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Ask HN: How to Read Technical Books?

2 points by ngngngng ↗ HN
I'm a self taught programmer that's starting to advance in my career and would like to offset my stack overflow education with technical books. I've really only read novels though, where I'm just there to have a good time, and I don't care if I can remember every detail.

When reading technical books I feel like I need to take notes, make Anki decks, take breaks to play with things I'm learning. But I get a touch overwhelmed with the feeling that I should be doing these things without really knowing if that's an effective strategy to reading technical books. How do I best do this?

2 comments

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formerkrogeremp
I suppose that it depends on the book. A technical manual would require constant reference, Anki decks, and time to absorb the material. Something like Nand2Tetris might only require working through once or twice. If you have a project based book, then you can take it a project at a time and build from there. For me, learning accounting and physics back in the day required multiple references and exposure to learn something new and to learn it well. I think the most important factors are perseverance, trusting that you can do this, breaking big problems into small ones, and having multiple sources for the same material in case it doesn't 'click' in only one source. My two cents. I hope this helps.
sargstuff
Figure out what the book's target audience, aka expected reader backround. Someone with a pHD in telecommunications going to look at computer networking differently than someone out of HS seeking a networking certification.

Knowledge of one's ideal learning style helps; but may have to try it out to figure it out. aka hands on with examples or figure it out by reading the database application manual