How to Read a Book [pdf]

Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by komali2 on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @11:48AM (#12210774)

That's kind of funny because there's a major trend now following people like Elon Musk who promote skimming through engineering texts. The idea being that you're not going to learn rocket science reading a dissertation on rocket fuel, but you will become aware of things you hadn't done before, and retain random knowledge that could be useful and will be useful as you continue skimming more and more technical books.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by greenshackle on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @12:28PM (#12211092)

Adler doesn't say you should read every book deeply though. He defines four levels of reading, from reading the table of content, to deep reading and synthesis of multiple works in the same domain.

Elon's technique makes sense, but you can't just do that. The most impressive people seem to be T-shaped: they have very deep understanding of their specialty, but they also a familiarity with a wide breadth of fields.

I skim a bunch of technical software books that are not immediately useful to me. My goal is not to remember every detail, it's just to get an idea of what's out there, and where to find more information if I need it.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by hoodwink on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @12:38PM (#12211159)

This type of reading is described in Adler's practical book. It's called "syntopical reading" in which you read multiple books about the same topic in furtherance of some particular idea. In this style of reading, you're encouraged to skim, skip sections, etc.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by chw9e on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @08:36PM (#12214597)

Elon may skim through some texts but he definitely also does some thorough reading and research as well..

"One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to."

-Elon Musk Reddit AMA https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk...

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by swiftisthebest on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @12:44PM (#12211209)

Musk is a CEO, not an engineer.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by TeMPOraL on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @01:06PM (#12211379)

He is a CEO and an engineer, one known in particular for going from zero to rocket scientist level impressively quickly.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by oh_sigh on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @05:16PM (#12213480)

Are you claiming that Musk does engineering work for SpaceX?

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by TeMPOraL on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @05:28PM (#12213559)

From what I heard yes, he does, if you count his nanomanagement. Moreover, he most definitely did initially - SpaceX didn't start with full complement of trained aerospace engineers on board. He learned his rocket science before starting the company.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by enraged_camel on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @12:53AM (#12215672)

He regularly participates in design discussions with engineers, and reviews their designs, I think. From what I hear, outside of software startups, he's one of the most technical CEOs in the world.

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Re:How to Read a Book [pdf] by ElijahLynn on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @01:13PM (#12211433)

Most definitely an engineer, then a CEO.

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