This article is from the WeChat public account: Gaiya Academy (ID: thinkwithgaia), author: Li Bin, title picture from: Visual China
Reading is a paradoxical thing.
Some people say that reading is very luxurious, the clouds are light and the wind is light, and they are happy, while others say that reading is very difficult, treading in the rain and roaring, and it is difficult to complain. The former is the realm, the latter is the reality. Most people are pursuing the realm, and they are in reality.
In the final analysis, it is not that we lack the understanding of the meaning of reading, but that we lack the method of reading and the perseverance to persevere.
On the occasion of World Book Day, I would like to use this article to talk to you about my approach to reading.
Reading should become an obsession
From childhood to adulthood, our parents and teachers would each say that we should study hard, because what will happen if we study well. But when I was studying, I never seemed to feel how happy. At that time, I thought I had a problem.
Now that I'm a father, I say the same thing to my daughter. But I found that the situation was roughly the same, it was harder than anything else to let her read every day, and she always pushed and pushed until there was really no way for the teacher to check it, and then she did it. But for watching TV, playing games, and playing Lego, she can always indulge in it and enjoy it.
Most people don't like to read, it's in our nature. To sum up, there are several reasons:
First, reading requires a high degree of concentration. For a book composed of words, if you read a few words less, you may not be able to understand the plot, knowledge, and meaning, and human attention span is limited, so reading is actually antibiotic.
Second, there is no material exchange in the process of reading, only mental stimulation. But this kind of stimulation is one-dimensional, lacking more abundant information such as sound, color, animation, etc., in the current rich media era, we have more tempting choices, so reading is also contrarian.
Third, the "realization" value of reading in terms of remuneration is very far away. The principles of economics tell us that people have a preference for "discounting", and the 100 yuan you can get today is not the same as the 100 yuan you can get next month, and we prefer to convert the future income into today's value. In this case, the farther away the benefit is, the less valuable it is to us, which is one of the reasons why we are too lazy to read, because we do not see the benefit of reading in a short period of time.
There is only one way to change this state: to make reading an obsession.
What is "obsession"? A belief that has been explored for a long time, persistently persevering and not changing. Turning reading into an obsession is a kind of forced belief. If you don't doubt or don't doubt it, let reading become a pursuit, a desire, and a belief.
"The black hair doesn't know how to study early, and the white head regrets studying late. This is a kind of moral persuasion.
"People learn from the beginning, but they don't learn from the unnatural. "This is a kind of intellectual persuasion.
"There are thousands of bells in the book, there is a golden house in the book, and there is Yan Ruyu in the book. "This is a kind of persuasion for the sake of interest.
In ancient and modern times, no one at home and abroad will deny the value of reading, so for such a beautiful thing, let it become your inner obsession to pursue, is the real motivation to persevere.
If you can really turn reading into a recognized goal and adhere to long-termism, eventually both physical and psychological, it will be reversed, and positive interactions will be generated, and a state of flow will be achieved. At that time, reading will truly become a pleasure and a luxury.
Read good books, read more books, and read classics
If psychological pleasure and transactional rewards are the ultimate meaning of reading, then as far as reading itself is concerned, it also has three meanings, or three intermediate goals, that is, empathy, consensus, and enlightenment.
The first is "empathy". It means that the purpose of reading a book is to gain emotional resonance. Human beings are group animals, and we will gain a sense of group identity in the process of perceiving the emotions of the group, so as to maintain the existence of the group and the recognition of the meaning of life. Empathy is a trait that distinguishes human beings from other species, and it is this trait that allows human beings to gain meaningful growth and continuity.
However, our empathy is limited by time and space, and a person has no way to perceive the emotions of others who are not in direct contact, including geographical and temporal differences. But books expand the time and space of this empathy, you can have a dialogue with the ancients, you can have a dialogue with foreign authors. In this process of empathy, civilization was born.
The vast majority of our books are this kind of "empathetic reading", reading novels, reading stories, reading any fictional creations, and even reading history, basically belong to this category.
