Why Books Don't Work

With an analog system like Zettelkasten, a single index card is used to scrawl brief notes for a book. Ideas are expanded in separate index cards, the ends of which are to publish new, synthesized works.

I'm not certain a single index card could fit the entire length of Capital, or even every command from Absolute OpenBSD. So, there has to be some compromise over what notes to take and how much. That depends on the person's existing background and goals.

So we have that a book must be approached with an end, and not only to be finished; and that it may be something to explore again in a different expedition, as life and circumstances warrant.

And not even the book, but procedural acts like programs and surgery are not absorbed by scanning the text, but direct application in something: not so much of immediacy like surgery (!), but still practicable. (Deliberate) practice, practice, practice.

After that, if we are to share some useful measure, we may publish in a book or video course, but still we have source code or supplemental textual material, or even a novel or screenplay.

Doesn't that make a book a work too? It has a thesis, a central argument, page after page of support, scaffolding, references, an index; an appendix, selected answers, a dust jacket.

Reading a book is also an experience. The play of pages, the fiddling of corners, the closing after constant tiny interruptions. The opening again.

But we are left to our own devices, in the end: review, self-study, quizzing, writing about it, rebuilding the world manifest, finding time to consume again.

I'm one who thinks that teaching books should have a question-and-answer format with the ability to discuss the subject after it's read AND a quick quiz to make sure the reader has absorbed the studied subject. Otherwise, it's very easy to read without absorbing any knowledge. I would even go as far as having the sections written in the same way as a newspaper article. With a catchy title and a format that gives the who, when, where, why, and how. At least, the books for the introductory courses should have that format. Current textbooks just flood the students with facts with little absorption. One big problem is that the sections are too long and it becomes a struggle to power through the section which leaves less energy to absorb the subject so my format would catch the reader's attention without feeling exhausted. There's such thing as mental exhaustion. Doing whatever is needed to minimize it should be a goal worth pursuing.

It's curious how lengthily he writes for such a poor reader.

Books are easy to take for granted.