Category: Blog

These blog posts are short, daily ideas on reading deeply, taking notes, and applying the ideas. Each post is written by Eddy Hood with the goal of encouraging readers to pick up a book in favor of technology.

Read better books

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Read Like Socrates: How to Choose Books That Actually Make You Better

There’s a powerful line in Plato’s Protagoras about what happens when we learn something new. Socrates, speaking to a young man named Hippocrates, says: “Once you have learned something, you must go your way, having been either harmed or benefited” (314b). I love that line because it reminds us of a simple truth: once we learn something, we can’tContinue reading Read Like Socrates: How to Choose Books That Actually Make You Better

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Learn to Journal like Ralph Waldo Emerson (Week 4 of 6)

Last week, I talked about John Locke’s method of indexing a journal and how Emerson abandoned it in favor of something simpler. 📚Emerson kept three main types of journals: Pick one to three key topics you’re most passionate about. I’ve chosen Philosophy and Writing. Then create a topic-specific journal for each. Finally, get one journalContinue reading Learn to Journal like Ralph Waldo Emerson (Week 4 of 6)

Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Learn to Journal Like Ralph Waldo Emerson (Part 1 of 6)

First, let’s get some semantics out of the way. I prefer the term “notebook,” which to me sounds like a working tool for thinking.  However, Emerson referred to them as “journals,” so we’ll stick with his terminology throughout this series–even though “journal” reminds me of my grandmother, who wrote about the weather in her “journal”Continue reading Learn to Journal Like Ralph Waldo Emerson (Part 1 of 6)