For "empathetic reading", the corresponding reading mode should be "reading good books".
What is a "good book"? "Good" is a value judgment. Of the three meanings of reading that I have mentioned, only in "empathic reading" I would classify books as good and bad, while in other modes, I would think that books are not good or bad. Because if there is any empathy, if the value of the book is questionable, it will lead people astray.
Therefore, a "good book" should be a book with correct values and correct ideological guidance, and it should be a book that conforms to the cognition of human civilization and promotes the exploration of human meaning.
The second is "consensus". It means that the purpose of reading books is to gain knowledge expansion. When an author has insight, he can speak to one person, he can speak to a small group of people, but it is only through writing that he can extend his insight and knowledge to a large group of people. This large group of people is a vast number of beings who can respect no borders, and in this process of "consensus" between others and themselves, their knowledge system can gain infinite value.
"Consensus" is the goal of most people's reading, and it is also the simple principle of our "intergenerational reading oppression". Gain knowledge, increase knowledge, improve ability, find a better job in the future, and earn more money through reading, which is our minimalist reading and thinking logic.
For "consensus reading", the corresponding reading mode should be "read more".
Knowledge is boundless, reading is boundless. Although the society advocates professionalism, professionalism has never conflicted with "reading more", but can only increase the depth of professionalism in a broader intellectual background.
We often feel that the more we read, the less we know. Reading is more like a spherical expansion process, the closer we get to the edge of the ball, the more we know the unknown depth.
Read more books, that is, as long as you are interested, you can read any book. This is the principle of "open book is beneficial", even if it is wrong knowledge, it can be enhanced by reflection and correction in the process of reading.
The third is "co-enlightenment". This type of reading may have emotional resonance and knowledge expansion, but more importantly, it is a step-by-step guidance and reflection in the process, and through inspiration to explore some new ideas in knowledge, ideas and beliefs. It is a "common thought process" with the author, and finally realizes self-iteration and upgrading.
Corresponding to "co-enlightenment reading", the corresponding reading mode should be reading high-quality products and "reading classics".
The so-called classics are works that still shine after the test of time, geography and human nature, and are the crystallization of the times and national culture. By reading the classics repeatedly, you can find for yourself the precursors of history and the wisdom of philosophers.
From "empathy", to "consensus", and then to "co-enlightenment", the meaning of reading has progressed layer by layer, and the value of reading has been continuously sublimated. Reading is no longer just a pleasure, no longer just a means, but a kind of dialogue and baptism of thought. Reading with contextual and common thinking can precipitate more life energy.
Without systematization, the more you read, the more you suffer
Now there is a phenomenon that the book list is posted, compared to the amount of books, on Douban, in the circle of friends, many people like to show that they read more books. It seems that the more you read a book, the more powerful it becomes, and the more tasteful it becomes.
When I talked about "consensus reading" earlier, I specifically mentioned the need to read as many books as possible. But I am referring to it in general, not to pursue absolute quantity, but to expand the scope of reading.
In real life, many people have reported that "I read a lot of books, but I have forgotten about them", and "the more I read, the less I have my own ideas". This kind of "reading more" is burdened by it.
What kind of "reading more" is the right one? I would like to add a premise, that is, "systematically reading more."
Your reading range should be composed of one system at a time, and the large system can be divided into small systems, layer by layer, to form a structured reading framework. And this system framework constitutes your knowledge map, reading map.
Every book you read, it should be categorized on a shelf in the framework of the system. The process of reading books is also enriching your knowledge system.
For example, human resources is a big system, and if you want to recommend a book on human resources, it is very difficult because there are too many. But if you think about the whole reading system of human resources, you may think that human resources includes recruitment, training, performance, compensation, organizational development, talent development, corporate culture, workforce management, ...... Many, many subsystems, and at this point you'll find out where the reading range is.
Another benefit of systematic reading is that you can fill in the "gaps" in the system more purposefully. Reading aimlessly, while expanding the horizon, does not lay the foundation for professionalism, because it only expands the breadth and does not refine the depth. But if you have a system in place, you can limit the reading range very well and fill in the gaps at the same time.
