Maarten, thank you for taking the time to write this fantastic guide to active reading and purpose-driven learning. It’s stimulating, very detailed, and easy to follow.

This bit in particular stood out to me:

“Shane Parrish: “If there is no one around who is interested, try talking to yourself. That’s what I do.

…This is called active recall. This technique has you explain the relevant ideas out loud, without peeking at your notes, as if lecturing an imaginary class.”

I’ve been using the talk-to-yourself-out-loud-in-order-to-better-understand-ideas-process for more than a decade now. Before I knew any of the science behind it, I just started doing it on my own as an undergrad because I found it to be the best way not only to study for exams at university but also to develop a clearer sense of the things about which I was trying to learn. In fact, in my interview with Justin Cox for his Write Now series, I describe how I use the process of talking to myself out loud and walking around in circles to better understand my ideas so I can convey them effectively through my writing.

One final note: I want to thank you for inspiring me to publish my own long-form piece of content. I recently wrote an article about the connections between philosophy and writing that’s just a tad longer than this post. The success of your article shows there’s a hunger for comprehensive and detailed content here on Medium. As a fellow philosopher, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the piece: How to Become an Exceptional Writer by Studying Philosophy.

Cheers :)