How to read hard books

A thoughtful framework for reading and understanding deeply from Brad DeLong.

First, get prepared:

Figure out beforehand what the author is trying to accomplish in the book.

Orient yourself by becoming the kind of reader the book is directed at—the kind of person with whom the arguments would resonate.

During and after reading, try to rephrase and improve on the argument:

Read through the book actively, taking notes.

“Steelman” the argument, reworking it so that you find it as convincing and clear as you can possibly make it.

Find someone else—usually a roommate—and bore them to death by making them listen to you set out your “steelmanned” version of the argument.

Finally, try to disprove the arguments, and decide how you feel about them:

Go back over the book again, giving it a sympathetic but not credulous reading

Then you will be in a good position to figure out what the weak points of this strongest-possible argument version might be.

Test the major assertions and interpretations against reality: do they actually make sense of and in the context of the world as it truly is?

Decide what you think of the whole.

Then comes the task of cementing your interpretation, your reading, into your mind so that it becomes part of your intellectual panoply for the future.

The limiting factor of our education is no longer access to information–it’s making the most of the information we access.

Related: The purpose of reading is to write