“The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.”

-Alvin Toffler

I once knew a professor whose intellectual talents were highly respected, particularly by himself. Granted, he was very, very bright, and highly knowledgeable in the fields he chose to tackle. Among academics this kind of arrogance is common enough that one can usually blow it off and eventually ignore it. But what rankled in this particular case was the subtext of his self-praise, namely that his learning was well-nigh impossible for ordinary mortals to emulate. His common refrain of his was, “after you’ve read thirty or forty books on the subject, then know something about it.” Somehow, he also communicated to the listener that his reading consisted of the most demanding, thickest, and rarefied books—and that was the true path to knowledge.

Those kinds of mind-games are common among academics inclined to preen in front of students, but it left me gasping. Thirty or forty books?! The big, awful, daunting ones? It was enough to take the wind right out of one’s intellectual sails. Taken at face value, he implied that mastery of a topic was too Olympian a task for more feeble minds (i.e., pretty much everybody).

This professor was right in one respect; reading is and will remain the key to expertise in most fields. But there are reasons why the “read-the-whole-freaking-library” approach is both unnecessary and inefficient. There are better ways. Here are a few tricks I’ve picked up over the years that will save you much toil when seeking expertise.

Learning is subject to its own laws of diminishing returns. The basic facts and concepts are ubiquitous. They apply across the subject and you will always be going back to them, anchoring more advanced learning in those essentials. But as you go deeper and deeper, the “new” knowledge is more obscure, more tied to specialized situations and circumstances. It’s less likely to apply to large swaths of the subject and it takes more time and effort to find it and digest it. Randomly reading more and more books becomes an exercise in inefficiency.

What is the lesson here? When learning a new subject, find the boundaries of your subject and try to stay within them as you start out. Your interests can drive you to interesting byways, but don’t let it way-lay your learning. Make a list of subtopics to help you avoid gaps in your knowledge. You don’t have to go down the list in order, item by item. Just understand that eventually you need to hit all the subtopics.

Select your reading carefully. Learn to identify those books with the highest factual density. Ironically, this translates to clarity. American philosopher and independent scholar Eric Hoffer once remarked that an author often writes a thick book and a thin book. In the thin book, he tells you what he knows. In the thick book, he tries to cover up what he doesn’t know. I’ve found this rule usually holds true: thinner books tend to be better. They are clearer and more insightful, less dull, quicker to read.

I think this why some adult learners (including your Humble Correspondent) have occasionally turned to a children’s book when seeking an introduction to a subject. You’ll probably save time by starting with an encyclopedia, especially one intended for the general reader, but the principle is the same: high density of facts and clear understanding result in brevity, conciseness, clarity.

As you approach expertise and wade into a more complex tome, you need a different reading strategy. You are not looking for an introduction anymore. This time there are lots of extra details you need to pick up. You know enough now you can recognize the intellectual terrain. The “starters” you’ve read have led you to the deeper material designed to create or impress experts.

Certain rules still apply. Seek clarity, always clarity. If the text is turgid and inflated, find another book if you can. Quality is paramount. The insightful book review is your friend. Choose your sources carefully. When you move up to a more advanced book, once through is not going to be sufficient. Read slowly. Pause occasionally, and take it in moderate chunks.

Think as you read, asking questions of the text. Write those questions down for later consideration. Bigger questions will usually teach you more than smaller, niggling ones. You’re reading for expertise now, which means assimilating information at finer degrees of granularity.

Learn the art of re-reading. A remarkably effective trick is to just open the book you’ve read to a random spot and start reading. Do this several times in a sitting, flipping back or consulting the index if you get lost. Keep doing this until you’ve covered the entire book. Repeat as necessary. I have even used this technique successfully to “read” a book all the way through for the first time.

I find that it is usually easier to acquire more detail on a subject by re-reading one or two good books than by superficially reading six or eight. You already know something of what the author says and how the material is organized. This familiarity makes it easier to absorb specific facts you missed the first time. Don’t forget to read the bibliography if there is one. When you feel you’ve squeezed it dry, move on.

I recently finished an excellent book on the history of Wahabism. It is not a book for the timid, but it is well-written and loaded with great research and jammed with detail. I figure about four times through will do the trick.