The Collector's Fallacy
Umberto Eco in his book “How to Write a Thesis”:(1) “there’s a lot someone doesn’t know anything about precisely because she photocopied a text; she has given herself in to the illusion of having read the text already.”
Examples of "photo copying":
- Quotes
- Posting a link
- Saving it to "Pocket"
- Keeping books, even though we will never read them again
- Etc...
The Collector's fallacy is that we think by simply collecting information that it's useful, and even worse that we've "learned" it.
- To know about something isn't to know something
- We need to merge information inside the references with our own knowledge it's not any better than the original source.
- If we aren't changed by taking the notes, it's not doing it's job
How to avoid it
We have to read and assimilate it's ideas into your own head.
I rarely consult secondary sources again. If I have to do so, it means that I did not do the job right the first time. –MK, of “Taking Note Now”
Ref: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/collectors-fallacy/
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