Systematic reading is even more significant in this day and age. New media such as Weibo, WeChat, Toutiao, and Zhihu have expanded our reading convenience and made full use of fragmented time. But this kind of fragmented reading is also easy to distract our knowledge system. When we pick up one shell after another surprise in the "broken ocean of knowledge", we may also lose the desire to understand the whole ocean.
Writer Wang Meng believes that "browsing is not the same as reading, still less is it the same as hard reading, studying, and intensive reading; information is not equal to learning, still less is it equal to knowledge, wisdom and quality; being disseminated is not equal to true acceptance and harvest." "Systematic reading in the era of fragmentation is precious, turning passive into active, and constructing the scope of knowledge through systematization can not only make choices not confused, but also increase the power of knowledge.
In the last part of this article, I will also talk about how to read in fragments.
Systematization is the premise of starting reading, but different reading methods are required for different types of reading. I have summarized three reading methods, which are "analytical reading", "reproducive reading", and "conversational reading", which are described below.
Analytical reading
"Reading the book thin": surface (structure), point (keyword), line (logic)
Zhu Xi, a great Confucian in the Song Dynasty, once said: "Reading is like eating, chewing calmly, its taste will be long; It means that reading a book is the same as eating, you have to chew it repeatedly to get the taste, and if you swallow the dates, you won't know what it's talking about.
Reading is common. When I got a book in my hand, I pursued speed, hurriedly flipped from front to back, and after reading the words, the meaning seemed to be understood, but it was short, and soon the content of the book was forgotten cleanly. The result of this kind of reading is that you just read it, but you don't know what you read.
Compared with swallowing dates, chewing calmly is more valuable.
Reading calligraphy, which chews calmly, can be called "analytical reading". In their famous book, How to Read a Book, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren mention four methods of reading: basic reading, critical reading, analytical subject reading, and thematic reading. In it, they summarize the analytical reading into three stages and eleven rules.
There are so many rules, and the core of "analytical reading" is to "read the book thinly". How is it possible to completely memorize such a thick book, hundreds of thousands of words? The result of calmly chewing is to remove the thick branches, leave the essence, and remember the truly useful.
So how to read a book, how to "analytically read"? It can be divided into three points:
The first is the structure, which I call "faces". What is the scope and level of a book can be divided into several aspects after all. This "face" should be understood before we start reading, and it is in the table of contents. Before reading any book, I recommend that you first look at the preface and table of contents, and through this process, you will have a preliminary understanding of the whole book and figure out the "face" of its analysis. Reading with this "face" will not deviate from the structure constructed by the author.
But in the process of reading the book, you can also slowly sort out your understanding and reconstruct the level. At this point, you will find different "faces", or find out the "faces" hidden by the author.
A grasp of the "face" helps to grasp the structure and scope of the whole book.
The second is the keyword, which I call "point". Of course, the key words here not only refer to "words", but also "words", "sentences". "Empathy", "consensus" and "co-enlightenment" with the author are usually achieved through such "words", "words" and "sentences". Finding the author's key words and phrases is equivalent to finding the key to understanding the author.
When I read a book, my favorite thing to do is circle words and sentences, and I want to draw them prominently. Generally, the neutral refills on the market are 0.5, I don't think it's enough, you must find more than 1.0, so that the circles and lines drawn are clear. Circle the keywords, underline the key sentences, and when I read them a second or third time, these coils support the key content of the whole book.
The purpose of finding key words is to understand, that is, to understand the author's main idea and reflect the skeleton of a book through these words and phrases.
Finally, there is logic, which I call "line". Whether it is a surface or a point, they are all isolated, but to become a book, these points and surfaces must be organically connected. This organically connected thread is logic.
How do these keywords fit together into some of the core ideas, and how do these facets fit into a larger body of knowledge? The key lies in logic.
