# Why take notes while reading It boils down to a simple truth: our brains are unreliable. We forget *a lot* of things. That's actually a good thing. Otherwise, we would feel overwhelmed by the *vast* amount of information our brains capture all the time (i.e., everything we hear, see, sense, think). Our brains try to identify and recall only the most important information. Even if we do feel enlightened while reading a book, chances are that we will forget most of what we read after a short while. [[Hermann Ebbinghaus]] studied the processes of learning and forgetting. He is known for uncovering the [[Forgetting curve]], which shows how information is lost over time when we don't make attempts to retain it. This curve shows the durability of our memories over time. The stronger our memories, the longer we are able to recall those. But without effort, newly acquired knowledge can get lost very quickly. The forgetting curve shows that we forget about 40% after ~20 minutes, nearly 60% after an hour, and around 75% after a week. There are [other theories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting#Theories) explaining this phenomenon. Recent theories suggest that [Forgetting might be a form of learning](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220113111421.htm). But even if some of the lessons remain, we have no control over which ones exactly. The problem remains that we do forget a lot. Worse still, memory access is not reliable either. We might remember something tomorrow that we can't seem to remember today. Even if we do retain key knowledge, we won't be able to retrieve that knowledge from our brains when we need to. At least not with 100% certainty. ![[Why you should take notes while reading non-fiction books - image 1.png]] Caption: When you take notes while reading, you think more deeply about the content. ## References - [Herman Ebbinghaus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Ebbinghaus) - [Forgetting curve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve) - [Other forgetting theories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting#Theories) - [Forgetting might be a form of learning](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220113111421.htm) ## Related - [[Why take and make notes]] - [[Why you should take notes while reading non-fiction books (Article)]] - [[Forgetting is a form of learning]] - [[The Art of Reading Slowly - Why Speed Isn't Everything (Article)]]