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Foreword

In the age of information explosion, we encounter large amounts of knowledge and information every day, but very little can actually be transformed into our own abilities. How to learn efficiently? How to integrate fragmented information into your own knowledge system? Based on the RIA reading learning method, this article shares a systematic methodology for knowledge management and learning.

Part 1: The Sticky Note Learning Method: Complete Path from Reading to Application

1.1 Core Philosophy

The core of the sticky note learning method is "introspective learning" — transforming book knowledge into a tool for personal ability improvement. This method is especially suitable for learning practical books, with a clear goal: improving learning ability.

1.2 The Magic of Three Sticky Notes: I-A1-A2

The sticky note learning method uses three types of sticky notes to process knowledge:

I (Restate Information): Repeat information in your own words
A1 (Link to Experience): Describe your own related experience
A2 (Plan Application): My application (goals and actions)

1.3 Specific Practice Steps

The complete "book dismantling" process includes:

Determine it's a practical book
Evaluate how important the theories, suggestions, and viewpoints in the book are to me
Briefly restate the relevant information in your own words
Recall if you have related experiences, or have heard or seen similar things
Plan future applications
Use indicator labels to remind yourself this page has your learning materials
After finishing the book, organize all A2 sticky notes

1.4 Sticky Note Usage Tips

If original book content is clear and understandable, I sticky notes may not be needed, just underline key content
Keep content concise, within one sticky note (I, A1)
For A2 sticky notes, one action corresponds to one goal, corresponds to one sticky note

1.5 Quality Standards for Three Types of Sticky Notes

I Sticky Note: Standards for Restating Knowledge

Interpretation: Use your own words, don't directly quote original text
Accuracy: Accurate interpretation of original text's knowledge points
Clarity: Clear logic, concise text
Practical: Summarize or process original knowledge points into specific operational methods or suggested steps

A1 Sticky Note: Standards for Internalizing Knowledge

Vivid: Personal experiences, things you've seen, heard, or learned firsthand
Story: Narrative elements should be basically complete, clearly showing cause and effect
Correspondence: Correspond to 4 elements of original text or I sticky note
Reflection: Combined with own experience, whether success or failure, deepen understanding of original information

A2 Sticky Note: Standards for Applying Knowledge

Goal: Whether goals are planned, whether goals meet SMART principles
Action: Whether actions can change current situation and promote self-development. Specific steps, who acts, where, when to start, what frequency
Relevance: Whether using original information or I sticky note methods
Controllable: Are these all things you can do or can push others to do? Can they be quantified, are actions visible?

1.6 Boundaries of Sticky Note Method Application

When using the sticky note method, note:

Default assumption that knowledge in the book is accurate
Premise of internalizing and applying knowledge is choosing a good book where knowledge is correct
Learner's understanding of knowledge is accurate

1.7 Question-asking Techniques to Improve Insight

Questioning Causes and Effects

Before (Learning from past): Why is this important to me? How did this problem arise?
Cause (Interrelated): What assumptions are there about causes? How to verify or exclude these assumptions? Can others help me think and give more choices or possibilities?
After (Observe effects): If this problem is solved, what's the best outcome? Is that what I expect?
Effect (Reap what you sow): If I do nothing, what will happen?

Clarify Application Boundaries

Fit (Counterproductive): Does anyone disagree with my causal assumptions? Are there examples that don't fit this assumption?
Use (Conditions): What conditions are needed to solve this problem (consider cost-benefit, attitude and ability...)? Can this be accomplished in other ways?
Side (Indirect approach): Are there comparable situations? How do other fields/industries/people solve similar problems?
Boundary (Clear demarcation): Whether different opinions or similar problems, what's the real difference between them and my thinking? Where is the boundary?

Part 2: Building Your Own Knowledge System

2.1 Why Build a Knowledge System?

Professionals most need knowledge management that gathers sand into towers. Building your own knowledge system can be used to solve problems, improve abilities, helps deepen thinking, upgrade expression and become an expert.

2.2 Knowledge System vs Learning System

Traditional knowledge-centered learners organize the entire book structure through reading and note-taking methods, listing basic outlines. But this method has limitations:

Adult learning requires building your own learning system, not copying the book's knowledge system, because:

The "self-direction" of the book's knowledge system construction is unrelated to the learner
Authors never understand learners' actual problems as well as learners themselves (but books still have much experience from predecessors dealing with similar problems, worth referencing, adapting into own problem-solving abilities)
Blindly emphasizing the book's system will cause learners to ignore knowledge points useful to themselves, practical experience fitting actual situations, and learning motivation
If learners lack ability to analyze and organize information and cannot build their own knowledge system, then reading books and reading phones have little benefit

Core Principle: In everything about learning, need to start from the individual, introspectively, meaning have your own interpretation, build your own learning system.

