Ask HN: When do you think? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: When do you think?

18 pointshungry_haibt13 comments

By think, I mean the process by which you form new opinions about the things you read in a book or an article in a newspaper.

I have come to realize that most of stuff I read, I am just passively consuming it. I do understand a fair bit of the concepts but never really bother to analyze or critically think about it.

Do you take a pause after reading stuff and think about it, forming your opinions or may be building analogies to understand the concepts at a deeper level ? Or do you take breaks and devote some time to think about an interesting topic you might have come across during preceding days or weeks ?

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Going for a walk around the block

In the shower

Sitting around quietly at night

Try to keep a notepad around

During walks, bike trips, etc. Outside, mild intensity, that's perfect for thinking.

Particularly intersting reads take me a long time because I research what I read, I would say that's part of thinking too. (Which for me means; if I'm not looking stuff up while reading, the material isn't really making me think).

Also, while discussing matters with my wife, mother or father. (And nowadays sometimes also my son, kids ask 'weird' questions that make you think as hell.)

Trying to tell / explain to somebody (or even an imaginary someone) what I’ve read or studied. Most good insights or opinions happen at that moment for me.

My son is reading a book about conquerors and came across the portion on taxation, how the conquerors would tax the conquered and send the profits back home. We talk about what he is reading on our daily walks.

He said "there are no more people to conquer, so we tax ourselves"

I said "maybe we are the conquered"

Both of our minds were simultaneously blown.

What’s interesting for me is if the subject is coding the “thinking” is the gaining real world experience, and then I judge what people say through that lens. But I also accept that my real world experience might be bias. Because of the old you need experience in X to get a job in X paradox. So I keep an open mind on any discussion eg is Haskell “better” than say Python or if not having static types is a good thing. I don’t keep opinions on these things just keep the pros and cons in a state of quantum flux in my head.

So it’s complicated and I realise how unable I am to be critical of something in have not done the 10k hours in. Say government policy for example. I also like HN when knowledge people weigh in on such things but then I need to judge how good their thinking is! It’s a tough problem.

I regard all books as a conversation between the author and the reader. If the author is the only one saying anything, you are passively consuming it. To have a proper "conversation", you have to criticize the content and compare what you know with what the author knows.

HN is actually a nice product that does this - someone can share an article and other people can compare notes (and even have a conversation with the author!)

I also make sure to take notes. If there are no notes worth taking, maybe the book wasn't worth reading in the first place? Some information dense work needs you to even write a kind of glossary, comparing the author's terms as she defines them, instead of using terms you're familiar with. This is especially the case with technical/academic work.

I mostly do when sleeping, staring just before fall asleep and when a wake up everithing seems much clear

With kids, I am always short of time to do things like reading. What I have done is taken a different approach. I only seek knowledge that I can act on to achieve an short term goal. This gets around the issue of only passively consuming information.

I think I have heard others call this just in time learning.

It seems to happen approximately like an exercise training cycle for me: a ramp to intensity and then a rest period. In the intense period, I will tend to write and ruminate about the idea. Then it trails off and progress comes to a near halt for a bit. But if I wait patiently for a day or two then I can ramp up again.

I tend to process as I read, which makes me a slower reader. I will also reflect on it at the end of the book/article/show as well.

Mostly while running or sitting by window and staring outside.

For me, synthesis is a mode of cognition that is often paywalled by the endless trivia of everyday life. So, as you say, I'll often read something quite passively and just not have the time to think deeply on it.

I do think we all approach knowledge and creativity quite differently. I've got lots of friends that are very logical, deductive, and first principles. Whereas any nuanced opinion I form generally comes from daydreaming or spacing out in the shower.

I write.

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