In partnership with
Hi, it’s Ray.
We’ve all been there: You finish a 300-page book on a Sunday afternoon. You feel great. You post the cover on your Story. You feel like a "Level 50 Scholar." But three weeks later, someone asks you what the core argument was, and your brain just serves up a "404 Error: Not Found."
Most people treat reading like a Passive Consumption activity, like watching Netflix. But if you want to use books for growth, you have to treat reading as an Active Extraction process. The goal isn't to "get through the book"; it’s to "get the book through you."
Today, we’re looking at the neurobiology of how to move from "Looking at words" to "Rewiring your brain" with the author’s lore.
1. The "levels" of Reading (The Mortimer Adler Protocol)
In 1940, Mortimer Adler wrote How to Read a Book, and it remains the gold standard for high-performance learners. He broke reading down into levels:
Elementary Reading: You know what the sentences say.
Inspectional Reading: You "case the joint." You read the TOC, the index, and the jacket. You understand the structure before the content.
Analytical Reading: You "chew" the book. You highlight, question, and argue with the author.
Syntopical Reading: You read multiple books on one subject and map them against each other.
2. The "Pre-Read" Prime (Building the Mental Map)
Your brain is a "Prediction Machine." If you start on page 1 without knowing where the book is going, your Hippocampus doesn't know where to "file" the new data.
The Science: By skimming the headings and the conclusion first, you create a "Spatial Map" in your mind. This triggers Top-Down Processing, where your existing knowledge helps "pull" the new information in, rather than just waiting for it to land.
Your supplements need a system too.
People who are serious about their health already know: keeping up with your supplements can get complicated.
And you're probably tracking it all in a notes app. Or a spreadsheet. Or just trying to remember.
SuppCo is changing all that. Their dedicated app lets you digitize your cabinet, get expiration reminders, and catch nutrient overlaps you didn't know existed.
Plus, their StackScore calculates the quality and balance of your routine to help you make optimizations.
Your workouts have a system. Your diet has a plan. Your supplements should too. Get your StackScore from SuppCo and see where your stack stands.
3. "Marginalia" and the Dialogue (Understanding)
If you aren't writing in your books, you aren't reading them… you're just "visiting."
When you write notes in the margins (Marginalia), you are forcing your brain to perform Encoding. You are taking the author's "Semantic Lore" and translating it into your own "Internal Language."
The Protocol: Use the "Question, Connect, Critique" method.
Question: "Why did the author use this example?"
Connect: "This sounds exactly like the 'Entropy' model we discussed last week."
Critique: "The author is assuming X, but I think Y is more likely because..."
The "High-Value" Extraction Protocol
The 10-Minute Skim: Before reading a chapter, look at every bold word, graph, and the final summary paragraph. This primes your "Salience Network" to spot the important bits.
The "Luhmann" Slip-Box: When you find a "Golden Nugget," don't just highlight it. Write it on a note in your own words and link it to a different book you’ve read. This is how you build the Latticework of Mental Models.
The "Stop" Rule: If a book is "fluff" or repetitive, quit it. Your time is your "Cognitive Currency." Don't waste it on a book that isn't providing a high ROI (Return on Information).
The "Teaching" Finale: After you finish a chapter, close the book and try to explain the "Big Idea" to an imaginary student (The Protégé Effect). If you can't, you haven't extracted the value yet.
Why I "Destroy" My Books
I treat my books like workbenches. They are covered in coffee stains, dog-eared pages, and angry scribbles in the margins where I disagree with the author. When I look at my bookshelf, I don't see a collection of objects; I see a collection of Conversations. I don't "remember" the books… I own the ideas because I fought with them on the page.
Final Thought
A book is a "Brain-to-Brain" transfer. But the transfer only happens if your brain is "Open" and "Active." Stop counting how many books you read, and start counting how many books you’ve extracted.
I’m off to go "chew" on a new book about evolutionary biology. It looks dense, so I’m bringing a fresh pen and a lot of "Top-Down" curiosity.
Stay analytical and keep the pen sharp.
Ray
