# The Potential Side Effects of Progressive Summarization The Name Causes Confusion  ## Metadata - Author: [[Nick Milo]] - Full Title: The Potential Side Effects of Progressive Summarization The Name Causes Confusion - Category: [[articles]] - Tags: - URL: https://medium.com/@nickmilo22/the-potential-side-effects-of-progressive-summarization-caf1118e36ec ## Highlights - Just like you shouldn’t allow exploitative TV shows into your media diet, you shouldn’t allow low quality content into your PKM diet. A little filtering at the start on your part is ***an elegantly simple solution*** to the problem that “Progressive Summarization” is trying to solve: balancing “Discoverability and “Understanding” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjpwghc7gnyg9g6hhr6d4sm)) - This process — even if you skip some of the steps — reduces the actual time you devote to your best thinking. ***Your best thinking is when you are engaged in the material you encounter, relating it to other things, and finding your unique perspective amongst it all.*** ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjpyc6q1r8m5jrepe0nf8r2)) - Note: He’s arguing that the best time to connect ideas together in your system is when you already understand the idea the best because you just read about it. - The overuse of “Progressive Summarization” encourages the same thing as the industrial factory-based education system: ***the production of people more skilled in repeating knowledge instead of connecting and developing it*** ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq0ttk5z5baa6xrepmxgqm)) - Note: If I’m honest some of the ideas I put out are very similar to others that are already out there because I didn’t spend enough time thinking and making MOCs out of them. - Why relegate your best thinking to the last step in an elaborate process? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq3ev5q4qrn1233vjdqx35)) - **The Collector’s Fallacy —** coined by Christian Tietze — argues that the act of “collecting” is easy. It feels like progress but it’s not ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq6dy7c01tj63qjezr35r9)) - After your initial pass of bolding and highlighting, you’ve probably done enough. Believe it or not, you’ve already reached the point of diminishing returns. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq6a95gjf1xfe709qkkg7w)) - That’s how re-summarizing multiple times — which “Progressive Summarization” encourages — creates the illusion of progress: We mistake ***familiarity*** with ***ability*** ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq638ba97c15c3aw34kr34)) - Rereading and re-highlighting are only worth doing when the material is dense and you need to reread just to understand it ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq7dfc5zh5yqsqbshxbeqm)) - ***Active Ideation*** is: 1. Highlight/Comment/Relate 2. Create/Connect/Create ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq9f9n1xzbqs3hdpg0cfsf)) - As you read, you’re actively engaged. You make **highlights** and **comments** as you go — and you’re not afraid to think in the back of your mind: *“How does this* ***relate****?”* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjqa2fs47tfq2msg29asx50)) - Note: Have your twelve favorite questions in mind as you go through this process of reading. - Later, with an equally engaged mind, you **create** new notes from the highlights and comments, or you **connect** an idea with an already existing note — and you continue to **create** all sorts of dynamically related and growing ideas ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbjq9ze3znnazgqyqce8pykq)) - Note: I’m assuming you create or flesh out MOCs during the second step. ## New highlights added August 29, 2022 at 7:05 AM - From these “thought intersections” in your dynamically growing digital library, you naturally start to create stuff. An article. A product. A business. Or simply a well-connected, super dependable, digital conversation partner ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbkb5c5c4esjhfqzyyf5sqgb)) - Note: In a way active ideation takes the best parts or progressive summarization because you allow yourself to build upon your past ideas over time. The process is an intermediate packet building machine. -  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbkbbrs8qq2w7c9tndz0k2f5)) - Every situation you encounter is ripe for spotting new ideas to add to your insanely dynamic digital library. Now get this: you might encounter the same texture of an idea in a completely different context. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbkbfdwnx0xb7h9z42hpkph8)) - Note: Creativity in according to Tiago comes from assembling seemingly unrelated ideas from different industries and assembling them or translating them to other industries. - Here’s why Active Ideation is so valuable: You don’t delete the note, you just add the counter-example to the note. You might branch off into a new note about the “Problems of Replication in Research”. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gbkdam16zyvbrafd3epvve5b)) - Note: This fights confirmation bias because you have conflicting ideas in your notes. Your second brain will inevitably be biased because you choose what to save but Active Ideation makes it more nuanced.