A system of techniques and tools to aid in reading, comprehending and retaining knowledge for life: created by [[Piotr Woźniak]]. It is best not to think about it as some well-defined objective idea but a system that contains both ideology and implementation. Let's start by taking a look at the nature of writing and reading in education. The writer takes complex multi-dimensional ideas and transforms it into a linear representation as text, then uses this writing as an artefact that mediates their cognition to iteratively develop their ideas (note, writing is not solely a process of expressing ideas but is a process of structuring and guiding cognition). Meanwhile, the reader takes the linear representation of text and parses it in the pursuit of some context-dependent objective, to re-construct knowledge within their mind. For example, a secondary school student may read and re-read the components of the computer in a textbook, with the objective to memorise the associations for a test. Meanwhile, an autodidactic adult may read Marx's manifesto in sections where each idea is contrasted with their experience of the world, to form criticisms of it and a better understanding of the world. However, we are seldom taught how to read and parse text, with respect to a wide range of contextual objectives. Most people pick up one book and read it from start to end hoping things will stick, but investigations by learning scientists have shown that micro-regulation behaviours such as scroll-back behaviour is correlated with better learning and of course [[Spaced repetition|spaced repetition]] is necessary for long-term memory consolidation. Here, incremental reading is seen as an evolution that puts forward an opinionated system on how to read and learn! # Core ideas The core ideas seem to be the following, with associated benefits. **A. Parallel reading**: collecting and reading multiple articles, blogs, and media which are digested in small chunks and revisited over time. - **Spacing effect (memory)**, you naturally revisit the same article, book over time improving memory - **Reflection**, it gives you more space to reflect upon ideas as you go about your day - **Connections / creativity**, allows you to identify relationships, contradictions and spur new ideas **B. Switching over:** if what is being read is worth the time, then continue, otherwise stop and switch. * **Efficiency,** completionism is a dangerous time-sink (avoid [[Opportunity cost neglect|opportunity cost neglect]] given the [[Education as an optimisation problem|optimisation-like properties of education]]) - **Enjoyment,** you can switch freely to follow your interests - **Reduced extraneous cognitive load,** staring at one topic for too long can drive us mad without benefits - **Improved attention,** novel stimuli improve attention **C. Prioritisation of knowledge,** you can freely switch articles, books, to whatever feels relevant to your life currently (eg. X is more related to the project I am doing at work, or Y might help in this relationship problem) **D. [[Spaced repetition]]**: as you understand small segments, you create flashcards that are added to a spaced repetition system to digest over time. * **Lifelong stable durable memories!,** you know this knowledge will persist for life! How much of the things you read do you remember? * **Better comprehension,** stronger prior knowledge every time you visit an article, since you have reinforced your memory * **Motivation,** by adding flashcards you feel like you are making constant progress where effort invested is being evidenced in very measurable ways ## How to do it? Articles are split into portions; these portions compete based on priority; spacing and intervals are secondary. Reshuffling articles helps to avoid over-prioritisation of new articles, and hence counteract the [[Recency effect|recency effect]]. [[Guillem Palausalva]] posits that it is like a meat grinder, churning through a variety of sources to produce flashcards that can be consolidated with repetition. ## Laden ideology of learning Though it is laden with ideology on the nature and [[Purpose of education|purpose of learning]] (though is one that I personally love, as with most ideas from Piotr!). ## Criticisms * **Lack of personalisation,** given that most of are never taught how to read and digest information, we implicitly develop a system composed of highly personal preferences and habits that somewhat needs to be given up to adhere to the system of incremental reading. * **Impeding development of self-regulation skills,** particularly perseverance given the nature of it encouraging switching, leading by interests and joy. * **Switching by feeling may lead to us missing important ideas.** How can a reader, particularly novices which most learners by definition are, understand if a foundational text is valuable through feeling. * **Breaking the text into segments could destroy the experience.** * **Could this strip of us of boredom and moments of idle thought**, where creative connections are made.