---
date: '2025-12-13'
description: and knowledge diffusion
id: reading
modified: 2026-06-08 23:52:57 GMT-04:00
tags:
  - pattern
  - evergreen
  - philosophy
title: reading
created: '2025-12-13'
published: '2025-12-13'
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slug: thoughts/reading
permalink: https://aarnphm.xyz/thoughts/reading.md
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---
A lot of what you [[thoughts/writing|write]] are diffused from what you read. I pretty much spend a lot of my waking hours [[antilibrary.base|reading]] books (when I’m not working ofc) that is intellectually stimulated and I find interesting. I also do perform [close reading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_reading).

I’m not yet _sure_ how I read. But this is more/less a collection of how people I follow read. Inspired by [Zvi’s on writing](https://thezvi.substack.com/p/on-writing-1)

![[antilibrary.base#editors]]

> \[!note\] Note
>
> Andy Matuschak [recorded a video w/ Dwarkesh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFuu4pesKf0) that demonstrate his process of studying _hard problem_ (in this case quantum mechanics), which is a good case study of [close reading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_reading)

## why books don’t work

[Matuschak](https://andymatuschak.org/books/) argues that book lacks a functioning cognitive models so that it left the readers to perform all of these metacognitive tasks, i.e annotations, reflection, essays-writing.

He mentioned the model to be {{sidenotes[_transmissionism_]: according to this [article](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6189484), it is a teacher-centred teaching and learning model in which the teacher’s role is to design lessons aimed at predetermined goals and to present knowledge and skills in a predetermined order, and the students’ tasks are to **passively** acquire teacher-specified knowledge and skills}}. verbatim:

<article class="twitter-post" data-twitter-source="https://x.com/andy_matuschak/status/1081382567100600321"><span class="twitter-post-badge" role="img" aria-label="Twitter post" title="Twitter post"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="64 64 896 896" fill="currentColor" stroke="none" stroke-width="0" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M928 254.3c-30.6 13.2-63.9 22.7-98.2 26.4a170.1 170.1 0 0075-94 336.64 336.64 0 01-108.2 41.2A170.1 170.1 0 00672 174c-94.5 0-170.5 76.6-170.5 170.6 0 13.2 1.6 26.4 4.2 39.1-141.5-7.4-267.7-75-351.6-178.5a169.32 169.32 0 00-23.2 86.1c0 59.2 30.1 111.4 76 142.1a172 172 0 01-77.1-21.7v2.1c0 82.9 58.6 151.6 136.7 167.4a180.6 180.6 0 01-44.9 5.8c-11.1 0-21.6-1.1-32.2-2.6C211 652 273.9 701.1 348.8 702.7c-58.6 45.9-132 72.9-211.7 72.9-14.3 0-27.5-.5-41.2-2.1C171.5 822 261.2 850 357.8 850 671.4 850 843 590.2 843 364.7c0-7.4 0-14.8-.5-22.2 33.2-24.3 62.3-54.4 85.5-88.2z"></path></svg></span><header class="twitter-post-header"><span class="twitter-post-author">@andy_matuschak</span><time datetime="2019-01-05">2019-01-05</time><a class="twitter-post-source" href="https://x.com/andy_matuschak/status/1081382567100600321" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Open original post (opens in a new tab)" title="Open original post" data-skip-icons="true"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false"><path d="M7 17 17 7M7 7h10v10"></path></svg></a></header><div class="twitter-post-body">
			
				
					<p>Knowledge media face an awkward chasm between theories.</p>
<p>The old theory was naive transmissionism: "I'll convey this knowledge by telling you about it." That's effectively books' learning model.</p>
<p>But we know that model's wrong: learning is an active process of assimilation.</p>
				
			
			
		</div></article>

I found that to [read more](https://borretti.me/article/how-to-read-more) requires somewhat of a concurrent model, where you will incrementally work on 5-10 books at a time. However, this approach is very much succumb to [cognitive overload](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load)

## how rfq read

_<https://internetprincess.substack.com/p/how-i-read>_

## how Henrik Karlsson read

_<https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/how-i-read>_