A review by number3nw
How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers by Sönke Ahrens

4.0

Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes, is a compelling book about how people today can take advantage of a simple note-taking system invented by a prolific German Social Philosopher Niklas Luhhman to get the most out of what they read. The gist is it's a bottom up approach to understanding and composing work through writing notes and externalizing your thinking process. Honestly, it makes so much sense. At one point, I felt almost devastated because it was like I had just unlearned years worth of bad, even toxic, composition instruction, even all the way through the college level. If you like reading, writing creating or learning, I'd say it's worth a look! The only thing I would have liked to see was more specific instructions for how to do it, as it is largely the ideological underpinnings for the system, how and why it works. It does get you inspired though.