2.3 Knowledge Systems Make You a Better Version of Yourself

Thinking that Guides Expression Upgrade

Growth Mindset: People with growth mindset believe the world is full of growth and challenges, observe things from new angles, are good at learning from mistakes and experiences, embrace growth, and help others grow.

Critical Thinking: Habitually get to the bottom of things, seek comprehensive understanding. Can face biases calmly, think carefully, handle controversies clearly, deal with complex matters methodically, focus on and explore problems.

Systems Thinking: Habitually organize causes and effects and application boundaries of information or experience. Embrace complex worlds, transcend linear, one-to-one understanding patterns of things, build holistic, structural, three-dimensional, dynamic, comprehensive thinking modes.

Ability to Become Expert "From Zero to One"

With methodology for building your own knowledge system, you know where to start, where to connect, how to apply knowledge to actual work, and how to discover real problems through practice.

Wisdom in Dealing with People

The knowledge system you build yourself is flexible and evolving, will adjust and improve in the process of continuously accepting and processing new information, will mature with actual application and problem-solving.

2.4 Sticky Note Method: Good Tool for Gathering Sand into Towers

Fragmented information can be defined as: short and unsystematic information

How to integrate fragments into a system?

You receive a knowledge point
Add causes and effects to this fragmented information (a line)
Add application boundaries to it (a surface)
Connect with past experiences and knowledge, reflect and act (a block)
- Reflection refers to the past (A1)
- Action points to the future (A2)
With multiple such processed knowledge points, different knowledge points will connect, interface with and support each other, forming a lattice system (own knowledge system)

2.5 Three Approaches to Building Knowledge System Framework

Approach One: Starting from Problems

Encounter problem
Question and reflect (A1)
Analyze problem essence, determine causes and effects (I)
Plan action goals and specific methods (A2)

Approach Two: From Point to Network

Information obtained (colleague's experience, department summary of practical skills, short articles or tips seen online, theories from books)
Analyze and organize (I)
Connect to self (A1)
Plan application (A2)

Fragmented learning itself is not the root of the problem, just most people's fragments cannot be assembled. Those good at learning can piece fragments into tall buildings, piece out the full picture.

Approach Three: From Network to Point

Choose a book in specific field
Organize framework system (I)
Fill organized sticky notes into different positions
Also fill knowledge from other books/information from various sources into this framework
Actual problems encountered also fill in

Part 3: Realm of Active Learning

3.1 How to Learn — Output is the Best Learning

Active learning is learning with output, effective output methods include:

Practical application
Case analysis
Role playing
Writing
Speaking
Teaching others

For building knowledge systems, the most effective 3 outputs are:

For A1/A2, most effective output is experience and reflection
For causes and effects, most effective output is writing
For application boundaries, most effective output is teaching others

3.2 What to Learn — Identifying Core Capabilities

Identify your own core capabilities, find the gap between your abilities and target position requirements, selectively choose learning topics, then use active learning methods to strengthen corresponding core capabilities (key capability).

Communication Skills

Expression ability - Effectively convey information, including verbal expression, body language and tool use
Active listening ability - Understand others, including their unexpressed motivations and purposes
Questioning ability - Good at exploring information through questions, demonstrating professionalism, guiding topics, gaining favor
Persuasion ability - Persuade others to agree, buy, or change others' thoughts and behaviors
Negotiation ability - Rally everyone, resolve differences

Relationship Skills

Social insight - Keenly capture others' emotions and reactions, understand why they react this way, can adjust own actions based on others' actions
Build and maintain interpersonal relationships - Establish constructive, cooperative relationships with others, maintain long-term
Service awareness - Focus on the other party, strive to understand them, actively seek ways to help them
Motivate self and others - Have strong achievement motivation, persistent, confident, optimistic, can infect others, influence others' attitudes
Teamwork ability - Effectively communicate with others, work together for common goals

