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Comment by Emphere | Hacker News Reader

Why shouldn't we have great recall of the details of books we read? All of the things you describe about actively engaging with the works you read are obviously correct (taking notes, summarising main points etc.). But often, I (and I dare say most people) fail to follow up with them effectively. As I see it, the author's question is: can we create a new medium which affords such active engagement with the works we read more effectively? Incorporating spaced repetition is a very good first step.

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> Why shouldn't we have great recall of the details of books we read?

I'm not saying we shouldn't, just pointing out that it's not practical to expect that after one causal read through of a book. At least books as they are today. Which leads to...

As I see it, the author's question is: can we create a new medium which affords such active engagement with the works we read more effectively?

That's fair. That, to me, turns the question into "how can we make books that work better?" instead of "why don't books work?" And I think that's a valid and useful question.

To the author's point that books aren't necessarily built around a theory of cognition / learning, and could be improved by incorporating that, I'd say "sure". I'm not at all opposed to the idea of making books better. I was really responding more to the earlier part of the essay, which seemed focused on hammering on the "books don't work" idea.

Visit a Yeshiva, or a Madreseh, or a Buddhist monastery, and behold a disciplined form of a "cognitive model" of learning from reading books. I knew this one Jewish guy who used to boast that he could press a pin into a book and tell you exactly what passsage of the book it was and what it said.

So the OP apparently thinks a novel construct can do what Yeshivas and Madresehs and Monastaries have been doing the past couple of thousand years.

Now if the OP can come up with an object that makes the user rock back and forth while in a trancelike state, then he probably deserves the academic fame that he clearly desires.

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