Should I highlight/underline while reading?

Jordan Peterson says no. About everybody else says yes, you should. So this is what I am struggling with currently.

So far, the reading methodology picked up from the internet (Farnam Street/ Derek Sivers/ Motimer Adler/ AoM) says you should:

1. Do an inspectional reading (30 minutes per book)
2. Do a superficial reading of the book, marking all the passages you want to remember or investigate further. 
3. Then come back to the book later to really study the marked passages. 

But JP says reading and note-taking should really be separate activities. While reading, your focus should be absorbing. And if you really feel like note-taking, you should read as much as you can absorb/internalise, and then note that down in your words. What you have taken away from the book. And then continue reading. Depending on the density of the book, this could be small or large. This I think is somewhat similar to what Ryan Holiday also suggested. Writing it down yourself, with pen on paper. That helps in committing to memory. And therefore promotes better learning.

But my investigation hasn't ended there. I would like to know what Barbara Oakley has to say about it.

Review: Candide

Candide by Voltaire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Our critics are our friends, they show us our faults," in the same vein, I would say Voltaire is a necessary friend for every person who professes to follow a philosophy of life. A thinker who attacked not only religious people, be it Muslims or Christians, but also philosophers and monarchs, he mocks everybody who, in their pursuit of goodness, do bad.

As a religious person, I not only enjoyed Candide for it's story and characters, for it's sarcasm, it's twists and turns; but I also learned how a person can become self-righteous and oppress people while serving no god but one's ego. Consider the story when few righteous and gallant soldiers were stationed to protect women. How they let their morals guide their behavior:

The twenty Janissaries had sworn they would never surrender. The extremities of famine to which they were reduced, obliged them to eat our two eunuchs, for fear of violating their oath. And at the end of a few days they resolved also to devour the women.

Oh but wait, their prayer leaders wouldn't let them commit such cruelty. So...

"We had a very pious and humane Iman, who preached an excellent sermon, exhorting them not to kill us all at once.

"'Only cut off a buttock of each of those ladies,' said he, 'and you'll fare extremely well; if you must go to it again, there will be the same entertainment a few days hence; heaven will accept of so charitable an action, and send you relief.'

"He had great eloquence; he persuaded them; we underwent this terrible operation. The Iman applied the same balsam to us, as he does to children after circumcision; and we all nearly died.

"Scarcely had the Janissaries finished the repast with which we had furnished them, than the Russians came in flat-bottomed boats; not a Janissary escaped. The Russians paid no attention to the condition we were in. There are French surgeons in all parts of the world; one of them who was very clever took us under his care—he cured us; and as long as I live I shall remember that as soon as my wounds were healed he made proposals to me. He bid us all be of good cheer, telling us that the like had happened in many sieges, and that it was according to the laws of war.

Such off-hand descriptions appear to be jokes, they sound ridiculous until one looks deeply upon ones life, and then it hits. It's so easy to commit crimes in the name of following ones religious, one's morals, or society's established conventions.

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Most favorite fat-loss resources on the internet

http://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/

Can't shake the career-woman tree and expect a homemaker to fall out.

Review: Siddhartha

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book was amazing as long as it was taking me on the journey of Siddharta, it was engaging as it was instructive, in a way. However, the end was substantially on a higher level than the beginning and the middle.

Every man should read it once before becoming a man. And then read it once again, after becoming a man.

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Men are never loved unconditionally

“only women, children, and dogs are loved unconditionally,” whereas “a man is only loved under the condition that he provide something. I’ve never heard a woman in my life say, ‘You know, after he got laid off, we got so much closer.’” After all, when a man meets someone new, his friends ask, “What does she look like?” When a woman meets someone new, her friends ask, “What does he do?”

The value of a man is tied up in his work, Rock says: “What the fuck does that nigga do that can help you out? Can this motherfucka facilitate a dream or not?”

We value your privacy. The people we sell it to, value it even more.

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have."

Sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson. But one thing he did say was:

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground."

That's what we're seeing now.