{"id":30032,"date":"2023-01-12T22:12:55","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T06:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30032"},"modified":"2023-01-12T22:15:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T06:15:45","slug":"digging-fewer-but-deeper-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/digging-fewer-but-deeper-wells\/","title":{"rendered":"Digging Fewer but Deeper Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"

While wading through this week’s material on reading more intelligently, thinking more critically, and taking smarter notes, I was reminded of the idea, It’s better to dig a few deep wells, than hundreds of shallow ones<\/em>. [1]<\/strong> I’ve run across a few versions of this saying over the years from spiritual leaders and yogi’s, and it always reminds me of the value of taking the time and effort to truly\u00a0understand<\/em>\u00a0a text, tradition, argument, experience, or perspective that another person or community holds. This obviously \u00a0requires much more than a quick, superficial read or listen and takes work.<\/p>\n

One thought I wrestled with while engaging the idea of inspectional reading <\/em>in Adler’s, How to Read a Book,<\/em>\u00a0is the disservice it could do to an author, who naturally wants their readers to enjoy their creation and ingest their countless hours of planning, writing, and editing. Skimming a book can almost feel wrong or like cheating in some ways. However, Adler makes a profound, but very practical point. Time. To read every book on our book cases analytically, while many of us are juggling family, careers, services, hobbies, etc. would take years. [2]<\/strong> Even if reading were our full time jobs it would take months. Personally, I have to keep in mind and better utilize inspectional reading as a valuable skill that lets me get the gists of multiple books while ultimately helping me find what I\u00a0should<\/em> dig into that best serves my mission, focus, and season of life.<\/p>\n

Sticking with this “digging” analogy, I could see how reading analytically and synoptically feeds into taking smarter notes. The Zettelkasten or smart note taking method seems to rely on us being fully immersed into a subject matter for it to be effective, which means we must know our subject matter enough to take meaningful notes. [3]<\/strong> \u00a0Inspectional reading prepares the way for further analyzing a text so we can best choose what we will immerse, or “dig” into in order to make substantial connections, comparisons, and ultimately gather new insights and enlightenment. Looking at my bibliography feels a bit daunting and overwhelming, but letting go of the burden of needing to know everything there is about each book, author, and subject releases some tension. It also feels more doable when I realize the power of doing little things consistently. Ahren’s example of Niklas Luhmann’s ability to write and achieve as much as he did based off consistent note taking (on small note cards) and the impact of writing six notes per day, five days a week is inspiring and a bit relieving.<\/p>\n

My ultimate goal and prayer is to go deep enough into my field, without neglecting breadth, and understand enough information that critical questions and ideas organically emerge that bring clarity, relieve tension, and provide solutions for myself and others. [4]<\/strong>\u00a0Choosing the right ground to dig while also knowing when to take my shovel and move elsewhere is where my prayers will be for everyone throughout this process. Wells are ultimately dug so that the people digging can find something new and refreshing under the surface for themselves and others. God give us all the discernment and guidance to encounter the right people, authors, articles, videos, lectures, ideas, evidence, etc. that will further our God given missions in this chapter of our life and give us the strength and persistence to keep digging.<\/p>\n

[1] Iyengar, B. K. S. and Pata\u00f1jali. Light on the Yoga S\u016btras of Pata\u00f1jali<\/i>. New edition. (London: Thorsons, 2002), 52.<\/p>\n

[2] Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book<\/i>. Rev. and Updated ed. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 306.<\/p>\n

[3] Sonke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes, <\/em>ed. <\/em>Kathy Drouin-Keith. (Hamburg, Germany: Independently Published, 2022), 45.<\/p>\n

[4] Richard Paul and Linda Elder, The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools<\/em> (London, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2020), 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While wading through this week’s material on reading more intelligently, thinking more critically, and taking smarter notes, I was reminded of the idea, It’s better to dig a few deep wells, than hundreds of shallow ones. [1] I’ve run across a few versions of this saying over the years from spiritual leaders and yogi’s, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[2511,405,886],"class_list":["post-30032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-note-taking","tag-reading","tag-research","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30032"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30108,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30032\/revisions\/30108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}