Alice's syndrome in the looking glass: what and how to read ?.
Some time ago, statistics flew from one of Coursera’s Mark Morley teachers [1], that “about 3% of enrolled students reach the final exam stage and only 1.5% pass it”.
The statistics of our online programs are slightly higher: we have about 20% of the listeners at the end of all classes. We really do not do exams, because we sincerely believe that formal exams are a little more than useless in the topic of people management and communications. But 20% accurately listen to all classes until the end (statistics collected on 1500+ students for 3 years). Well, we and the listeners are smaller than the Coursera, there is the possibility of almost personal exposure to people. :)
However, that statistics is not comforting. Or is everything ok? On this topic, my colleague Slava Pankratov recently wrote an excellent text about how we learn from books (also applies to courses), which I would like to share with the text.
')
Like what books you need to read (absolutely everyone).
The question that is sometimes asked after speaking at a conference and almost at the end of each webinar or seminar:
- What do you advise to read?
To advise something abstract in general is not a thankful matter. You can somehow decide with art books by starting with the genres and clarifying what the interlocutor has already read / not read. And what about special or business literature? Its a lot. It is not always entertaining. Often - narrowly specialized.
Applying to yourself. You can, of course, offer me something to read about Perl, but I will not get joy and anger on the author and advisor.
At such moments, I feel like a Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland:
“Where should I go,” asked Alice Kota.
“It depends on where you want to go,” answered the Cat.
- I would come ... somewhere.
“Then you don't care where to go,” said the Cat reasonably to Alice.
How to advise a book to a person if I do not know what he is digging around and understanding?
Sometimes there is a more interesting question, in my opinion:
- And how to make sure that something is done after reading the book. So that the knowledge gained is used in practice.
This question bothers me at all. Why did you read something then? To broaden horizons is OK, a clear task: to dig neighboring directions in order to understand where to dig further. Then you have already solved your task - expanded. What we implement something?
Some logical contradiction.
Remember, I told you about the book "Atlas Shrugged" [2]? The review of the book, by the way, was fixed on Habré, and this despite the fact that there are many sensible comments in the discussions and it is still being discussed. The same contradiction, which I still understand how to resolve.
So: in the "Atlanta" several times the idea was sounded that there was no contradiction. If there is a contradiction somewhere, then it is necessary to double-check the initial premises and logic.
I put these two questions together and understood that the answer to them is the same in essence. There is no contradiction. Questions perfectly explain each other. It is not clear what to read, read something and then it is not clear how to implement it, because it is not clear why I read and searched for a solution. Deciding what?
Now to the question "What do you advise to read?" I have a counter question:
- What are you working on now?
Seeing at the last conference a little surprised look from the girl with whom we discussed her work situation and got to the topic of books, I realized that I guessed with a question and told how and what I read.
Just coming from the task. I come across something that I don’t know how to do at all or am not sure that I’m doing the right thing, and I’m going to look for an answer. Articles, books, speeches of people to turn to them for advice or advice. I am digging. I find and immediately run to “screw” the solution to the problem. I try.
See how easy it turns out: first my task — then a book or books — solving a problem in a book — use — solving my task. If it turns out - the book can and should be read. The author obviously fumbles.
Thus, I solve both problems at once:
- What to read? What contains the answer to my current specific question.
- How to implement what I read? So I came to the book for the decision. There is no such problem based on the formulation of the problem itself.
And besides, I immediately select not the “theory in vacuum”, but the pieces that are practically working in my performance. Author - honor and respect. And to me - a solved task and the feeling that I am a good fellow.
As you see, there are not even two hares at once with one shot, here their flock has fallen (or a herd? A flock of hares - yes, so much cooler). Whack - and a flock of hares with one shot. List of intelligent authors. List of working books. My own solved problems. Plus, I have an understanding that it is beyond this circle of tasks to go to this circle of authors.
I read from the beginning to the end exactly the art books and almost always one at a time. And the aftertaste is thinner, and so that the plots and in the head are not tangled. And I can read business literature on 5-6 books in parallel and not confused. It turns out that I kind of “work” with business literature. As with the search: opened, looked, there is trust in the source - we go further, no - put it off, read, found options, tried, compared 2-3, chose the right one.
Something like this.
-
Respectfully,
Slava Pankratov
Stratoplan.Ru
I have my own mega-technology, which I had invented at least a few hundred people, I think. :) While listening to the course (reading a book) I always keep a summary of 5 parts:
And each time I open this summary, I come across a list of actions, I speak to myself the motivational words for which I probably will be banned from Habré, close the summary and immediately run to do something. What I wish for everyone: do not just read, but do something in real life!
PS I would be grateful if you share your statistics on specialized books and online courses - how many were inspected to the end / how much they brought real benefits (that is, one of them was used).
