Contact time
I’m in my third read through of one of the best books I’ve read this year.
It’s not that I’ve completely forgotten the book, it’s that I haven’t completely retained its key ideas.?
In the first read through only a tiny fraction of the book’s ideas actually permeated into the membrane of my memory?—?the rest simply slid off the surface. More ideas passed through the second time, and even more ideas are passing through on this third run.?
In many ways this feels akin to brewing a good cup of coffee?—?if the water makes contact with the beans for too short a period, you end up with a watery and flavorless cup. Upping the contact time between the beans and the water is the key to fully extracting its flavors and ending up with a better cup.?
Likewise, upping one’s contact time to ideas is key to ensuring they fully extract its full meaning.
In practice, this means that showing or saying something just once is rarely enough to make an idea stick.?
And when you’re repeating yourself, or revisiting the same idea over and over and over and over again, it’s not that you’re necessarily being redundant.?
What you’re doing is creating an opportunity for information to stick so that you or your audience can better appreciate and make use it.
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About me:
I'm a second-generation Taiwanese American trying to find life’s greatest sources of meaning and make the most out of it.