Two types of books, two ways of reading, help you achieve self-enhancement

It seems hard to imagine a student studying art history who enters a large advertising agency after graduation, successfully transitions to a foreign consulting firm in his 30s, and a consulting firm specializing in organizational development in his 40s. How exactly did he do it?

The answer is simple – self-study. By linking reading to work, he successfully transformed himself into a great business person.

This person is Shu Yamaguchi, a well-known consultant in Japan and the author of "Reading Monetization". In the book "Reading Realization", he starts from his many years of self-study and reading experience, and shares his reading methods and how to succeed with everyone, which can not only help us avoid ineffective reading and inefficient reading, but also help us go further in the workplace through this learning method.

Read two types of books to improve yourself in the first place

Most of us have a reading misconception that as long as we read a lot, we will definitely gain. This is not the case, and when you think back on the books you have read, many of them are only vague impressions, and some of them cannot even be remembered at all, let alone combined with actual work.

Be aware that the amount of reading is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition. The reason for the gap in knowledge productivity between people and people often depends on whether the knowledge and perception you have gained through reading books are used in your work. So, how to open up the gap with others through reading, and then comprehensively improve yourself?

In general, books read by adults can be divided into two categories: one is business books, and the other is general knowledge books.

Business books refer to classic business books, such as Michael Porter's "Competitive Advantage" and Kenichi Ohmae's "Corporate Staff", these "masterpieces" in the business category can build our underlying cognition and shape the basis of our learning.

General books are books that shape the personality of business people, and the classification of books is diverse. Reading Monetization divides it into seven categories: philosophy (modern thought); history (world history, Chinese history); psychology (cognitive, social, and educational); medicine, physiology, and brain science; engineering (including computer science); biology; and cultural anthropology.

In the author's view, business books and general knowledge books, the reading methods and reading characteristics of the two are completely different. He explains this in detail in his book.

Read business books and turn your knowledge into core competencies

Aged wine is long-lasting, and the classics are getting newer and newer. The same is true of the famous books in the business books.

Different from the general business books, the "masterpieces" in business books have narrow and profound characteristics, so they need to be repeatedly read and chewed to digest such a deep book.

At the same time, it is also a good time to help business people build underlying perceptions. With the construction of the underlying cognition, cognitive upgrading will be much easier. When you finally think through the "masterpieces" in business books, then when you read books in a certain professional field, you will do more with less, greatly opening up the gap with others.

Of course, reading this kind of book is prone to some confusion. The first is what to do when reading a book and encounter something you don't understand. Yamaguchi said, skipping over 10 pages. If you still don't understand, jump over.

The second is to read business books, not to copy and take reading notes. Because such books contain examples and inspirations related to business, they usually come in handy immediately.

So how to choose business books? In "Reading Realization", Yamaguchi Zhou has compiled a list of "Business Book Mandala" in detail, from the basics to the advanced. He believes that when reading business books, they should be read in order from the center to the outward edge. First of all, start with the relevant books in the core field, and then read the books related to it according to the major you want to go deeper or interested in, so as to enhance the core competitiveness through the knowledge learned.

Read general knowledge books to achieve self-enhancement

If the knowledge in business books is active learning, then the knowledge in general books is the opposite.

General studies books are uncertain, i.e. they don't know when they will come in handy, but they may still be useful in the future. Therefore, after reading general books, you need to take reading notes.

During the reading process, you can follow the "three-pass" reading technique. The first time: draw a line. Draw lines as a whole in the parts of the text that you care about, rather than just drawing a few keywords.

Second pass: 5 items are selected. It is important to distinguish whether the part of the line has the value of the excerpt, and because of this, Yamaguchi Shu set the upper limit of the excerpt to 9 parts. When picking content that is worth copying, this process deepens our understanding and memory of the content, which takes root in our minds.

Third time: excerpt. Excerpts can be made of the parts of interest, the inspirations for business work and practical life, and the assumptions of concrete action. At the same time, be sure to remember to add topics, consciously increase "attention", and improve sensitivity to information. The most important thing is to revisit the notes as soon as you have the opportunity, otherwise you will only forget them completely in time.

How do I choose a general studies book? In Reading Monetization, Yamaguchi proposes two methods: one is to start with a good traditional book, and the other is to start with an interesting book.

Traditional good books, as the name suggests, are more classic good books. But such a book may not be of interest to you, so it is best to choose a book that starts with an interesting book, and the so-called interest is the best teacher.

How to judge whether the book is in tune with yourself, first roughly read the introduction part of the book, and then look at the table of contents, as a basis for judgment.

Reading general books can help us shape our unique personality and achieve self-enhancement.

Write at the end

Yamaguchi's "Reading Monetization" is a general knowledge related book, which is very suitable for fast reading. In the process of reading, I read the table of contents, knew the framework of the book, and chose to read with interest. Of course, you can also choose to see from the beginning to the end.

@ Donkey Little Donkey Tree Cave Read a book together, let's put what we have learned into practice together

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