Learning Ability

Obtain information - Observe, receive or obtain information from various relevant channels, evaluate information quality
Analyze and organize information - Question causes and effects, clarify application boundaries, determine information through inquiry, classification, evaluation, sorting, identification (differences or similarities), detection of changes
Planning and organization ability - Establish specific goals and plans, fully utilize time and resources, prioritize, monitor and evaluate own performance
Decision-making and problem-solving - Clarify and define problems, analyze background and causes, choose best solution, follow up and evaluate results
Beyond insight ability - Apply latest technology and knowledge from own profession and customer industries

Logical Ability

Fluid thinking - Can generate large amounts of electrons on specified topics (importance is quantity, not quality, accuracy or innovation)
Inductive ability - Integrate scattered information into general rules, including finding connections between seemingly unrelated things
Deductive ability - Apply general rules to specific problems
Coaching ability - Determine others' learning needs, design training and coaching programs, coach and guide others
Beyond thinking ability - Can foresee problems, can provide others with better solutions

Learning Strategy Recommendations:

If you're clear about which "building" you should strengthen now, plan corresponding learning. If not very clear, never use window-shopping learning, best to check your "municipal public facilities", see which aspects need strengthening. Any overly weak municipal public facility will seriously constrain city development.

Ability Growth Path:

To strengthen any workplace core capability, information can be precipitated through experience reflection and questioning; information can only sublimate into knowledge through analysis and organization; knowledge can only internalize into ability through connection and action. Action brings new experience, reading brings new information, reflection brings new knowledge...

3.3 What to Use to Learn — Choice More Important Than Diligence

Materials for learning are nothing more than three types: knowledge, information, experience

Book Selection Techniques for Practical Reading

Mass selection: First start from problems, from yourself, determine learning topics. Through search, Douban, Amazon reviews, find dozen books related to this topic, roughly understand, eliminate several, buy the rest.

Meeting: Spend one to two hours browsing through all. Don't need to particularly understand meeting methods, just need to clarify goals, choose ones that catch your eye.

Living together: For selected book, read seriously. At least for a period, you only read this one book.

Application recommendations: Dismantle for own use with sticky note method, can only dismantle knowledge points currently useful to you, or use book framework "from network to point" to start building own knowledge system on this topic.

Writing: Efficient Active Learning Method

Writing is very efficient active learning, especially helps strengthen organization of causes and effects in knowledge systems.

For practical learning, writing includes writing cards and writing articles, and three sticky notes are ready-made cards.

"The difficulty of writing lies in expressing networked thinking with tree-structured presentation in linearly unfolding sentences." — Steven Pinker

Four-step Article Method:

Conception: First have a core message (your viewpoint or suggestion on something), process causes and effects, application boundaries, A1 and A2 for it. Then try adjusting order of these elements (try telling story/case first), ask yourself whether to sell the problem or solution first.
Expansion: Add a related (similar and opposite) information point, can be horizontally extended information point, or vertically extended information point. Then comprehensively consider relationship between two pieces of information, how their respective causes and effects connect, what differences in different application boundaries.
Development: Including citation (books and authorities), examples (own or others' A1), tributaries (branch--unexpected turn of events, attract--attractive, cross--interesting)
Packaging: Including adding story (consider details and conflict), adding interest (commonly use hot topics and culture) sublimating theme, polishing writing...

Teaching Others: Best Way to Strengthen Application Boundaries

Teaching others, like writing a good article, requires deep processing of your output information; secondly, compared to writing articles, teaching has lower threshold, more opportunities, greater flexibility; finally, the process of teaching others helps self-strengthen definition of application boundaries in knowledge systems.

Four Dimensions of Thinking About Application Boundaries in Teaching Process:

(Fit) Counterproductive: Are there opposite examples? If I want to teach learners, what might be their challenges or objections?
(Use) Conditions: Considering cost-benefit, attitude and ability... what specific conditions are needed to do this? Under what circumstances are these conditions not useful? What difficulties will learners encounter when processing A2?
(Side) Indirect approach: Are there similar or seemingly similar pieces of information? How do other people/books/fields view similar problems? Might learners associate this with old knowledge?
(Boundary) Clear demarcation: Whether opposite or similar information, what's the real difference between it and this information? Where is the boundary? How do I clearly explain differences to learners?

Conclusion

From sticky note method to knowledge system building, from passive reading to active output, the core of this learning methodology has always been "introspective learning" — transforming external knowledge into internal abilities.

Remember: Choice more important than diligence, output more important than input, system more important than fragments.

May every learner find their own learning path, build their own knowledge lattice, and become a better version of themselves through continuous learning.

Photo by Blaz Photo on Unsplash