Alexander Orlov
Stratoplan.Ru
The statistics of our online programs are slightly higher: we have about 20% of the listeners at the end of all classes. We really do not do exams, because we sincerely believe that formal exams are a little more than useless in the topic of people management and communications. But 20% accurately listen to all classes until the end (statistics collected on 1500+ students for 3 years). Well, we and the listeners are smaller than the Coursera, there is the possibility of almost personal exposure to people. :)
However, that statistics is not comforting. Or is everything ok? On this topic, my colleague Slava Pankratov recently wrote an excellent text about how we learn from books (also applies to courses), which I would like to share with the text.
')
Glory to Pankratov: Alice's syndrome in the looking glass: what and how to read? ..
Like what books you need to read (absolutely everyone).
The question that is sometimes asked after speaking at a conference and almost at the end of each webinar or seminar:
- What do you advise to read?
To advise something abstract in general is not a thankful matter. You can somehow decide with art books by starting with the genres and clarifying what the interlocutor has already read / not read. And what about special or business literature? Its a lot. It is not always entertaining. Often - narrowly specialized.
Applying to yourself. You can, of course, offer me something to read about Perl, but I will not get joy and anger on the author and advisor.
At such moments, I feel like a Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland:
“Where should I go,” asked Alice Kota.
“It depends on where you want to go,” answered the Cat.
- I would come ... somewhere.
“Then you don't care where to go,” said the Cat reasonably to Alice.
How to advise a book to a person if I do not know what he is digging around and understanding?
Sometimes there is a more interesting question, in my opinion:
- And how to make sure that something is done after reading the book. So that the knowledge gained is used in practice.
This question bothers me at all. Why did you read something then? To broaden horizons is OK, a clear task: to dig neighboring directions in order to understand where to dig further. Then you have already solved your task - expanded. What we implement something?
Some logical contradiction.
Remember, I told you about the book "Atlas Shrugged" [2]? The review of the book, by the way, was fixed on Habré, and this despite the fact that there are many sensible comments in the discussions and it is still being discussed. The same contradiction, which I still understand how to resolve.
So: in the "Atlanta" several times the idea was sounded that there was no contradiction. If there is a contradiction somewhere, then it is necessary to double-check the initial premises and logic.
I put these two questions together and understood that the answer to them is the same in essence. There is no contradiction. Questions perfectly explain each other. It is not clear what to read, read something and then it is not clear how to implement it, because it is not clear why I read and searched for a solution. Deciding what?
Now to the question "What do you advise to read?" I have a counter question:
- What are you working on now?
Seeing at the last conference a little surprised look from the girl with whom we discussed her work situation and got to the topic of books, I realized that I guessed with a question and told how and what I read.
Just coming from the task. I come across something that I don’t know how to do at all or am not sure that I’m doing the right thing, and I’m going to look for an answer. Articles, books, speeches of people to turn to them for advice or advice. I am digging. I find and immediately run to “screw” the solution to the problem. I try.
See how easy it turns out: first my task — then a book or books — solving a problem in a book — use — solving my task. If it turns out - the book can and should be read. The author obviously fumbles.
Thus, I solve both problems at once:
- What to read? What contains the answer to my current specific question.
- How to implement what I read? So I came to the book for the decision. There is no such problem based on the formulation of the problem itself.
And besides, I immediately select not the “theory in vacuum”, but the pieces that are practically working in my performance. Author - honor and respect. And to me - a solved task and the feeling that I am a good fellow.
As you see, there are not even two hares at once with one shot, here their flock has fallen (or a herd? A flock of hares - yes, so much cooler). Whack - and a flock of hares with one shot. List of intelligent authors. List of working books. My own solved problems. Plus, I have an understanding that it is beyond this circle of tasks to go to this circle of authors.
I read from the beginning to the end exactly the art books and almost always one at a time. And the aftertaste is thinner, and so that the plots and in the head are not tangled. And I can read business literature on 5-6 books in parallel and not confused. It turns out that I kind of “work” with business literature. As with the search: opened, looked, there is trust in the source - we go further, no - put it off, read, found options, tried, compared 2-3, chose the right one.
Something like this.
-
Respectfully,
Slava Pankratov
Stratoplan.Ru
Instead of an afterword.
That is, not all specialized literature must be read to the end. More important is to apply something. And then go back to the book / course. There is not a single video course that I personally would have listened to until the end of the first time (many have not been heard). However, each of the courses has repeatedly paid for itself. Just listened to the right things, which were applied at the right time.I have my own mega-technology, which I had invented at least a few hundred people, I think. :) While listening to the course (reading a book) I always keep a summary of 5 parts:
- Actions: what to do right today or tomorrow
- Ideas: what else to think about at your leisure
- What else to see: what else to read / see, when there will be time
- Tools: specific tools for specific tasks
- Theses: brief content of materials so that another person from our team could understand what I was talking about in my summary
And each time I open this summary, I come across a list of actions, I speak to myself the motivational words for which I probably will be banned from Habré, close the summary and immediately run to do something. What I wish for everyone: do not just read, but do something in real life!
PS I would be grateful if you share your statistics on specialized books and online courses - how many were inspected to the end / how much they brought real benefits (that is, one of them was used).
Alexander Orlov
Stratoplan.Ru
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/210348/
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