Take Your Reading to the Next Level Using Rohit Bhargava’s Haystack Method

Greetings, Readers!

Welcome back to another edition of "Musings of a Book Queen," where we look at the world of lifelong learning. Today, let's explore Rohit Bhargava’s Haystack Method.

Introduction

To take your reading to the next level requires you doing what others are not prepared to do. It's important to apply the ideas from the nonfiction books you read. In his Non Obvious book series, Robot Bhargava introduces us to his model, the Haystack Method. He uses the model to discover near term trends.

However, I found the model useful in making sense of your nonfiction book notes.

5 Steps of the Haystack Method

Step 1: Gathering

Gathering is the stage where you read the books to get the information you need. When I’m gathering information intending to learn, my primary sources are books, articles, and YouTube videos. Rohit Bhargava also recommends that you can collect stories and ideas from your interactions with people or with content. When you’re gathering information, a critical question to ask is, “Where have I seen this before?” This is an active process of piecing information together.?

Step 2: Aggregating

When previewing books, I recommended you look for the main idea and the secondary ideas that support it. Take individual ideas and disconnected thoughts from your book notes and group them together based on bigger ideas. Once again you’re piecing together information.

After gathering ideas, choose a time to combine early results of your observation and curiosity with thoughtful insights about what it means and how it fits together.?

Step 3: Elevating

What interests you most about the idea? What’s the bigger picture? Think about the underlying themes that relate one group of ideas to another, to describe a broader idea. Elevate an idea to make it bigger and more encompassing.?

Step 4: Naming

Involves describing an elevated idea in an easy to understand and memorable way. Finding the name for an idea is important, so it’s easy to communicate without too much explanation.

Step 5: Proving

You often read nonfiction books to solve a problem or answer questions. After you’ve done steps 1 to 4 of the model, did the ideas solve your problems and answer your questions?

Information Text Analysis

Let’s say that you’re reading books to solve a big problem. That means you’re Gathering information from the books you read. To make sure that you remember what you’re reading, connect what you’re reading to what you already know. To make sure that you understand the concept, explain or teach it to another person. Apply what you’re learning to the real world. Use a project that you’re working on.

Start Aggregating ideas to make them better. This means you combine different ideas, adding your unique insights. Why do the ideas really matter? This gives meaning when aggregating them. Analyze the information by making connections among the ideas.

Elevating ideas means to make them bigger and more encompassing. I advise readers to read books across multiple disciplines. Make connections across industries and disciplines. Evaluate the feasibility of ideas. At this stage you can Name and Prove your ideas. Naming helps you to easily communicate your idea and Proving lets you know if the idea does what it’s supposed to do.

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Warm regards,

Avil Beckford

Editor, Musings of a Book Queen