Marking when Reading is rarely useful
I used to mark & highlight a lot while reading with both physical and digital books. I once thought this was a very efficient way to help me to remember, understand, and then I can quickly pick them up whenever I want, digital marking is even more convenient by bringing in highlight management and search ability.
All of my ideas were wrong!
- Highlighting and marking don't magically make me remember anything.1
- Marking is simply an alternative of quoting. It's quick, but help me skip the procedure of understanding which is slow.
- I've never been able to pick anything up. Since marking doesn't organise and link information and transfer it into knowledge, all marks are forgotten swiftly. No way I can remember anything until I experience it several times, this is not I want.
- Searching for marks is just a fancy way of quoting if no understanding follows.
After the study of [[ZettelKasten method]], I treat marks and highlights as anchors, where I can quickly trace things back by them after I read my zettel. Nothing more. All marks are not directly quoted but are summarized or paraphrased with my own understanding.