How to Synthesize Information from the Books You Read

How to Synthesize Information from the Books You Read is the third article in the series on how to make the most of social isolation.

If you do an internet search, there is no shortage of books to read during social isolation. It’s true that since you’re forced to work from home, you don’t have to commute.

Therefore, it makes sense for you to invest a portion of that time reading books that can enhance your career. The thing is this, simply reading books will not teach you the skills that will enable you to succeed. You need to synthesize the information from the books you read, so you get maximum benefit from what you’ve learned.

The importance of synthesizing information is conspicuously missing from the articles. And it’s such a critical element of reading and learning. Knowing how to synthesize text can and will be a game changer in your career. This one activity allows you to see what others miss because you’re looking at the information in a different way.

Have you read?

Hygge: Danish Practice Embodying Contentment, Coziness, and Well-Being to Help You during Isolation

How to Use the Unexpected Downtime to Benefit Your Career

Reading Diverse Books to Reap the Benefits of Synthesizing Information

One of the things I advocate is that you read diverse books. And I always say to read books across multiple disciplines. Once again, let’s use Elon Musk as an example, he has managed to disrupt and dominate several industries. His primary way of learning is by reading books. Several articles refer to Musk as an expert generalist.

This term was coined by Orit Gadiesh, Bain & Company Chairman, London. Dadiesh defines expert generalist as:

“Someone who has the ability and curiosity to master and collect expertise in many different disciplines, industries, skills, capabilities, countries and topics.”

That’s a good description of Elon Musk. But he does much more than master and collect expertise in many areas. He applies and monetizes that knowledge. Look at what he has accomplished so far. Musk has started businesses in sectors such as space exploration, energy, and telecommunications, to name a few. He is an intersection thinker and not an “expert generalist”.

According to Rohit Bhargava, author of Non-Obvious 2019: How to Predict Trends and Win The Future:

“Intersection thinking is a method for creating overlap between seemingly disconnected ideas in order to generate new ideas, directions, and strategies for powering your own success. It can create a crossover gamechanger. It allows you to think in a way your competitors aren’t.”

How to Synthesize Information from the Books You Read: Starting Point

In yesterday’s article, “How to Use the Unexpected Downtime to Benefit Your Career,” I included a list of books I’ve read to learn the skills the World Economic Forum says you need to thrive in 2020 to 2022. You can start reading those books. However, in this article, I’ll add a list of books that obviously span multiple disciplines to illustrate my point about reading diverse books.

Before you start to read any book, it’s necessary to prepare your mind for reading the book. Additionally you must inspect the book first, so that you know the important sections of the book to read. Inspecting the books first allows you to discover the main idea of the book and secondary ideas that support it.

List of Books Across Multiple Disciplines That I Plan to Read This Year

The books below are books that I already own. I want to tackle my to-be-read pile of books.

Science

1. Bayes Theorem: A Visual Introduction for Beginners
2. Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body
3. Money: Physics and Distributive Justice
4. The Goldilocks Enigma
5. Stem Cells
6. First Principles
7. Superintelligence
8. Seven Elements That Changed the World

Technology

1. Life 3.0
2. Our Final Invention
3. Code Girls
4. Girl Code
5. Generation Robot
6. What to Think About Machines That Think
7. AI Superpowers
8. Codename Intrepid

Engineering

1. The Art & Architecture of the Byzantine Empire
2. The Architects

Arts

1. The Literature Book
2. The Astronomy Book
3. The Psychology Book
4. The Ecology Book
5. The History Book
6. Reimagining Church
7. How to Write Manga
8. The Great Book of American Idioms

Math

1. Essential Poker Math
2. Math with Bad Drawings
3. Mind for Math
4. A Mind for Numbers
5. How Not to Be Wrong

Business

1. The Value of Everything
2. Manage Your Day to Day
3. Maximize Your Potential
4. Killing It
5. Thinkertoys
6. Signup: How to Create a Successful Subscription Business
7. The Power of Impact Entrepreneurship
8. The Art of Logical Thinking

Have you read?

How to Find the Main Idea in a Nonfiction Book

To get the most from any book you read, it’s absolutely necessary to take notes. Use a note taking technique that works for you. Taking notes is important because you’ll need them to pull out the big ideas in the book. And when reviewing your notes you’re better able to connect the new information to what you already know, which is part of the synthesizing information process.

How to Synthesize Information from the Books You Read: The Haystack Method

Rohit Bhargava wrote a series of books, Non-Obvious, for about 10 years. Each year he published a new edition. The first section of the book was always the same. In that section, he explained his process. Another section of the book, presents the trends he curated for the year. And the trends are non-obvious. His model, The Haystack Method, allows him to see what others miss.

Do you see how powerful The Haystack Method is? What if you too were able to use the model to see what your peers and colleagues are unable to see? Imagine the ideas you could generate to catapult your career and business to success.

