Cognitive Productivity is now marked as 100% complete on Leanpub (as of Thursday, March 6, 2014). This being a Leanpub book, however, I will avail myself of the opportunity to correct errata as they are discovered and to make minor improvements. I also intend to add supporting materials to the book’s Leanpub web page.
Revision notes
Since the last email I sent to readers of this book in early January, I have
- incorporated feedback from several reviewers (see Acknowledgements below),
- updated Part 2 and Chapters 13–16 with feedback from my editor, Brian Holmes of Grade A Edits and other readers,
- replaced the concept of efficaciousness of information with CUPA (Chapter 11),
- formatted the bibliography,
- added a new brief chapter (15) and other information that relates (a) the mental development that comes through deep learning of knowledge resources, to (b) the kinds of mental change sometimes seen in psychotherapy (with an emphasis on acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and metacognitive therapy),
- made miscellaneous other changes.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people who have kindly provided me with feedback on various parts of this book since January 1st.
- Damien Elmes (developer of Anki software),
- Eva Hudlicka (University of Massachusetts-Amherst),
- Jeffrey Karpicke (Purdue University), and
- Mary Pyc (Washington University in St-Louis).
About the length of Cognitive Productivity
Some readers have commented that this book contains a lot of information. They are right! However, as noted on the Leanpub web page for this book, it is not meant to be read cover-to-cover by most readers.
Like just about any other book, you can skim parts of it to identify information you find worth delving into. As I note in Chapter 12, there’s a big difference between skimming (which is often useful) and so called “speed-reading”.
People who are not interested in cognitive science can skip Part 2 altogether. People who are only interested in cognitive science can skip most of Part 3. Those of you who just want to incorporate productive practice can focus mainly on chapters 3, 7 and 13–14.
Most people should have a good look at Chapter 3 because it explains the problems they face. Without adequately understanding problems you face it’s difficult to devise adequate solutions to them. (Research on expertise demonstrates that good problems solvers spend more time on requirements than poor ones.)
Even taking a third of the book away leaves the reader with a substantial book. A lot of value for money.
Errata and other feedback
Leanpub is perhaps the world’s finest platform for authors and readers to connect. Readers can affect the course of a book by providing comments through various channels. I appreciate all feedback on Cognitive Productivity, whether positive or negative. It’s very easy for Leanpub authors to publish updates to their books. As of today (March 9, 2014), I have published 293 updates of Cognitive Productivity! If you have feedback, please let me know via email (cz-info@CogZest.com), twitter (@LucCogZest), or the Leanpub web page for the book.
Your feedback can also affect my next book, which will strictly address the practical problems of using software to learn from helpful knowledge resources. Furthermore, your feedback can also affect software we are developing to address some of the problems with existing software as highlighted in Chapter 3 and Part 3 of Cognitive Productivity.
If you’d like to be kept abreast of updates to this book, please follow me on Twitter @LucCogZest .
SFU Authors’ event.
I will be present at The Annual Celebration of Simon Fraser University Authors, March 25, 2014, 3:00 PM.
Spread the word
Please spread the word about Cognitive Productivity.
