(2025-09-05) Kling In My Tribe

Arnold Kling: In My Tribe. Reading a non-fiction book from cover-to-cover is not efficient. I used to say that I read books “from the outside in.” I look at the book flap to find out about the author, who wrote the blurbs, and the subject matter of the book. Then I read the introduction and conclusion in order to get the main ideas. If I have read something by a different author that seems relevant, I look for that author in the index, and I head to those pages.

If and when I do get around to reading a nonfiction book in linear fashion, I use a “Stop, Look, and Listen” approach. Every time I come to an interesting insight, I stop and think about it. I try to put it into my own words

I have adapted my reading to incorporate GenAI. AI is not useful for very recent books, because the AI will not have read them, and its information based on comments available on the Web is very sketchy. But for older books, it works fine.

I start by asking the AI to summarize the key themes of the book. For each theme that the AI lists, I stop and try to put it into my own words. I test my understanding by feeding my words into the AI, in order get confirmation that my interpretation is correct. Another way that I ensure understanding is to suggest possible examples or ask the AI to provide examples.

I will prompt the AI to provide me with critiques of the author’s main themes. And I will prompt the AI to suggest other readings on the topic. I will then ask the AI for summaries of these other readings. I call this “rabbit holing,” because I can find myself starting with one topic and ending up in a very different place.

takes more time and effort than just asking the AI to write a summary. The point is to think about the ideas, not just skim the AI’s bullet points and pretend that now I understand the book.