Diverse Reading vs Undiverse Reading AKA Building Knowledge vs Digesting Facts.
/By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.
Reading time: 8 mins
You are what you eat… so I’m about 10% chocolate ;)
IMO to a large degree your mind is what you feed it. IMO feed your mind junk information and it’ll get unhealthy.
You could go to the supermarket and eat only junk food, but we now know not to do that.
Information has gone from deficit in pre internet times to surplus in post internet times. While the vast majority of us know what is healthy and unhealthy food, IMO most of us are yet to know what is healthy and unhealthy information.
“If we put someone in a cult, they become a cult member. We take them out, put them someplace else, they change their mind. If you live in one particular setting, you adopt norms, you become blind to certain things.” - Unknown
IMO undiverse reading = unhealthy information
IMO diverse reading = healthy information
Reading Stenography vs Reading Cartography
For any area you are learning about IMO one should try and build a ‘map’ of the knowledge terrain. IMO one is not digesting facts, one is trying to build a 3D knowledge map.
Reading stenography = just consuming facts
Reading cartography = building sick knowledge maps!
A taxonomy for ya:
L1: read and gather dots
L2: build dots into maps
L3: systematically fill out the maps so you have a rounded understanding and are not ‘biased’
This is systematically trying to find your blind spots and ego distortions and nullify.
This is systematically trying not to be an idealogue, to try and be a pragmatist.
This is systematically trying to understand the different sides of an argument and being able to articulate each side clearly.
“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.” — Charlie Munger
Comment
If you are learning about an idea try to find the ideas that counter balance it so you can get some perspective.
Basically you need to proactively search out counter views and relevant balancing theories and then try and build a map with this :)
Jingle: IMO no just getting facts, but building maps!
Everything works somewhere nothing works everywhere.
One articulation of some taxonomised thinking re ‘diverse reading’
Another taxonomy for ya
L1: just read lots about eg ‘education’
L2: try and collect ideas and put them into continuums
L3: put two continuums together into a 2D space
L4: layer multiple ideas across a problem space to see where some ideas help and some ideas hinder.
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Details
Education example:
Taxonomy
L1: just read lots about education => this idea of conceptual understanding for maths is interesting
L2: try and collect ideas and put them into continuums => ok people have two opposing ideas with ‘conceptual vs procedural understanding’. Hmmm.
L3: put two continuums together into a 2D space => ok let’s layer ‘procedural ⇔ conceptual understanding’ vs ‘direct instructions ⇔ inquiry based learning ⇔ socratic discussion’ into a 2D problem space
L4: layer multiple ideas across a problem space to see where some ideas help and some ideas hinder => ok now let’s try and put the Australian Curriculum across this problem space and see if we can intelligently layer these ideas across the curriculum prescribed Year 7 Maths areas of ‘Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning’.
What we are trying to do is this:
Not this:
Comment
IMO adherence too closely to single doctrine is likely dangerous. This is similar to being part of a cult where you can’t question the validity of an idea.
IMO it’s super important to have a view on where an idea works… but also where it doesn’t work.
IMO in any given area I’m normally trying to combine the best 2-5 different ideas intelligently. Only one idea is IMO effectively being an ideologue and likely having large ‘blind spots and ego distortions’... and more than 5 ideas is unwieldy and very hard to have a ‘cohesive solution’.
Only 1 idea = large blind spots and ego distortions
6+ ideas = normally a dog’s breakfast
2-5 ideas well layered together is hard but done well = delicious and nutritious meal :).
Picking the most important ideas to work with is rewarding…
Layering the ideas together in a positive sum way is fun!
I like rewarding fun!
See examples of groupings at the end
No Reading vs Echo Chamber Reading vs Diverse Reading vs Systematic Diverse Reading
Systematic diverse reading allows you to do Rapoport’s Rules to encourage civil discourse:
You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”
You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.
Aristotle’s misquote, “It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain an idea without accepting it”.
IMO listening to the wantonly biased and trying to recognise their bias is one key approach to start yourself not being biased.
To have three dimensions you have to be able to see the circle, the square and how things are put together.
This done well is not listening to the same thing 3x times where you enjoy each piece less, it’s listening to 3 sides of something where each piece you enjoy more.
Taxonomy time
L0: No reading
L1: echo chamber reading = only reading the same biased viewpoint meaning it’s hard not to be biased
L2: diverse reading = reading multiple viewpoints but not necessarily trying to see how they might be biased or not
L3: systematic diverse reading = reading all major viewpoints and then trying to see how people who only consume this information see the world.
Ok more… Systematic diverse reading = 1. Reading for counterview points to where you currently are + 2. Trying to understand the key continuums + 3. Reading to understand at depth the different points on a continuum + 4. Understanding what works where (“everything works somewhere, nothing works everywhere” and how to blend things together) + 5. Acquire different sources of reading to fill out the picture.
Ie it’s not direct instruction vs enquiry based learning vs socratic discussion
Ie it’s not student centered learning vs teacher centered learning
Ie it’s not blocking vs interleaving vs spaced repetition
Ie it’s not rote learning vs first principles learning
It’s a blend of all and how to do both well and poorly.
This is trying to map the world. Not just a random walk (reading), echo chamber or worse, just your own experience.
Your own experience matters, but it is just that, yours and it may only represent a small portion of the broader human experience.
“The good learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, and the stupid already have the answers.” Socrates.
Some more examples of Diverse Reading
Learning about a company - learning about Facebook
I’d recommend reading the following alternating chapter by chapter through each book
Then I’d do 1-3x interviews with each of the authors of the books about the books
And then I’d listen to 1-3x interviews with the founders of Snap, Facebook and Instagram.
Comment:
I find this gets you a much better understanding of reality vs just one source. Way less chance of being biased.
IMO you can never be 100% not biased… but unfortunately I think one can be 100% biased.
IMO to move to be more and more ‘unbiased’ one needs to be able to understand the key biases people have and to be able to explain what drives them.
Learning about education - here are some groupings of books on education I’d recommend (I’ve read all these and more)
Grouping
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The Paideia Proposal - Mortimier Adler
The art of learning - Josh Wazedzki
Grouping
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Grouping
Politics example: a map of politics for ya! Build your reading to understand this :)
If you only take away one thing
If you don’t know anything, nothing can be interesting.
If you know only biased things (undiverse reading) then it’s possible for many things to make you unhappy (interesting bad).
But if you systematically try to broaden your perspectives and attempt to see the full picture it’s possible to see many ways you want to try and help improve the world (interesting good).
IMO diverse reading is one core component of a good life. Diverse reading = deliciously rewarding :)