You’re going to learn how to use the Haystack Method to synthesize informational text from the books you read. Therefore, it’s critical to take proper detailed notes that you can use in the process.

The Components of the Haystack Method for Synthesizing Information

1. Gathering
2. Aggregating
3. Elevating
4. Naming
5. Proving

As I explain each component in the next section, you’ll discover a new way to get the most from the books you read. You’ll no longer simply be reading books. But you’ll be analyzing and synthesizing the text to get the most from books. So that you can take action. It’s from taking action that you’ll reap the greatest benefits from books.

Using the Haystack Method to Synthesize Information from the Books You Read

Step 1: Gathering

For the purposes of synthesizing the information from the books you read, gathering is the stage where you read diverse books. It’s important to always preview a book before you start to read it. If you haven’t viewed the video, please do so now. When previewing books, I recommended that you look for the main idea and the secondary ideas that support it. 

Have you read?

How to Find the Main Idea in a Nonfiction Book

As you read a book, connect what you’re reading to what you already know. Is there a project that you can apply the new information to? This practical step brings the information to life for you. And when you’re able to apply the new information, that’s a sign that you understand what you’re reading.

When you’re gathering information, a critical question to ask is, “Where have I seen that before?” This is an active process of piecing information together.

Make sure to note essential information. So what’s essential information? It’s information that answers any questions about the topic that you had before reading the book. Essential information is any information that aligns with your purpose for reading the book. If you find any of the following in the book, that’s essential information.

• Solve problems.
• Helps people.
• Saves, fixes, and creates things.
• Makes things better, cheaper, and more useful 
• Increases revenue.
• Saves time.
• Make processes more efficient.
• Improves the company's reputation.
• Prevent liabilities.
• Cut costs.

Have you read?

How to Decide What’s Important and Unimportant Information in a Book

Step 2: Aggregating

I mentioned above the importance of taking notes while reading. Reviewing your notes is important in the aggregating stage of the model. Going through your notes helps you to connect the dots as you look backward. You’re also able to see the big ideas. Take individual ideas and disconnected thoughts and group them together based on bigger ideas. Make sure that you are connecting ideas from books across multiple disciplines. You’ll be amazed by what you find at the intersection of disciplines.

One 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 they fit together. Aggregating means adding meaning to the ideas and stories. This personalizes things when you add your impressions.

How to Aggregate Ideas Effectively

Why do the ideas really matter? This gives meaning when aggregating them.

• Focus on Human Needs: Focus on bigger human emotions to see why the idea matters. Review Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs. Connect the idea with the basic needs behind them.
• Recognize the Obvious: On your journey to uncover non-obvious insights, there is value in recognizing and embracing the obvious to find the non-obvious.
• Follow Intuition: When you train yourself to be more observant, you start to develop a feel for information that feels significant or fits together.

Step 3: Elevating

• What interests you most about each idea? 
• Dip beneath the surface, what do you see? 
• 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. Make connections across industries. Aggregate multiple groupings of information together into something that might be a trend.

Step 4: Naming

The naming stage involves describing an elevated idea in an easy to understand and memorable way. Play on words and phrases that people are already familiar with. When you’re presenting your idea to get buy in, a memorable name can make a difference for you. If someone understands your idea, they’ll more readily accept it.

• Shares a specific point of view.
• Finding the name for an idea is important.

Step 5: Proving

I used to think that this phase wasn't important for synthesizing information, but I was very wrong. If you can provide proof that your idea has legs, people will likely support it. With that in mind, ensure that there are enough examples and concrete research to justify why the idea is important. That’s why it’s important to have detailed notes that you can easily access.

Final Thoughts: How to Synthesize Information from the Books You Read

Using the Haystack Method to synthesize the information from the books you read is a painstaking process. But it will yield excellent results and can make a difference in your life. Most people will not invest the time to do this, even if they know that they’d benefit from it. Synthesizing informational text is an important career building skill because you’ll know how to go beyond the surface for a deeper understanding of what you’re reading.

Now when you see articles recommending books that will teach you skills, you’ll realize that an important step in the process is missing. Smile to yourself. If the books sound like ones that would add value to your personal and professional life, read them. But apply the Haystack Method, so you get more out of your reading time.

Further Reading

From Energy To Transport To Healthcare, Here Are 8 Industries Being Disrupted By Elon Musk And His Companies

Next Steps

Wondering what to do next, you can do all of:

1. Buy my book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read

2. If you want to Consult 1:1 about Effective Reading Strategies

3. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

4. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site

5. Download Unlock Your Genius Power Reading Tips Sheet

6. Buy me a cup of coffee!

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.

This post contains affiliate links and The Invisible Mentor® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details, see here. UPDATE: First published Apr 4, 2020.