Slow Reading Master: How my visual book summary process has evolved
Summary of "Slow Reading Master: How my visual book summary process has evolved"
Short Summary:
This video discusses the speaker's evolving process for creating visual book summaries. The speaker advocates for a slow, immersive reading experience, emphasizing the importance of deep engagement with the text and connecting it to existing knowledge. The process involves using visual elements, mind maps, and digital tools like Obsidian and Excalidraw to create a rich and interconnected understanding of the book's content. The speaker highlights the benefits of this approach, including deeper comprehension, increased retention, and the ability to link concepts across different books and areas of knowledge.
Detailed Summary:
Introduction:
- The speaker introduces their visual book summary process, emphasizing its focus on deep engagement and understanding rather than speed.
- They acknowledge that their approach may not be suitable for those who prioritize reading many books quickly.
Evolution of the Process:
- The speaker explains how their process has evolved from Thiago Forte's Progressive Summarization method.
- They highlight the limitations of Forte's method, including its sequential nature and potential for disengagement.
- They discuss how they adopted a more iterative approach inspired by Richard Paul and Linda Elder's "How to Read a Paragraph" and Neil from Verbal to Visual.
Iterative Process:
- The speaker outlines their current process, which involves engaging with the book before reading it by researching the author and creating a mind map of key ideas.
- They emphasize the importance of capturing notes and mind maps on an "Idea Integration Board" for the book.
- They describe their chapter-by-chapter approach to reading, highlighting the use of Obsidian for capturing notes and annotations.
- They explain how they create visual summaries for each section, integrating them into their notes and connecting them to other ideas using the Noma method and Excalidraw.
Noma Method and Idea Compass:
- The speaker explains the Noma method, which involves four steps: Think Finder, Link Finder, Active Thinker, and Importance.
- They discuss how the Idea Compass, based on their ontology, adds a spatial context to connections in Excalidraw.
Book on a Page Summary:
- The speaker describes their final step of compiling the visual summaries into a "Book on a Page" summary.
- They emphasize the importance of this summary in telling their personal story of the book, highlighting their connections and applications.
Benefits and Conclusion:
- The speaker emphasizes the benefits of their process, including deeper understanding, increased retention, and the ability to connect ideas across different books and areas of knowledge.
- They encourage viewers to try this method if they are looking for a more meaningful way to engage with books.
- They conclude by promoting the Visual Thinking Workshop, which provides further opportunities to learn about visual thinking and related tools.
Notable Quotes:
- "If you Define productivity as reading many books quickly, my Pro process is likely not for you."
- "My approach has its roots in Thiago Forte's Progressive summarization, but it's changed so much that it might be hard to see the similarities now."
- "I found thiago's approach a bit too sequential and mechanical."
- "I get more connections to my existing notes and gain a deeper understanding of the author's ideas."
- "It's a richer, more engaging way to interact with the material."
- "Each book adds to my evolving approach and I'm always excited to see how it develops."
- "If you're looking for a deeper, more meaningful way to engage with the books you read, give this method a try."