Jordan Peterson’s method for remembering everything you read: Stop highlighting. Stop taking notes while reading. Read a section → close the book → write down what you remember in your own words. Reformulate it. Connect it. Criticize it. That’s how information actually becomes part of you. What’s your take,... do you learn and retain more by actively recalling and rewriting, or by highlighting and passive note-taking?show more

He's talking about Habit 5 of how to increase your intelligence - a good read:

Credit: @jordanbpeterson in his 2017 Q&A. Full video:

This is, in fact, the best advise, but it takes ages to complete a book this way. I do it a few times, but I want to do it all the time because it's marvelous!!!

I take notes and have a good recall. The real struggle is when you have a great idea in the middle of a lecture and have to choose between listening or capturing that thought.

lol no

Everyone is different. His method is his method. Find yours. It will likely be different.

By his logic you should listen to 5 minutes of his lecture then raise your hand and ask him to stop so you sit there and think about what he said before he continues.

Can we do both? A double whammy.

It's called narration! This is key to the Charlotte mason method of homeschool. Check out the book Know and Tell by Karen Glass to see this idea fleshed out and how you can use it with kids!

kinda prefer Einstein approach to momorizing stuff: A student asked Einstein for his phone number. Einstein walked to a bookshelf, pulled out a directory, and said: “Why should I memorize something I can find in a telephone book.” 😀

You have to make patterns for your own brain and memory systems. I design systems to improve memory management because engineers don't. I had to study brain surgery to learn how to heal my brain because of memory loss. It has to do with self-control. What works with someone is not guaranteed to work for others or everyone, even if it works for most. Many external factors may affect the internal factors and vice-versa. The accuracy level of those internal and external factor is important to solve atomic scale problems to divert from the facts. Not everything is important or worthwhile to remember. If your memory doesn't work to solve problems, you may not use it right. If your memory doesn't work to solve memory problems, you may be missing opportunities to solve memory problem with your memory, which, if you forget about it, may evolve into other problems. If you focus too much on problems and miss opportunities, you may be focusing too much on problems which causes you more problems because you miss opportunities on which your memory should have focused from cost-benefit feasibility analysis. Learn to remember for 59 years of memory attacks against your memory to develop systems which work better against those attack and do not require the support of the attackers to infiltrate your memory systems.

Depends how you learn. A tactile learner may need to take notes.

In short, he's doing a Lego session, trying to incorporate what he read about into what he already knows, and building on that. I still think it depends on people and their style. His style is defenitely more labour & time intensive - put down the section, think & take notes.

I read until I can't process anymore, then I stop. Then later, might be days later, while I'm on a walk, the idea will click in my head.

This Zionist stooge and has lost all credibility! Why would I waste a second more than the time it takes to post this reply?

If it's good idk how to NOT remember it. it embeds itself and stays there regardless.

I’m currently about 60% through a 500-page manuscript. I read loads of books and highlight useful info with sticky notes (much to my eldest daughter’s irritation) but what Jordan says here is 100% the best way to go about it 🎯

It works. I used to write study guides as a way to study and also help my classmates. Its time consuming, but worth it.

And don’t take the Covid jab!

The key to information recall is understanding

I’d still be on Green Eggs and Ham if I did this.

Don’t see Dr Peterson often anymore. So wise and generous.

oh my damn, this is what God has been using on my with regards to whatever i experience between me and Him on a daily basis 😂 no wonder especially in the early years of 2006 no with my conditions, its harder, but i can agree, this is the way

And have interesting conversations in your head with the stuff that you read, the characters, and with the people who wrote it.

Highlighting is just outsourcing memory to dead pixels or paper. You aren't processing any information; you're just moving it by doing so. Closing the book forces the brain to compress the data. If you can't reconstruct the ideas from first principles in your own words, you didn't compress it correctly... You just stored a shallow copy. True synthesis requires cognitive friction.

I take notes as I'm reading. It helps me hold attention and retain information. If I shut the book with nothing written I wouldn't remember much, if anything.

This leverages the fact that - when you study some material - you tend to remember the stuff at the beginning and at the end... not so much the stuff in the middle. Stopping to work on a concept increases the time it stays in your working memory (in a loose sense) and reformulating it in your own words connects it to what is already in your brain: both increase the chance it will be remembered. PS: Not trying to be scientific above, it is more like a feel for how the brain works. Coming from many years of studying...

Both Mortimer Adler and Jordan Peterson reject passive highlighting in favor of deeper processing.

That’s one of the pillars of reading comprehension that is taught as the final stage in Bloom’s Taxonomy in education, synthesizing / creating. This isn’t breaking news, it’s foundational pedagogy. The trick is finding willing participants in the practice.

Hey everyone is unique and learns differently. It’s like telling someone how to feel comfortable. My husband studied with music playing. That would never work for me. To each his own.

i have 15 minutes of reading a day. thats it.

I'm sure that's effective. But it also means you can read much much less.

Do both and other stuff

Reading builds possibility. Reformulating creates ownership. The lesson often becomes clear when we attempt to explain it ourselves. 🔹

He's not wrong.