“Read more?” I remember thinking. I wasn’t expecting that response. I walked out of his university office trying to make sense of his comment.
So I read a lot over the next few weeks. My knowledge grew tremendously — and so did my ideas, which inspired a new and improved paper topic. (View Highlight)
That experience, which was about a decade ago, taught me a critical lesson: the benefits of reading avidly and broadly about your field. What began as a one-time thing to do well in a class has turned into a lifetime habit. (View Highlight)
Reading technical programming books is one habit programmers should begin immediately. It’s a relatively small investment that’ll help you now, but will pay dividends in the future for this simple reason: your knowledge will compound over time. (View Highlight)
But books have their place, too.
They fill a different need: they’re a source of long-form content that take you on an in-depth journey about a particular topic. A blog post or technical article may be a few hundred or thousand words. A book is tens of thousands.
When you pick up a technical book, you take a deep dive into said topic. You pick up the nuances. You study, practice, and learn. You get into the mindset of an industry expert. You begin to see things differently, as your context begins to grow. (View Highlight)
There’s no shortage of topics to read about in our field:
Computer architecture
Agile software development
Algorithms
Testing
Writing clean code
Refactoring (View Highlight)
Consider mathematician Richard Hamming. He, too, figured out a way to make reading a habit, which he shares in his excellent lecture, You and Your Research. (View Highlight)
Hamming reflected on his manager’s comment and decided to “reorganize” his life. He cut out “nonsense magazines” and spent time “studying things in [his] career.”
There was always a book on his coffee table “ready to be read.” He also got appointed as a book review editor, so he could review the books he read. “This way I forced myself to get a wide acquaintance in computer science,” Hamming remarked of the process.
“I wasn’t a first-class genius,” Hamming explained. “So I simply set aside those other things [like reading the New Yorker] and did that,” he added. “It’s not hard to do. You just do it.” (View Highlight)
There are a few critical points we can glean from Hamming’s story.
First, he always had a book on his coffee table. In other words, he always had a book in sight. This visual sends a kind reminder to read. (View Highlight)
After writing a review, he let it sit for a week. Then, he’d ask himself these questions: “Is that a good review? Does that really digest the book?” If not, “you’re re-reading the book and writing a better review.” (View Highlight)
In today’s world, the process is even easier: read a book and write a blog post on it. Indeed, writing is a great way to solidify your knowledge. (View Highlight)
While reading, use what I call the “ spot check “ approach. The idea is to randomly check your knowledge as you learn new material. After reading a paragraph or two, pause, and see if you can recall and articulate what you just learned about. (View Highlight)
Another idea is to type some notes summarizing key points after you read a chapter. The process itself is useful to review and reinforce important points.
Then, you can use the notes you type in different ways:
Make Anki flashcards, so you’ll constantly see the information in the future.
Make a checklist. After getting feedback on my variable names, I read about naming in the book Code Complete. Then, I made a “variable name” checklist. It hangs on the wall in front of my desk.
Focus on something specific you learned about while coding. I recently read some useful information about writing tests. Now I pull up these notes and reference them as I work. (View Highlight)
The point is to apply what you’re learning. Take the information you’re gaining, connect it, and turn it into knowledge. (View Highlight)
You’ve got to realize that reading matters. And to realize that reading matters, you’ve got to see the benefits. When something is important and we see the benefits, we find a way to make it happen (View Highlight)
There’s an easy way to do it: start with reading only 30 minutes each day for a month. It’s a small, manageable investment of time. And yet it’s enough to have an impact. (View Highlight)
The professor who told me to “read more” ignited my motivation to read, albeit initially to get a good grade. But I quickly saw the benefits. As it turned out, this professor, who I later learned has over 1,000 books in his personal library, gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. (View Highlight)