We learned various ways of reading in this chapter. We also learned about task design to keep motivated. Now let us think about designing tasks to read here.
What is the “achievement condition” to read?
Understanding cannot be an achievement condition. Some people set goals like “I understand 100% of this book”, but this is not an appropriate achievement condition. Because you do not know the total amount of what is in this book, you can not judge “100% understood” by yourself.
In addition, from the viewpoint of usefulness, even if all contents of this book enters in your brain, it is not much value. To “remember” its content, the book itself is more accurate than your brain. A long ago, since there was no computer-based search technology, to remember and to search by the human brain is sometimes valuable. However, the area is replaced with computers more and more, making it difficult for the human to create value by remembering and recalling quickly.
A philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer compared reading with tracing on sample calligraphy written by the teacher. While reading, the thought of others are replayed in your brain, so you do not think the theme yourself. He thought that the power to think decreases and become foolish if you read books too much.
- (4.5.1) Understanding is an uncertain task
- (4.5.2) Reading is a means, not a purpose
- (4.5.3) Make materials for review