# Remembering What You Read: Beyond the Book

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Note:  There's not much here yet. What follows is an outline of some things I plan to add.
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Notes / thoughts:

* Improving understanding & integrating knowledge—addressed in previous sections—goes a long way towards improving retention, so you can't really separate this stuff out.
* I should mention spaced repetition & forgetting curves
* Thoughts on just-in-time reading? (Sometimes BS?)

Other fringe thoughts:

* When is it better to _forget_ what you read? In what cases does forgetting improve the quality of your thinking?

## A Short Tour of Memory

Unfortunately, when it comes to retention, the report is pretty abysmal.

* Study 1: Student Retention Rates

Luckily, most people read in a _terrible_ manner.&#x20;

We can look at this in two parts.

* Understanding
* Retention

## Improving Understanding

Notes:

* Why highlighting doesn't work
* Using marginalia & connecting ideas (improving the mental web)

## Improving Retention

It helps a lot to make sure you test you&#x20;

* Spaced repetition
* Using your knowledge frequently
* Putting things on maintenance

