Attempting to Learn

 It's been a while since I posted. I've been reading a few books: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools For Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett, Statistics You Can't Trust by Stephen Kent Campbell, and Harriet A. Washington. I have to confess that I don't feel as if I'm actually learning when I read them. Even if I am it feels very shallow. 

In the case of Dennett's book, I struggled a lot to grasp the concepts, and found myself frequently struggling to keep myself from stressing out reading them and still not understanding. I also learned I had a really hard time pinpointing what I couldn't understand. I understood some of it gradually, but sometimes as the sections went on I lost the point of what he was trying to convey in his sentences. I didn't know what questions to ask to help clarify my understanding. (not quite sure how I can approach finding the right questions to aid my understanding in future reading)

Reading both Campbell and Washington, I struggle less with understanding what they are saying or why they are saying it (although Washington's robust vocabulary has me frequently looking up words). My main issue is that I don't know what information I should be taking notes on. There are times when I feel like I should be writing it all down, and times when I feel like I should be writing none of it down. It's especially hard for me with Washington's work because I'm not entirely sure what is the most significant part of a passage. It all seems significant! Due to my trouble taking notes on all of these books, I think I'm failing to internalize the information that was written. I fear that this is all going figuratively in one ear and out the other.

    I've also struggled to personally connect with the material. I do feel like I'm trying though. Maybe not trying hard enough, but I am trying. My attempts at writing notes and summarizing the content has felt shoddy in readability. I don't know how to properly express what I'm thinking at times and this has been feeling like a huge block for me but I don't think I'm going to stop trying. What else can I do?

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