Complex ideas may be hard to learn in part because their components overflow working memory

Spaced repetition memory systems make memory a choice

Deep understanding requires detailed knowledge of fundamentals

Athletes and musicians pursue virtuosity in fundamental skills much more rigorously than knowledge workers do

§Enabling environments, games, and the Primer

Most people read ineffectively

Mnemonic essays may offer detailed retention of their contents in exchange for 35-50% reading time overhead

§Taking knowledge work seriously (Stripe convergence talk, 2019-12-12)

2019-12-04

2019-12-16

# People seem to forget most of what they read, and they mostly don’t notice

It seems that most people can remember only a few high-level details of a book weeks later—if that. A typical reader might spend hours finishing some serious non-fiction—then maybe it comes up at a dinner party, and they find you can remember like three sentences. Basically no detailed recall. Barely the gist!

What’s more: people seem surprised when this happens. They seem to consistently overestimate how much they’re absorbing from a book.

See [[zhq3W2VLpCJK8pmMwMxtxpC72Sd3zeZccMCp:How rapidly do people forget practical knowledge?]]

This observation is unfortunate for many reasons, but among them: [[zQiumA4k3SXo1GeRVJpsrVaBRETAoyYmSERS:Deep understanding requires detailed knowledge of fundamentals]] and [[z6eTZz16YRGs2PyWyc3qe1B9oJ7swmnCU54hZ:Complex ideas may be hard to learn in part because their components overflow working memory]].

For common objections: [[zD5zaKmvTFAAL3PTJGWzkAQr6CtoBCdoXBpM:Many people view memory as unimportant to deep creative work]].

## [file:35396407-0984-41FE-997D-0F1596872A2A-410-0000784A3A415923/DiAlexRev - I try to explain how I learned something so quickly, in @HolbertonCOL @holbertonschool-1271832215215800321.mp4]

## References

Matuschak, A. (2019). Why books don’t work. Retrieved from <https://andymatuschak.org/books>






People seem to forget most of what they read, and they mostly don’t notice