The core of analytical reading is to separate the surfaces, points, and lines in the process of reading, and find the skeleton and core context, so as to achieve "reading the book thinly" on the one hand, and to grasp the whole book on the other hand.
It should be noted that "analytical reading" is the most basic reading mode, and it can be applied to every type of reading, whether it is "empathy", "consensus" or "co-enlightenment", analytical reading is feasible.
Reproducible reading
"Read the book thick": note-taking, retelling, and sharing
I talked about three kinds of reading meanings earlier, among which "empathy reading" is similar to entertainment and pastime, you can forget after laughing and crying, or remember one or two sentences and one or two plots, which is enough for us. For this kind of book reading method, of course, it is enough to "read the book thinly".
However, "consensus reading" and "co-enlightenment reading" can not just stay at "reading the book thin", we also hope that the knowledge of the book can be applied, and we also hope to expand the meaning of the book, that is to say, these books still need to be memorized and sublimated, which requires "reading the book thickly".
How to read a book thickly?
My method is called "reproducible reading", which is to be able to reproduce the content of the book.
"Reproducible reading" consists of three main points: note-taking, retelling, and sharing.
Notes, easy to understand, each of us takes notes every day. However, there are two kinds of notes, one is summary notes, which is to record the surfaces, points, and lines formed in the "analytical reading" above through summarization. This is also the way most people take notes, extract the main points, assemble them into a context, and the notes are made. This kind of note is a copy of the original text and does not require much play.
One of the changes to the form of summary notes is "map notes", which present the context structure of the book in the form of a mind map, which is not only good-looking, but also a revision of summary notes.
Further notes I call "restatement notes". This type of note adds more personal elaboration, and you are not even taking notes, but retelling the main idea, context, key content, key words, ideas, and meanings of the book in your own words. At the heart of restatement notes is the ability to "retell", that is, to "transform". Your repetition process is equal to "understanding" + "my language", and it will involve more of a process of extraction than copying summary notes.
The so-called "retelling" is to close the book and close the notes, so that the whole book can be told.
If your notes have reached the level of "retelling notes", then "retelling" is much easier. Because you have completed the transformation of "understanding + my language" in the process of note-taking. Abstract notes are to read the book thinly, restatement notes are to expand the book, and the process of retelling is to read the book thickly.
Finally, there is "Share". Many people say that "the joy of reading lies in sharing", and I agree with this sentence. The knowledge gained through reading can only be expanded on a larger scale through the process of social sharing, and the process of sharing can also greatly improve the mastery and understanding of books.
Conversational reading
"Reading Books Alive": Placement, Criticism and Reflection
When talking about the third method of reading, I will first introduce the concept of "reading method ladder".
The three different meanings of reading correspond to the three stepwise methods of reading, which are progressive, more difficult, and more valuable. "Empathetic reading" can be done by using "analytical reading". "Consensus reading" can be "analytical reading" and "reproducible reading". And "co-enlightenment reading" has an additional "conversational reading" method.
"Co-enlightenment Reading" focuses on inspiration and extension, and gaining meaning. This kind of books usually include personal growth, humanistic thinking, philosophy and social science, etc., and the process of reading is not only to understand the meaning of Chinese characters in the book, but to obtain new "transformation" and "change" through thinking.
The result of "co-enlightenment reading" is often to iterate one's own values, change one's inherent mental model, innovate the meaning system of work and life, establish a new life model, and so on.
So we need to turn on the "conversational reading" method of reading. In the process of reading, I always have to have a dialogue with the author and myself, and have a strong sense of interaction. In this way, instead of reading dead books, we "read books alive".
The process of "dialogic reading" is also divided into three parts: placement, criticism and reflection.
Placement is "imaginary placement", which involves placing oneself in the author's space-time background. Before I read a book, I must first read the author's introduction to understand the author's life history. What era and place did he live in, what did he experience in his life, and what major events he experienced when he wrote the book. By inserting the author's time, space and life history, we can understand more of the context in which the author wrote the book.
