Skip to content

How I Remember Everything I Read

2020-10-08 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 15:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books and reading · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book, Sponsor segment present

Ali lays out seven Harry Potter-named levels of remembering what you read, from passive reading, highlighting, Readwise and automatic highlight import into Notion to three-sentence book notes, literature notes and Zettelkasten evergreen notes, and advises getting at least to level five.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Intro: seven levels of remembering what we read

00:00:29 — Level one, the muggle, and level two, the squib: passive reading and highlighting

  • ★★★ Ali sets out seven levels on the path to remembering more of what you read and applying it to your life. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ A few months ago Ali realised that forgetting most of what he read was a big issue for him, and he has been working to remedy it. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Level one, the "muggle", is just reading: no highlighting, no notes, no engagement with the material beyond passive reading. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Passive reading is fine for fiction, Ali says, but from non-fiction he wants insights and to learn things. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Ali cites the forgetting curve of memory research: over time memory for everything decays unless we find a way to engage with it. — 00:00:58 · forgetting curve
  • ★★ Level two, the "squib", is reading while highlighting or underlining the passages that resonate with you. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Ali highlighted on his Kindle from when he first got one around 2008 or 2009 until 2018, when he found there were further levels. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · Kindle
  • ★★★ Ali says we do not remember what we highlight: a mountain of evidence shows highlighting or underlining does nothing to improve memory. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Highlights also stay hidden inside the book or the Kindle, Ali says, with no reason to go through them. — 00:01:56 · Kindle

00:02:26 — Level three, Hufflepuff, with Readwise, and level four, Ravenclaw, with the magical insight logging framework

  • ★★ Level three, "Hufflepuff", is having a systematic way of reviewing your highlights. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Readwise connects to your Kindle account, pulls in every highlight from all your books and emails you five random highlights every day. — 00:02:26 · Kindle
  • ★★ Ali started using Readwise in September 2018 and has received its email every day since. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Over the last two years Ali has read the daily Readwise email less and less; he still opens it at times but finds it a bit too passive. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Level four, "Ravenclaw", is Ali's magical insight logging framework: a system that automatically pulls your highlights into a central note-taking app. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Ali's Readwise database in Notion lists his books with all their highlights, 126 of them from Tools of Titans. — 00:03:24 · Notion
  • ★★ The same Notion database takes Ali's Instapaper highlights, tweets he saves to Readwise and podcast air quotes from the app Airr. — 00:03:53 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali uses Notion for pretty much everything in his life, so having his highlights there is convenient. — 00:03:53 · Notion

00:04:20 — Level five, Dumbledore's Army: quick book notes from a Notion template

  • ★★★ Level four is still very passive, Ali says: after a few months of it, other things kept coming up and he did not make time to review his highlights in Notion. — 00:04:20 · Notion
  • ★★★ Level five, "Dumbledore's Army", is engaging with books by taking quick notes on what you have read. — 00:04:20
  • ★★ Ali's Notion template for non-fiction book notes asks for the book in three sentences, impressions, how he discovered it, who should read it, how it changed him and his top three quotes. — 00:05:18 · Notion
  • ★★ Summarising a book in three sentences, Ali says, is a fantastic way of actually engaging with its content. — 00:05:18
  • ★★ Ali's three-sentence summary of Austin Kleon's Show Your Work: share your thoughts, process and work online for free; beginners can help other beginners; sharing attracts an audience that cares about the same things. — 00:05:48 · show your work
  • ★★★ Ali wishes he had written such notes for every book he has read: he would be far more knowledgeable today, having never thought of engaging with what he read. — 00:06:17
  • ★★ Ali calls level five, quick book notes, a sweet spot: it takes little effort and gives a lot of value. — 00:06:17
  • ★ Ali's fiction template asks what the book is about, how he discovered it, his general thoughts and who would like it. — 00:06:46 · Notion

00:07:00 — Notion sponsor read

00:07:52 — Level six, the Order of the Phoenix: literature notes and publishing book notes

