<commit_before># How I read

This post is inspired from FightMediocrity's YouTube channel video
"How I read two to three books every week" - 
(link)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qARv-vEh2o8]. Great content, wanted to
give back and also revise my techniques.

## Choosing different techniques

It seems that reading "hacks" are similar to setting up a person's programming
environment: "Different things work for different people" and because of that
no two people will have the same elements or the same mix of them working for
them. As an example most developers I know use a different colour combination
for highlighting source code. What is common in this case is that everyone
has looked out, tried different things and made a choice for himself. This
indicates how I would suggest to use this post: copy a lot from different
places, but at the end of the day end up with something that works for you.

Something related with skill acquisition and retention would be suggesting
adopting one technique at a time, integrating it, then picking up another one
etc. Even if 100% of the stuff below makes sense to you (which should not be
the case because everyone is different), adopting each one of them might
trigger regression or limited results.

## The hacks

In loose order of importance.

## Read it when you need it

The "it is better to drink water while feeling thirsty analogy". This piece of
advice originates from start-up literature but cannot now remember the origin.
It is better to engage with content close to when it is needed in order to
achieve a task. This will keep the brain active and will allow higher
absorvance rate of content.

An example from my experiences would be <NAME>'s "The founder's
dilemmas", which has lots of statistical analysis on various start-up companies
and what they encounter. There is a chapter about stuffing. I read that book
while in a start-up scenario we would be in the process of discussing if a
person should be hired and what characteristics that person should have as well
as compensation etc. Maybe the highest pages per day ratio ever.

So the hack would be summarised to: Identify a gap that needs to be addressed
in the near future, then read material related to that gap.

## Read it when you want it

The second strongest force after necessity should be desire or curiosity. This
applies both for fiction and non-fiction titles. Identify things that are of
interest to you and engage when you feel like it.

Try to avoid what is currently popular or trending on the web or just hip,
unless of course it has to do with your interests.

Example: I have a semi-professional interest in advertising and the arts of
persuasion in general. I was lucky enough to win a copy of Byron Sharp's "how
brands grow". It immediately became the next item  of my list. If I realise
that I ended up not so interested in the subject, it will probably be given to
someone that might like or need it more.

## Read actively

Advice from <NAME> from the "4 hour week":

SCREENSHOT

Following lines with the finger provided a great speed multiplier and focus
assistance even when some distractions were around. Then adjusting the eyes
as adviced provided an additional incremental improvement.

In order to be active and engaged some people hold a pen or marker to underline
passages. An complimental approach is to use post-its for interesting pages.
I have seen the latter also as a substitution for underlining for whoever
does not want to "damage" the book.

## Make time

By engaging into small rearrangments of day to day schedule can many times
create pockets of time for extra reading. On London using the underground,<commit_msg>How to read youtube<commit_after># How I read

This post is inspired from FightMediocrity's YouTube channel video
"How I read two to three books every week" - 
(link)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qARv-vEh2o8]. Great content, wanted to
give back and also revise my techniques.

## Choosing different techniques

It seems that reading "hacks" are similar to setting up a person's programming
environment: "Different things work for different people" and because of that
no two people will have the same elements or the same mix of them working for
them. As an example most developers I know use a different colour combination
for highlighting source code. What is common in this case is that everyone
has looked out, tried different things and made a choice for himself. This
indicates how I would suggest to use this post: copy a lot from different
places, but at the end of the day end up with something that works for you.

Something related with skill acquisition and retention would be suggesting
adopting one technique at a time, integrating it, then picking up another one
etc. Even if 100% of the stuff below makes sense to you (which should not be
the case because everyone is different), adopting each one of them might
trigger regression or limited results.

## The hacks

In loose order of importance.

## Read it when you need it

The "it is better to drink water while feeling thirsty analogy". This piece of
advice originates from start-up literature but cannot now remember the origin.
It is better to engage with content close to when it is needed in order to
achieve a task. This will keep the brain active and will allow higher
absorvance rate of content.

An example from my experiences would be <NAME>'s "The founder's
dilemmas", which has lots of statistical analysis on various start-up companies
and what they encounter. There is a chapter about stuffing. I read that book
while in a start-up scenario we would be in the process of discussing if a
person should be hired and what characteristics that person should have as well
as compensation etc. Maybe the highest pages per day ratio ever.

So the hack would be summarised to: Identify a gap that needs to be addressed
in the near future, then read material related to that gap.

## Read it when you want it

The second strongest force after necessity should be desire or curiosity. This
applies both for fiction and non-fiction titles. Identify things that are of
interest to you and engage when you feel like it.

Try to avoid what is currently popular or trending on the web or just hip,
unless of course it has to do with your interests.

Example: I have a semi-professional interest in advertising and the arts of
persuasion in general. I was lucky enough to win a copy of Byron Sharp's "how
brands grow". It immediately became the next item  of my list. If I realise
that I ended up not so interested in the subject, it will probably be given to
someone that might like or need it more.

## Read actively

Advice from <NAME> from the "4 hour week":

SCREENSHOT

OR

on this YouTube video: [How to Triple Your Reading Speed in 20 Minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeOHqI9SqOI)

Following lines with the finger provided a great speed multiplier and focus
assistance even when some distractions were around. Then adjusting the eyes
as adviced provided an additional incremental improvement.

In order to be active and engaged some people hold a pen or marker to underline
passages. An complimental approach is to use post-its for interesting pages.
I have seen the latter also as a substitution for underlining for whoever
does not want to "damage" the book.

## Make time

By engaging into small rearrangments of day to day schedule can many times
create pockets of time for extra reading. On London using the underground,
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