the books and the book itself. If it a programming book. if it has excersises in it, do them from scratch repeatedly if you struggle to remember. If it is for undertanding the concepts of programming or of most things technical. Repetion massively helps for most people.
Honestly it just depends what works best for you.
Clearly I am not you, due to the fact I will remeber most of what I read, or at the very least, the key points or message that the literature is getting accross.

Lots of bookmarks, post-it notes, pencil notes on the margin. If I'm serious about studying the book I keep a separate notebook for notes with summaries and the usual notes business. Notes are necessary for reviews and proper digestion of knowledge.
I often (almost in any book) find many mistakes (mostly simple ones) and correct them. I thought about sending them to the authors a few times but I didn't ever actually have done that.
Not that you actually need to read books most of the times. Most often you just need to survey through a topic the book is about. Especially in undergrad.

Attached: acecb16067c98a5ceb359ccb0b2d3061.jpg (731x437, 40K)

Sup, data hoarder bro
I have something similar but in an analog form of binders. Also a few TIL text files. And literally thousand of neatly categorized bookmarks.

picrel learning curves are in

Attached: revisions.png (1305x718, 210K)

protip: learning is actually a hard work you have to commit to

>Dokuwiki
Use org-mode, this was literally designed for autistic data hoarders.

Also, digital note taking sucks ass and here's why:
>cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.udel.edu/dist/6/132/files/2010/11/Psychological-Science-2014-Mueller-0956797614524581-1u0h0yu.pdf
Not that I dismiss wiki or other data hoarding tools, it's just that data hoarding isn't the same as taking notes contrary to what you might believe

This turned out to be one of the best threads I've ever seen on Jow Forums.

Taking note is useless for most books because most of the time your notes you will never look back at your notes (and it will be boring to read them over and over).
Here is how I learn from a book:
1 - Read the chapter and look at the exercises quickly.
2 - Read again the difficult parts of the chapter.
3 - If I need to rote memorize something I add it to Anki (eg: the name of a core function like sizeof in the C programming language).
4 - Do every single exercise of the chapter.
5 - Copy the exercises to a blog or a push them to a git repo.

This is literally how I self study computer science, I'm doing this with SICP and a book about C. Here is my work smatchcube.github.io/SICP/ and github.com/Smatchcube/C-Primer-Plus-Answers
The hard part is just taking the time to work, I use org-mode to keep track of my time to be more efficient and stay focused toward productive goals.

Oh and try to watch/read similar material beside the main book (eg watch the SICP lectures while reading SICP).

How do you even concentrate when reading a technical book?
My mind just starts to wander around after half a page, it's a curse.

No, but I do exercises and re-read sections until I understand everything along with using Anki flashcards for remembering anything tedious.

dopamine detox

jokes on you i use my own software

I highlight important shit as I read

how?

Wow this reads like an infomercial :^)

Stop playing flashy games. Stop doing things that offer instant gratification. Mobile games are designed to fry your brain and attention spam, they're the biggest cancer that exists. Computer games are mostly no different.
Certain types of youtube videos are bad too, in the same vein.
Stop conditioning your brain like you're some toddler. If you're really serious about it stop doing most things you do for fun for like a month so your dopamine levels reset and you'll start to find productive things fun eventually.

Attached: 1528665399791.jpg (2193x2617, 406K)

Cop a 5 year prison bid. You can't concentrate for shit the first 6 months or so but after that you'll actually be able to read a book for more than 30 minutes in a sitting. By the time they let you out, you'll be up to a whole novel in a single sitting. Next to that, Babby's First Python book will be a piece of cake.

Damien Elms pays me by the word

It was my first programming book it is great. I still use the things I learned in this book. It is very detailed.

does this mean I should stop masturbating?

Where did you go from there?
I'm currently going through it.

do whatever you think will help you condition your brain to stop being a twitchy impatient toddler
no-fap works great for some people, placebo or not

>Taking note is useless for most books because most of the time your notes you will never look back at your notes
This is not a bad thing, even when you won't do repetitions with your notes. ~70% of my notes are "useless" in that meaning because I've learnt to retain most of the things I write down. But it's not useless in a way that I had to structure and write it down to retain it in the first place.
Like, when you write a cheat-sheet and after you're done you notice you don't need it anymore because you remember most of it.
For the remaining 30%, those are the things that don't want to stick with me as easily for some reason, and having them on paper helps me identify them so I know what to focus on and gives me a digestible learning material.

keep away from: music, noise (I use ear muffs), electronics (tv, pc, smartphones), DON'T READ IN A FUCKING BED (or a chair that's too comfy)

>he fell for the improvement pill meme

95% of the legit advice itt is taught in schools. I had it all summarized even in the first chapter of my physics book, which was old af (so it's not like a breaking new knowledge) not to mention it was mentioned a few times in some other classes.
Anons seriously have never heard about learning curves and benefits of proper note taking in their schools?
>But that's very time consuming.
It's actually not. Retrieval takes less time each time you do it (after a second time it's instant) and each time you retrieve can be spaced exponentially further in time.
Without retrieval, you can consider the time spent on learning material as basically lost, so you tell me what is more time efficient.

my brain is massive and im ripped now
women throw their panties at me wherever I go
you?
little cuck not in possession of his destiny
me?
prime mover of history

You're just in love with yourself.

making a personal wiki != taking notes in real time during a lecture

During lectures, I usually have my laptop up with Anki open to make spaced repetition notes in real time. Saves me from having to input the stuff in later.

>making a personal wiki != taking notes in real time during a lecture
this is literally what that post said

No, that user linked to a study about note-taking in a classroom setting and made the wild extrapolation that taking any kind of notes on a computer is always bad.
That study basically found that people who take notes on a laptop are more likely to transcribe the content verbatim, even when they are told not to, which in turn leads to bloated notes that are harder to study efficiently and less conscious information processing during note taking. It also cites other studies at the beginning where both groups were forced to take the exact same notes, which resulted in the laptop group slightly outperforming the longhand group, so clearly it's not the case that just the act of taking notes on paper inherently leads to better retention.
Clearly, someone making his personal wiki would most likely not transcribe the content verbatim since he doesn't have to do it in real time, therefore the conclusions of that study most likely don't apply to that scenario.

supermemo.com/help/read.htm
supermemo is better