New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading pdf textbooks not in your field?
Ask HN: How do you take notes when reading pdf textbooks not in your field?
5 by markus_zhang | 4 comments on Hacker News.
Hi experts, Happy holidays! Context: My field is data engineering and the pdf textbook I'm reading is of Microcomputer Architecture (the Mick Bit slice book) from my laptop. Issues: I'll list the two issues below. *Issue 1*: How to effectively take notes when read from *pdf sources*? I feel the best way is to insert a *BLANK* page after each *TEXT* page (by saying text page simply means any page with texts), use an e-pen to hand-write in the BLANK page while circling/labelling contents in the TEXT page. I can probably insert the blank pages using a Python script but I'm not sure which e-pen and writing board I should purchase for my laptop (Lenovo T-460S). I believe handwriting is the only fast, reliable way to take long notes. *Issue 2*: How to effectively take notes for *technical textbooks not in my field*? I just completed the nand2tetris hardware part and had no other training in computer engineering, so the Mick Bit slice book is much more advanced. But at least the opening 20% of each chapter is very well accessible so I only intend to read those parts. I hate to admit, but I actually don't know how to take effective notes in a non-academic environment. There are two questions bugging me: 1- When should I take notes? Taking them too early, then I found myself erasing previous notes frequently. Taking them too late, I found myself forgetting previous contents frequently. 2- How much note should I take? The book is for advanced users so I have to evaluate a lot of Boolean logic by myself. Should I include all of them in notes? Should I copy down a lot of contents from the textbook into notes? Afterthoughts: Maybe at the age of 40 I still don't know how to study effectively. This doesn't surprise me, as back in university I tended to gloss over details and proofs and grab for good marks (I did get 3.7+ in both undergraduate and master). But now this is a hobby so I want to stop cheating myself. If anyone (especially someone who struggled with the same problems) can point me to a resource to re-learn how to study I'd appreciate the help. I learned about Pomodoro Technique but it doesn't suit topics that need hours of focus.
5 by markus_zhang | 4 comments on Hacker News.
Hi experts, Happy holidays! Context: My field is data engineering and the pdf textbook I'm reading is of Microcomputer Architecture (the Mick Bit slice book) from my laptop. Issues: I'll list the two issues below. *Issue 1*: How to effectively take notes when read from *pdf sources*? I feel the best way is to insert a *BLANK* page after each *TEXT* page (by saying text page simply means any page with texts), use an e-pen to hand-write in the BLANK page while circling/labelling contents in the TEXT page. I can probably insert the blank pages using a Python script but I'm not sure which e-pen and writing board I should purchase for my laptop (Lenovo T-460S). I believe handwriting is the only fast, reliable way to take long notes. *Issue 2*: How to effectively take notes for *technical textbooks not in my field*? I just completed the nand2tetris hardware part and had no other training in computer engineering, so the Mick Bit slice book is much more advanced. But at least the opening 20% of each chapter is very well accessible so I only intend to read those parts. I hate to admit, but I actually don't know how to take effective notes in a non-academic environment. There are two questions bugging me: 1- When should I take notes? Taking them too early, then I found myself erasing previous notes frequently. Taking them too late, I found myself forgetting previous contents frequently. 2- How much note should I take? The book is for advanced users so I have to evaluate a lot of Boolean logic by myself. Should I include all of them in notes? Should I copy down a lot of contents from the textbook into notes? Afterthoughts: Maybe at the age of 40 I still don't know how to study effectively. This doesn't surprise me, as back in university I tended to gloss over details and proofs and grab for good marks (I did get 3.7+ in both undergraduate and master). But now this is a hobby so I want to stop cheating myself. If anyone (especially someone who struggled with the same problems) can point me to a resource to re-learn how to study I'd appreciate the help. I learned about Pomodoro Technique but it doesn't suit topics that need hours of focus.
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