My Process for Effective Research

My Process for effective research

In order to satisfy my endless curiosity, I try conduct research in an effective and efficient manner.

With the limitations of time, coupled with the modern Library of Alexandria (the internet), my process is as follows:

1. Quick search on Youtube + watching videos.
Time spent: 5-20 Minutes

2. Check Goodreads.com and Amazon.com for the best reviewed books on the topics.

Read the reviews on both websites, and the quotes page of Goodreads.
Time spent: 10-25 Minutes

3. Browse through the Wikipedia page [sometimes this is too dense].
Time spent: 10-15 Minutes

4. Download the books of interest for free on z-library.

This site has 90% of books i've searched for available for free, and the ones which have been removed for copyright reasons are available on their .onion website. You will need to download Tor browser to access these books.

I personally prefer ".epub" format as you can change the size and font in "Books" on apple computers.
Time spent: 10-15 Minutes

5. Skim the contents page and read a few chapters on the computer. Possibly the whole book if it's easy read.
Time spent: 0-10 Hours

6. Depending on the style of writing, and contents, purchase the book from an online source for highlighting, underlining, notes written in book in real life.
Time spent: 0-20 Hours

7. Note taking system on chapters that have been highlighted in a Notebook.
Time spent: Variable

8. Re-read notes, and skim through books to refresh memory periodically in the future.
Time spent: Variable

Hope you were able to pick up some good ideas here!

Comments

Franklin, Benjamin: A Letter To A Friend in London

Tell our good friend, Dr. Prince, not to be in any pains for us, (because I remember he had his doubts) we are all firm and united. As I know he is a great calculator I will give him some data to work upon: ministry [England's colonial ministry] have made a campaign here, which has cost two millions, they have gained a mile of ground; they have lost half of it back again, they have lost fifteen hundred men, and killed one hundred and fifty Yankees. In the meantime we have had between sixty and seventy thousand children born. Ask him how long it will take for England to conquer America? - Benjamin Franklin, 1774

Mises, Ludwig Von: On Inaction

“The vigorous man industriously striving for the improvement of his condition acts neither more nor less than the lethargic man who sluggishly takes things as they come. For to do nothing and to be idle are also action, they too determine the course of events. Wherever the conditions for human interference are present, man acts no matter whether he interferes or refrains from interfering. He who endures what he could change acts no less than he who interferes in order to attain another result. A man who abstains from influencing the operation of physiological and instinctive factors which he could influence also acts. Action is not only doing but no less omitting to do what possibly could be done. We may say that action is the manifestation of a man’s will. But this would not add to our knowledge. For the term will means nothing else than man’s faculty to choose between different states of affairs, to prefer one, to set aside the other, an...

Warren Buffet: On Protecting Reputation, Ethics and Cleaning up Spills Promptly

The priority is that all of us continue to zealously guard Berkshire's reputation. We can't be perfect but we can try to be. As i've said in these memos for more than 25 years: "We can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation." We must continue to measure every act against not only what is legal but also what we would be happy to have written about on the front page of a national newspaper in an article written by an unfriendly but intelligent reporter. Sometimes your associates will say "Everybody else is doing it." It is totally unacceptable when evaluating a moral decision. Whenever somebody offers that phrase as a rationale, in effect they are saying that they can't come up with a *good* reason. If anyone gives this explanation, tell them to try using it with a reporter or a judge and see how far it gets them. If you see anything whose propriety or legality causes you...

The Wealth of Actions

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