reading + research: exploring versus diving

I tend to have two different styles for reading and research.

I was going to say for online reading, but it’s not limited to that. I’ll often find myself with a stack of nonfiction books on a particular topic, and I’m not properly “reading” a single one (i.e., start at the beginning, continue to the end).

Instead, I’m in what I think of as exploratory mode. For online reading, this means lots of open tabs, skimming, link hopping, . With books, it means multiple books on the same topics, scanning the TOC, flipping to relevant chapters, scanning a glossary, looking up summaries.

The other is diving in: highlighting, making notes, absorbing slowly, thinking.

The exploratory style is helpful when I want to quickly build a mental layer of context, grasp a basic topical vocabulary, and get a sense of the main issues and patterns involved in a topic.

It’s often an essential process, one that allows me to dive into — and glean something — from writing that is realistically over my head.

Exploring also helps me filter (the options, which I may or may not know about before exploring) and decide (of these options, which will I dive into?).

Diving is where the magic happens. The learning, the broadening of perspective, the shifting of mindset, the opening. Diving is required to reap the harvest of curiosity.

The trick is shifting from exploring to diving. Not letting myself live in shallow waters, which are fun to splash around in. But diving deep is how I find the treasure.