Fast Forward Learning: how to read a technical article in one hour?

Here I describe how to read a 50 pages technical article in one hour and understand its most relevant contents.

In the last years there has been a tremendous increase of scientific publications, with about 2.5 million new papers published every year.

How can you cope with such amount of information and stay ahead of the curve, in a global & disruptive world?

Saved by a Diploma... Not!

This is a considerable challenge taking into account the current educational system, where students are being trained with technical skills that become obsolete soon after they leave University, together with a debt to pay on their student loans.

I quote here a recent study by the UK Government.

• The value of outstanding loans at the end of March 2018 reached ￡105 billion.
• The UK Government forecasts the value of outstanding loans to be around ￡450 billion by the middle of this century.

Add that to the rise of AI technology and automation, with a study by PwC suggesting that 30% of the jobs we know today will disappear or be highly disrupted by 2030.

? Students leave Universities with a ￡25,000 debt to pay.

? Students leave Universities trained with skills that quickly become obsolete.

? The amount of digital data is doubling every two years.

? There are 2.5 million scientific articles being published every year.

? 30% of the jobs we know are set to disappear or be highly disrupted in the next 10 years.

Leverage your free time

Here I describe a simple technique on how to keep your knowledge up-to-date after leaving University and how to make the best use of your time.

? Listen to audio books while commuting. That includes walking on the street.

? Read during your flight. Many people become bored while travelling long journeys because they are not feeding their brain.

? Watch online courses while having lunch or dinner.

? Stop watching TV. The moment I did it, I automatically become more informed. Read the book "Factfulness" by Hans Rosling and you understand why.

? Start using alternative information channels, such as kindle, audio book, SSRN website and other sources specific to your area.

Fast Forward Learning

Remember, one hour is what it takes to read a technical article.

Here's how:

• Search for a topic in ssrn website under "advanced search", for articles released during the last month. Sort by number of views. In that way, you get recent publications already filtered by other readers on its relevance.

• Have a first look at the titles and/or abstracts. If relevant to your area, then open it, otherwise choose the next article in the list.
• Do a first review of the article, read the conclusion first! Then check for available graphs as well keywords there for which you may not be familiar.
• Start to search those keywords from the begin of the article to get a better understanding. If not enough, use Google as an auxiliary source.
• By now you should have reached a basic understanding of the article, after reading the abstract, conclusion, checking the graphs and get a better knowledge of certain keywords not familiar at first.
• Do a "diagonal" read throughout the article and think on some example case whenever applicable. Numbers are always more intuitive than equations, in particular if the mathematics gets complicated.
• Highlight the relevant passages in the article. Once done, read again only those passages and now try to put together in your own format of understanding.

Above all don't let be distracted by the complexity you may find in the article.

Complex mathematics is often added in technical articles in order for reviewers to approve it for a final publication.

Keep in mind, your academic degree is not going to save you from the disruptive times we are living.