Hello!
Seiiti Arata.
Do you read books… and then just forget it all?
Don’t worry, if that is the case, we have two tips.
The first tip is to use memory hooks to create associations.
At the end of our conversation, I will give you a link with details about the memory hooks
technique.
But first, let's look in detail at the second tip.
The second tip is simply not to worry, because the great benefits of reading are in the way
you improve your thinking.
Reading is not about memorising facts or information.
You do not need to remember all the information you read in a book.
It is wrong to think that the main objective of reading is to remember stories, quotes
and theories.
All this information is available in the palm of your hand, on the internet on your mobile
phone.
Whenever you need a specific piece of information, you can search online and quickly find the
results.
The exception is school exams, when you cannot check anything online.
But we are talking about adult life, after school and exams.
Why should you read good books, in order to live a better life?
What is the point of reading?
Literature exists to change the way your brain reasons.
After reading good books, you can understand new points of view, and find more creative
solutions to different kinds of problems.
In summary, reading is training for your brain to develop cognitive capacities.
Reading helps you become a better person day by day.
A good read is transformative.
You become a better person.
The best way to find out if you have learnt something from a book is not by the amount
of detail you manage to remember.
The true value of literature is when you see a positive transformation in your thoughts,
your way of seeing the world, the strategies you use to solve problems.
For example, imagine you read the book Ultralearning to understand more about what ultralearning
is [https://arata.se/aratasummary12].
However, after you finish reading the entire book, you do not remember all the concepts
that were presented.
If I asked you about the main techniques, you would not know the answer.
In these situations it is very common to say "Oh yeah, I read that book... it's good, I
recommend it... but I can't explain the ideas of the book because I forgot them."
This may seem like a contradiction.
You read a book about learning techniques… and once you finish the book, you think that
it was very good… but you are still not able to explain what you just read!
This is more common than you think.
Basically, Ultralearning is a book that recommends first making a meta learning map to define
what your study strategy will be.
Then, you manage your time with clear goals according to the amount of time you will dedicate
to studying.
And, most importantly, you need to focus on practice.
When studying, try to use the knowledge as soon as possible, through specific mini-projects
to test what you have learned.
And always review to avoid forgetting.
There are many steps to describe each stage, and the author tells many stories about his
own life to illustrate the concepts.
All this makes the book more difficult to memorise, so it is natural not to be able
to explain all the ideas without consulting the book.
However, if you have read the book well, you will notice that something has changed in
your way of studying.
Perhaps the next time you are studying, you will first take a few minutes to plan.
In the past, you did not plan anything, but this time, something has changed.
Maybe you used to believe that planning was a waste of time... but now you are a different
person.
Even without remembering the specific chapter that explained the importance of study planning,
your brain starts to see more value in planning and you are more likely to do it, changing
the way you behave.
This is an example of the kind of transformation that can happen, changing the way you think,
changing a part of who you are.
If you need to, you can open the book at any time to find the exact chapter that talks
about the importance of planning and the goal learning map.
But you do not have to do that.
Even without having access to the details of that particular chapter, you have become
a person who is more likely to plan.
Memorising information is useful for getting good marks in school exams.
However, in adult life your focus should be different.
When we are at school, there is a strong emphasis on memorising information to score high marks
on tests.
Because of this, we have the false idea that the main function of reading is to be able
to memorise the information in the book.
That is why we get frustrated when we are not able to remember all the details of a
book we have read.
Reading is very useful because it transforms the way we reason, by acquiring a greater
base of references and points of view that are used in the creative process.
However, generally, the exams we take at school check how many ideas have been memorised in
an objective way.
This happens because schools need to be efficient and objective.
Imagine how impractical it would be to try to assess the transformations students have
experienced after reading a classic book.
It is difficult to assess what changes have taken place in the way a student reasons,
or what life lessons a student has learned from reading a book.
It is much more objective to give tests with the same questions to the whole class and
then give scores depending on how many questions were answered right or wrong.
Because of this, there is a tendency for schools to assess mainly short-term memory.
But in adult life, there is very little value in being able to recite information from memory.
The internet already fulfils the role of storing information that can be searched for easily.
We need to be able to USE information in our decision-making and creative processes (not
just memorise it).
To end the frustration of not remembering what you have just read, you need to change
your expectations about reading.
Usually, memorising information is only useful for taking exams in school.
To get value from books in your adult life, memorising information is of very little value
compared to transforming the way you think.
If your brain starts thinking about other things whilst you are reading, that may be
a sign that reading is working.
It could be that you are connecting what you are reading… to other thoughts in your head.
Even if you do not remember exactly what you read, the habit of reading will form new neural
connections and shape the way you think.
The brain learns through associations.
And to make better associations, you need to feed your database by reading.
Despite advances in neuroscience to better understand how our memories are formed, the
truth is that scientists have not yet discovered everything about how the brain works.
Every day there are new discoveries in this fascinating field.
When you are reading a book, somehow information is being absorbed by your brain.
Some of this information is associated with other thoughts and recorded in your short,
medium and long-term memory.
When you are able to retrieve this information, we say that you have memorised it.
We speak in detail about how this happens in episode 19 of the series Study Arata [https://arata.se/study19].
But not everything we read stays in our memory.
Some information that we read in books is absorbed by our brain and remains there on
an unconscious level.
We cannot retrieve this information objectively, which means that we do not memorise it.
But it is there, and somehow it is used to form our thoughts.
So when we have an idea, what often happens is that some of the information in our unconscious
mind combines with other thoughts, forming new connections that change the way we think.
This is a function that our brain develops with habitual reading.
So, even if you do not remember much of what you read, or if you read a bad book, the habit
of reading is still shaping your thinking in a way that almost no other habit does.
After finishing your school life, you enter into adult life.
And, in adult life, the tests are different.
In school life, you had to memorise information for tests.
As an adult, you are still being tested all the time, but the tests are different.
You need to find better investment opportunities.
You have to deal with arguments in relationships.
You have to decide about your professional future.
All these situations are tests that adult life presents and that you have to solve in
the best possible way.
Memorising information read in books will be of little use in solving adult life problems.
However, if you have the habit of reading, your brain will have a huge base of references
to think creatively and intelligently about how to solve each of the situations in the
best possible way.
The habit of reading is expected to improve your worldview, so that it reflects reality
more clearly.
With this kind of clarity about reality, you can make better decisions in your life, your
work and your relationships.
That is the kind of intelligence you want to develop.
Of course, it is good to be aware of memorisation techniques to remember one thing or another
that is required in your job or school, but that is not what life requires of us.
The problems we face can almost never be solved by choosing option A, B or C. The answers
are much more complex, they require critical thinking, creativity, and connecting ideas.
And all this can be enhanced if you give up the idea of memorising everything you read.
Simply focus on the habit of reading good books that help shape your thinking.
The main point of reading is to shape your thoughts.
Even if you do not remember the details of what you read, the habit of reading is still
positive for developing your brain's cognitive abilities.
If you really need to remember what you read in detail, you can use techniques like memory
hooks.
But if you want to learn to think better, focus on getting into the habit of reading
so that your brain is always improving.
In the Intelligence Arata Academy course, you can have both.
Our training teaches memorising techniques with memory hooks for anyone who needs to
remember details in their work or studies… and we also have interactive activities to
improve and accelerate your reading.
To see a detailed demonstration on the memory hooks technique I invite you to click this
link https://arata.se/intelligence