How to Remember What You Read and Hear in Lectures

Students in my lectures, I always tell them, "Don't take notes during the lecture.

Listen to the damn lecture." You can take notes afterwards, because what that does is force you to practice remembering.

And then with regards to books, it's like, don't highlight. Don't underline.

Like, that-- I think that that's just rubbish.

I think it's pseudo-work. Read a couple of paragraphs or maybe an essay, something like that, depending on the density of the book.

Close the book. Think about it. Write down what you're thinking.

Write down what you remember, but, but, but in the context of what you're thinking about.

Because that instantiates it into your memory and give-- and puts it at hand.

Like, people ask me, for example, how it is that I can remember all the things that I talk about extemporaneously when I'm lecturing, and the reason for that is because I've thought them through.

You know, I read them and I think, "Oh, okay, well, that's an interesting idea.

How does it relate to all these other ideas that I know?

Like, what is its significance for this idea, and what's its significance for this idea, and do I believe it, and how might I criticize it?"

So it's kinda like I'm, I'm attaching little memory hooks to it in, in five different ways, and then I've got it.

It's, it's part of me. And that seems to be part of recall, rather than-- so rather than recognition.

And recall is the spontaneous act of remembering something complex, and when you recall something, you're actually practicing remembering it, and that's what you need to do if you want that to be part of you.

So I would say separate out the function of reading and note-taking.

So read, think, write. Or read, write, think.

The-- because the last two things are quite similar.

But don't, like, read the book and then read a sentence and then write down that sentence.

That's not helpful. You could read the sentence, close the book, and then reformulate the sentence so that now it's your sentence, man.

Then you'll remember it. Then you'll understand it.

That works really well