Reading Hack 2 — Total Immersion

Photo by Aiony Haust on Unsplash

I call this hack Total Immersion in the sense that you can explore all of the author’s available mediums (text, video, audio).

The goal of Total Immersion is really trying to get to know the author as much as possible. Imagine that the author is actually a new friend of yours and that you’re getting to know them and their big ideas. Charlie Munger once said, I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend.

Consider using a variety of different media forms as a way to substitute real world interaction that you’d normally have with a friend say, that’s trying to express their ideas to you over a cup of coffee. The more the variety you use, the better.

Some ideas to get you started:

Watch the author’s speeches on YouTube and TED

Listen to the author’s podcasts and interviews generally

Read any other related pieces the author may have written on their blog, newspaper, LinkedIn and other publications generally

It’s useful to get additional perspectives on the author’s ideas like reviews that are written in sources like the Atlantic. If they’re not available, the reviews written on Goodreads and Amazon can sometimes be valuable.

The aim of this hack is really just an effort to thoroughly understand the author’s thinking such that you can answer the question, What would this author do in X situation? The better you can answer this question, the more you’ve come to terms with the author.

In rare cases where I want to go much deeper and try to “download the author’s brain,” I’ll take comprehensive notes on all of the author’s works and put them onto my note taking software. I’ll index the reference notes in a way that I can come back and almost have a conversation with the author.