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Dear Reader,

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Greetings Brain Food Enthusiasts!
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Welcome to another edition of Brain Food Wednesdays, your weekly intellectual feast. In this edition, issue 217, we dive into What Do You Do With Your Book Notes?​
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When you read a nonfiction book, do you take notes while you read? If you take notes, what do you do with them? A good practice is to mine your book notes for ideas you can implement in your business. Usually, you’d mine your notes for ideas immediately or shortly after you finish reading the book. However, if you took good notes while you were reading, you can do what I’m about to teach you.
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Rohit Bhargava, in his Non-Obvious books, outlines a process for you to get the most from information. The model he created is the Haystack Method, which comprises five steps. The intent of the book is to show you how to see things that others miss.
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Before you start the process, think about a problem you want to solve or questions you want answered. Choose book notes based on those criteria.
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5 Components of the Haystack Method

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“The Haystack Method describes a process where you first focus on gathering stories and ideas (the hay) and then use them to define a trend (the needle) that gives meaning to them all collectively.”

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Step 1: Gathering
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Choose about five of your book notes. Read through each book note several times, then pick out the big ideas. Ideas are seldom fully formed, so the ideas you generate don’t have to be ideas to change the world.
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What is an idea?
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According to James Webb Young, who wrote the classic A Technique for Producing Ideas, “An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.”
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Step 2: Aggregating
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Take individual ideas and disconnected thoughts and group them together based on bigger ideas. After gathering ideas, combine them with thoughtful insights about what it means and how it fits together. Aggregating means adding meaning to the ideas. This personalizes things when you add your impressions.
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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.
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Step 3: Elevating
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What interests you most about the idea? Look below the surface. What do you see? What is the bigger picture? Think about the underlying themes that relate one group of ideas to another to describe a broader idea of shift. 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. Or something you can use to transform your business.
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Step 4: Naming
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You’ve combined ideas from your notes and elevated them. How would you describe the ideas to your peers, colleagues, and others? Naming involves:
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1. Involves describing an elevated idea in an easy to understand and memorable way.
2. Shares a specific point of view.
3. Great names convey meaning with simplicity.
4. Finding the name for an idea is important.
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Step 5: Proving
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Is there a way to support the ideas that you generated? A quick way is to test them to see if they solve problems and answer questions you have.
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Conclusion
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Use the Haystack Method to make sense of your book notes. Keep at it until it feels more comfortable. The more you use the model, the more it will benefit you.
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In a world inundated with information, the ability to distill insights and turn them into actionable strategies is invaluable. As you use the Haystack Method, remember that mastery comes with practice. Stay committed to honing your skills in mining your books notes to pull meaning from them. With each iteration, you'll find yourself not only improving your business acumen but also uncovering new avenues for growth and innovation.
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If you enjoyed this newsletter, here are two ways you can support my work.
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Do you want to learn how to read strategically, reading to learn what you need to know? Learn informally from nonfiction books. Sign up today for my workshop Knowledge is Power: I Help You Get More Knowledge Faster Through Strategic Reading!​

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​Sign up for my membership site Art of Learning Leadership Academy​
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Warm regards,
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Avil Beckford

Brain Food Wednesdays

Editor, Brain Food Wednesdays

Founder, The Invisible Mentor & Art of Learning Leadership Academy

​theinvisiblementor.com artoflearningleadershipacademy.com​

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