How to read research paper, textbook, long text content?

And if it doesn’t work out that particular day, that’s fine too. Don’t beat yourself up over it or try to force it. Just re-attempt pretty soon, like “later in the same day” soon, or “the following morning” soon- the key to more steady and fluid accomplishments of lots of little tasks is winnowing down the timeframe for little feedback loops.

tl;dr: you already know everything you think you need to do it :)

Analogy aside, not all text is written to be read in a 45 min session. Set your mind that reading and absorbing content from a text book can take anywhere between 3 months to 3 years. Some concepts may take decades to really click in your mind. Luckily, the content in text books is usually broken down in chapters and sections for you, so consider each of those a "less text" content, and read "less text" every day. Set a goal of understanding a single section or chapter per day/week. At the end of a year you'll have read "long text" without ever reading much in a single reading session.

Research papers can be read in anywhere from minutes to a couple weeks. But if you are new to the field, you may have to read them over and over, and that time can extend to months until you understand the implications of what is written.

Don't rush it.

I can barely get myself to read anything long, even exams! Somehow, starting from the last paragraph, and sometimes even the last sentence, and going back, makes me actually read the text. This also worked with research papers (conclusion -> 1st paragraph). Maybe give it a try?

Keshav knows what’s up.

I tend to read the abstract, figures and captions, conclusion. Then i know if it’s worth really reading it, at which point i print it out and break out a pen.

if it’s really REALLY worth reading, ipython usually comes out to play, too

I think it's the latter. I would suggest you to do some meditation.

Throwing an arrow in the air but it might be the case that your mind is wandering too much when you start reading. Doing some concentration practice will help.

Obviously, how you should read dense technical material will differ greatly depending on your goal.

For instance, if you are looking only for an answer to a specific question, you might prefer to do a sort of DFS on the paper. Read the intro material to get an impression of where in the paper the answer might lie, then go read those parts (in descending order of likelihood of containing the answer). A similar approach might work if you already know the area and are simply looking to see if the paper contains a particular result. Sometimes this process will still require some investment in understanding notation and terminology, but time spent doing this should be kept to a minimum.

On the other hand, if you intend to master the material and develop it further, then you might take a totally different approach where you prepare your own set of detailed notes on the paper (taking care to expand, in places where your own knowledge is lacking, techinical terms and concepts that are used in the paper but not explained using secondary references). This might also include working out many examples or thought experiments to help you internalize the logic and concepts. For a significant paper this process will take a long time, but it will be worthwhile if you truely want to understand the paper comprehensively and be able to build on it in a substantial way.

No matter your goal and approach, the point is that reading a paper productively is a systematic thing. Skimming technical papers lacksidasically is often a waste of time that doesn't produce value.

I am always on the lookout for papers that might help with something I need for work. I do a quick skim of papers and when I identify one or two that might be very useful, then I read them slowly and repeatedly. For me, the trick is finding material that is worth a lot of study time.

Remember that most people who write are still sounding out ideas when they write, so the final paragraph or final chapter of a monograph is where to start with most things. Then I read them in reverse order.

If it's professionally edited, you can read the first few parts because the editor will have uncovered any buried ledes and popped them up into the front matter. In journalistic writing, the opinion ("context") they were trying to freight the piece with is at the end.

If you're a university student you probably have access to a student support service that can assess you and advise you if that is the case. In the mean-time some people find using the [1] OpenDylsexic typeface helps and coloured overlays over text can be effective for some (Literally stick coloured acetate over what you're reading or change the font and background colours if on a screen). Other than that using various [2] notetaking methods will help with with both reading and retaining the knowledge. You're kind of already doing that with the slides BUT handwritten notes are generally more effective than notetaking on a computer.

[1]https://opendyslexic.org/ [2]https://medium.goodnotes.com/the-best-note-taking-methods-fo...

[0] https://annals.math.princeton.edu/2005/161-1/p10

You could also consider talking to a mental health professional. I can’t diagnose you, but a few things you mentioned make me wonder if you may have a mild form of one of these:

* ADHD

* Dyslexia

* Internet Addiction

Or maybe reformatting the text with layout, font, font-sizes that work better for you?

Not suggesting either solves the problem, but the small experiments might help identify an issue.

I have also had problems understanding some research papers, but the example one you linked is pretty straightforward to me. Reading the whole paper would take me some time, but not 45 minutes for 3 typical paragraphs. And I'm not that great at it. That's why I'm seconding the idea that maybe dyslexia or something similar is in play here.

That said, sometimes you don’t need to comprehend all of the details. In those cases, use reading strategies that will let you tease out the main points quickly. Other folks in this thread have pointed to some good sources, so I won’t repeat them here.

Best of luck!

- Review: amass several papers related to the topic, either through search (e.g. Google Scholar) or through a survey paper on the topic.

- Filter: read the abstracts and decide which papers are worth skimming.

- Skim: read the introduction, skim the figures and their captions, and conclusion. This step is another filter; ask yourself whether diving into the technical minutia is worth it.

- Read: read the paper in-depth, taking notes in your manner of choice (which seems to be slides for OP).

- Reread: read and skim the paper a few more times until you could summarize it to someone else. Divorce yourself from the paper by reading other papers, and revisit it to contextualize its contribution.

For research papers, I almost always start by reading the abstract and the conclusion, then reading related sections to answer questions I have about that. I'm not editing papers, or checking their validity: I just want to know what they're going on about.

Another thing is to ask whether you're reading the right document. For that GFS paper, I wonder if it's the right place to start learning about GFS. Ideally, you'd come to it with enough knowledge already that you don't need puzzle over every word. Are there introductory explanations? Youtube videos? Go over those first and come back later, and the paper probably won't be as cryptic.

For fiction, the best advice I ever got from an English professor, which changed my relationship with books, is this: if you don't like it, and nobody is making you read it, then stop reading it. Read something you can't put down instead.

In general, I think you haven't actually read something until you've read it twice. So, read it through once quickly, to get the idea, then read it again more slowly to understand it.

1. Just read A LOT. There is no way around it. If you push yourself to do this, eventually your mind will figure out a way.

2. Markup the text you are reading. I do this on an iPad with a stylus. I underline key points, circle important paragraphs, jot down a quick summary of lengthy thoughts.

Good luck!

Textbooks may be introductory in nature, or may be advanced and assume a lot of prerequisite knowledge.

If you are trying to learn about something new, you have to start with the basics.

If you are struggling and finding that the text makes no sense at all then ask yourself if you are diving too deep too fast.