Ahrens Sönke. (2017). How to take smart notes: one simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking for students, academics and nonfiction book writers. North Charleston, SC: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

[13] Published 58 books in the 30 years of his living career. Published another ~6 after he died.

[51] Spending the time to do something gradually over time is like the ten virgins getting oil into their lamps drop by drop.

[52] The praise for being a good learner is stunting. It's the praise for what we do that matters for growth mindset.

[54] The feedback loop of rewriting our notes into our own words is a vulnerable place to be. It exposes how well we're actually learning.

62: Nonlinear reading surfaces high-level patterns

64: To become an expert, we need to be able to make our own decisions

71: NOT closing a loop is just as powerful as closing it.

72: One system: Inbox = keep. Zetel = archive. // Zettelkasten method of note taking

75: There is also a separate index for bibliographies

75: The notes from a book are just as much about talking about what isn't noted as is what IS noted.

81: Don't focus on projects.

86: Choose between feeling smarter and being smarter. // [[Water element signals deep emotional fears]]

87: a good book with good note taking is a coach, not a teacher.

87: A teacher can tell the students exactly what to do and how to do it, but then the teacher is the one who does the learning. The one who does the work does the learning. // [[Inefficiency is where we learn best]] ^03824a

93: Compund interest is the slow exponential growth of a valuable system. Slip box is like this.

102: Storage strength can't be improved, but storage retrieval is a killer skill. Slip box facilitates this.

103: learning strings of numbers for the sake of learning them is basically just problem solving. We should be focusing on dissolving.

125: tight feedback loops are essential to learning because they make explicit what is working and what is not.

128: stock prices are a communication method. It's the market taking to you. It's a noisy conversation, but it's real.

§ How did this relate to being able to active listen? // [[Stock charts active listen]]

130: Paradox of choice. <- is regarded erroneously as a good thing // [[molecular mimicry and polymath]]

141: by switching manuscripts when stuck, he was never stuck. Always productive. // [[Luhmann was never stuck]]

"When I am stuck for a moment, I leave it and do something else. ... I always work on different manuscripts at the same time. With this method, to work on different things simultaneously, I never encounter any mental blockages."

143: we can learn to plan better when we have tighter feedback.