  • ★★★ Ali rereads the books that most resonated with him, rated five stars or life-changing, and writes literature notes: his own mini summary of the points he found interesting, insightful or surprising. — 00:08:14
  • ★★ Writing literature notes is a really great way to engage with a book, Ali says, but it takes absolutely ages. — 00:08:14
  • ★★ Unable to sleep at one in the morning recently, Ali took literature notes from The E-Myth Revisited on his iPad Pro, with Kindle on one side of the screen and Notion on the other. — 00:08:43 · iPad Pro, Kindle, Notion
  • ★★ Ali first read The E-Myth Revisited in July 2019, and the book completely blew his mind. (hedged) — 00:08:43
  • ★★ Ali is only halfway through his notes on The E-Myth Revisited, but rereading it is giving him many new insights, since a genuinely life-changing book is rare. — 00:09:05
  • ★★ When Ali now finds a life-changing book, he makes a point of writing his own summary of it to consolidate its points. — 00:09:05
  • ★★ Ali calls How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens a very good book. — 00:09:34
  • ★★ Ali's own summary of How to Take Smart Notes, written with Notion's toggles and his own diagrams and tables, runs to 6,851 words with some highlights. — 00:09:34 · Notion
  • ★★★ In literature notes, Ali says, avoid copying and pasting quotes from the book and rephrase things in your own words to make sure you understand the concepts. — 00:10:04
  • ★★ The first person Ali saw publish book notes was Derek Sivers, whom he has followed since 2016 and who was on Deep Dive; Sivers has hundreds of book notes on his website. — 00:10:04 · Derek Sivers, Deep Dive
  • ★★ Ali says the blog of his new friend Nat Eliason, also on Deep Dive, earns him six figures a year in revenue, and many of its most popular posts are book summaries and notes. — 00:10:35 · Deep Dive
  • ★★ Ali wants to reach the point where all his book summaries are on his website at aliabdaal.com/booknotes. — 00:10:35 · aliabdaal.com
  • ★★★ For anyone starting a personal blog, website or YouTube channel, Ali says notes from books add a lot of value, because many people do not have time to read or think they do not. — 00:11:04
  • ★★ Curating the best books and sharing notes on them helps you build your own brand as a sharer and educator, Ali says. — 00:11:04

00:11:43 — Level seven, Dumbledore: Zettelkasten and evergreen notes

  • ★★★ Level seven, "Dumbledore himself", is going all in on the Zettelkasten method of note-taking. — 00:11:43
  • ★★ Ali has used the Zettelkasten method for only a handful of books so far but has found the exercise quite useful each time. — 00:11:43
  • ★ Ali prefers Andy Matuschak's term "evergreen notes" for permanent notes because it sounds better. — 00:12:08
  • ★★ Evergreen notes, Ali explains, are notes on topics that interest you, each atomic and self-contained and heavily linked to the other notes in your system. — 00:12:08
  • ★★ Zettelkasten translates as slip box, Ali believes; the German Luhmann used the method and produced many manuscripts, publications and books thanks to his systematic note-taking. (hedged) — 00:12:38
  • ★★ Ali's evergreen notes database in Notion has sections on topics such as life, happiness, meaning, work, reading, luck, relationships, money and writing. — 00:12:38 · Notion
  • ★★ One of Ali's evergreen notes lists four important things in life, money, love and relationships, mental health and happiness, and physical health, which he took from a podcast episode with Naval Ravikant. — 00:13:12
  • ★★ Notion now has backlinks, so Ali can see which notes link to a page. — 00:13:12 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali calls the level-seven system of Zettelkasten and evergreen notes a bit niche and says he is not entirely sold on its power yet. — 00:13:42
  • ★★ Ali is slowly moving towards the Zettelkasten method but has not stuck with it long enough to say whether it has helped him. (unsure) — 00:14:11
  • ★★ Evergreen notes help consolidate your thinking on many subjects, Ali says, which helps when you have a lot of interests. — 00:14:11

00:14:35 — Advice to his past self: reach at least level five

  • ★★★ Ali's advice to his past self: reach at least level five, which is easy: get to level four with the magical insight logging framework, then write a three-sentence summary of each book and a few words on what you thought. — 00:14:35
  • ★★ Ali would tell his 12-year-old self that in 10 or 20 years he will be grateful for this treasure trove of book summaries kept outside his brain. — 00:15:18

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: literature note · Notion · Readwise · Zettelkasten

Also: People: Andy Matuschak · Austin Kleon · Derek Sivers · Luhmann · Nassim Taleb · Nat Eliason · Naval Ravikant · Richard Feynman · Sönke Ahrens

Projects: aliabdaal.com · Deep Dive

Works: Antifragile · Harry Potter (book series) · How to Take Smart Notes · Show Your Work! · The E-Myth · Tools of Titans

Concepts: evergreen note · forgetting curve · magical insight logging framework

Characters: Albus Dumbledore

Products: Airr · Instapaper · iPad Pro · Kindle

Also centred on Readwise: How I Read 100 Books a Year - 8 Tips for Reading More · The 5 Magical Apps That Changed My Life · What's on my iPhone - Favourite iPhone Apps ft. @KharmaMedic

Replies to

Replied to by

← Previous: My BIGGEST Rejections in Life · Next → How to Invest for Beginners