15 Comments
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Aug 10, 2023Liked by John Dailey

John,

I am INSANELY jealous of your WPT. And also diving in such an historic area. Another great week of insights. Kipling is always a winner, and Kipling/Buffet is magical. I resist the notion of adherence to a plan, but abhor the notion of changing a plan without valid input to do so. Look forward to next weeks piece.

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Thanks as always for your comments Brett! I am indeed fortunate. I generally believe in the Eisenhower saying that plans are worthless but planning is indispensable, but with diving I am a huge fan of sticking with the plan.

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Jun 27, 2023Liked by John Dailey

Your level of discipline is either admirable or frightening, not sure which. I know one thing, when it comes time to kick ass and take names I’m coming to you, since you’ll have all the names in color-coded folders.

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I love some of what you said hear about retention in the physicality of writing things down and the ability to have multiple books open at once. Mhmmmmmmmm

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Jun 23, 2023Liked by John Dailey

John, I'm the same with handwriting notes. I don't get nearly the effect of taking notes on a computer. I also need to print out documents I'm working on to edit with handwritten notes...yeah wasteful, but it's the only thing that gets me engaged mentally.

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Fred, I agree 100%. I have to take notes manually.

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Jun 15, 2023Liked by John Dailey

Great post John! No doubt, it’s the stuff that I had to learn over and over and over the hard way that I retained. Then, when I had I finally retained it, they changed the information.

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That seems to be the way it works!

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Jun 9, 2023Liked by John Dailey

JD, I think this was my favourite (I always say this) post. And perhaps my son's least accessible. The picture of your reading kit was as sweet as it was cringe. I collect old books for reasons unrelated to their content. Or better put, in addition to their content. I find myself buying a second, new edition copy that I can mark up. But keeping the older/original version to feel and smell the era in which it was written. But your post went so much deeper than my nostalgia. I worked as a younger Marine for a gifted officer who would later wear four stars. He gave an hour class on how to read a book. A lesson I thought ridiculous before and life changing after. His system was marking the margin with a vertical line for passages of interest. 1 line was for things of interest. So you could see where to read if you skimmed it later. 2 lines were of higher emphasis. Things recorded in his reading log, for future reference. (But only by book, page, topic). 3 vertical lines indicated something that had to be transcribed in his reading log for quick reference. Presumably because it would sited from time to times and required access from his reading log, without access to the base book. And finally, 4 vertical lines to indicated passages that had to be transcribed and memorised in his reading log. Although I struggle in replicating his system, it was my first exposure to the very idea. Your recent posts are only the second time in my life I have been exposed to the theory. A good refresh, and right when I needed it. Thank you.

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Brett, Thanks for your comment as always. As a fellow lover of old books collected simply because they are old, I understand, and would of course never mark in them. I can also understand your son's inability to relate. I used to be able to hear or read something once and own it (in fact, still have many of the random required definitions floating around in my brain bucket: Archimedes Principal, Gay-Lussac's gas law, the makeup of the layers of the ionosphere, etc, but with age and repeated blast expose, I fear I have a dwindling memory. I like the simplicity of the system you described. I am working on refining mine and may borrow from it.

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Jun 8, 2023Liked by John Dailey

Great post today, John. Your reading, researching, and organizing style is similar to my own, but I may steal a few ideas, if you don’t mind.

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Thanks, as always, Don. Mi techniques es su techniques! Thanks for reading!

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Jun 8, 2023Liked by John Dailey

Enjoyed today’s enough to create a profile lol You may already know this…your reading strategy seems similar to KWL developed by Donna Ogle. Also, I side with your grandmother, books are our friends.

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Thanks so much. I had not heard of KWL, but I looked it up. It seems like a great method to put active thought into reading and that is the best way to retain and learn.

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founding

Aruuuuuugah

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