Once you can put it in, the next step is to turn on another weapon of thinking - "criticism". Diderot, the representative of the Encyclopaedists, said: Questioning is the first step towards philosophy. Criticism is not only a kind of opposition, but also a technique of thinking.
Criticism comes with a "questioning" mindset. If the author opens up one perspective, "critique" opens up another perspective to debate with the author. Debate is a high-level conversation, and the process of debating will greatly enhance thoughtfulness. Criticism can be a criticism of knowledge points, a criticism of structure, a criticism of logic, and of course, a criticism of the overall value orientation.
Criticism is a dialogue with the author. But "conversational reading" includes a dialogue with oneself in addition to dialogue with the author, which is "reflection".
Reflection is "the critique of criticism", the re-questioning of previous doubts, which is "dialogue with oneself".
When we question and criticize the author, we must enter the reflection link, because we don't know whether the previous questioning is just a forced rigidity of thinking, just a "performance" of criticism for the sake of criticism, so we must return to the present. The process of reflection will complete the refinement and correction of criticism.
Compared with the first two reading methods, "conversational reading" is more of a psychological process, and those who are "active and sensitive" will show their appearance and will be happy in their hearts, and they will not be able to slap their palms, while those who are "silent" are more sophisticated, not angry, not angry, not happy or sad, but then aware of it.
From "empathy", "consensus" to "co-enlightenment", the sublimation of the meaning of reading is completed, and from "analytical reading", "reproduction reading" to "dialogue reading", the deepening of reading methods is completed.
Fragmented Reading: Aggregation, Categorization, and Chain Expansion
The reading mentioned earlier is more about reading paper books, and it is systematic reading. Finally, I would like to talk about the current "fragmented reading".
When people read fragmented content in fragmented time, it constitutes "fragmented reading". In the process, the person is alienated into a passive person in reading—not what you think you want to see, but what the algorithm tells you can read.
This has completely become passive learning, although the website is opened by you, Weibo is what you follow, and the official account is subscribed to by you, but in the era of algorithms, you can't choose what to watch, and technology has already arranged it for you. People become captives of technology and algorithms.
However, compared with passive learning, we can still build the possibility of active learning as much as possible in fragments. I divide this into three steps: aggregation, classification, and chain scaling.
People's memory of information is short-lived, so passive reading sees useful information and information, and what is to be "saved" is aggregation.
Most platforms offer a bookmark feature that you can use to aggregate useful information. But the problem is that there are so many clients and platforms that this aggregation is actually fragmented, so there has to be a tool that can bring together as much information as possible. The recommended tools here are Evernote, OneNote, and Pocket.
You can also store actively. I have built a file called "New Knowledge Keywords" in the memo of my mobile phone, which records the new knowledge keywords that I usually see in fragmented time to form a structured list of new knowledge.
Convergence is not the goal, the real purpose is to "peruse later" so that it is convenient to peruse later. So you need to classify this knowledge in the process of aggregation. Evernote offers the ability to create hierarchies, and Pocket provides a tagging function, with the help of which it is very convenient to categorize information.
Through aggregation and classification, the passively transmitted information can be effectively stored to supplement the system reading.
And after those two steps? We're going to go chain-to-chain.
Convergence and classificationWe have completed keyword extraction and system construction, each extracted keyword is a knowledge point, and then use this knowledge point to search in the search engine, so that more information will be obtained, and then more keywords will be found from this information, and more information will be found, which is chain expansion.
Fragmentation is characterized by a lot of information and miscellaneous content, but it is often superficial and lacks depth. A microblog is too short, there is no way to express more knowledge systems, or you don't have more time to read in depth, then through chain expansion, you can dabble in a larger reading range at a later time.
With "chain expansion", you can find more information, find more books to read, and find more knowledge to supplement. Through this process, reading changes from a point to a piece, from fragments to a system.
In short, reading is a painful and happy thing, and the important thing is to read it. Without beginning and perseverance, the goal is always just the other side of the illusion.
本文来自微信公众号:盖雅学苑(It:Tinkuvitkaiah),作者:李斌
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