The Lessons of History

I highlight while I am reading and then mind map using these highlights after I've finished the book. I think it would be better if I made the mind map incrementally, after each chapter.

Do you mindmap? How do you take notes/nuggets from the books that you read?

@David deSouza I just use the highlight function on my Kindle. Sometimes I wrote down reflections on my messy notebook. I'm not very good at organizing the knowledge I come across and my thoughts. Still experimenting. I wish there were a visual (perhaps using VR/AR) catalogue of human knowledge that showed the links and evolutionary pathways of how we got to currently-accepted knowledge. The dead ends would be interesting to (re)

@wwnso98 That's a really interesting idea. I would love to see that also.

I prefer to see things in a non-linear manner. For example, I find books too linear, but I love a mind map. Do you know of The Brain?

I've been using their app and find it useful for organizing my knowledge.

For example, I've recently put these mental models into a more visual format here.

What I liked about this book was that it made me test my preconceived ideas and it helped me see in gray and not black and white.

I had always thought war was bad and wrong (I still do) but now I see it in a more nuanced way (not that I would ever want war, just that I can see a different perspective to it)

The way I see war compared to revolution is that a war can have a winner. One country gains land, money resources for example. Whereas with a revolution there is never a gain of resources, there is only destruction and death. Regarding disparity of wealth, I agree. This idea didn't sit well with me. I'd like to dig deeper and disconfirm what the author wrote. You said you definitely don't agree with it. Do you have any insight into wealth building greater wealth? When I mentioned the quote from the book to someone else they said it was true and that 70% of wealthy families will lose their wealth by the second generation and 90% will lose it by the third. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that.

Grrr...I typed out a bunch of stuff but then browser reloaded page and poof...gone...re: growing built up wealth: prudent trust structures, tax havens, property with decent rental yields, portfolio of dividend aristocrats, maybe 5% in high risk VC type investments. Once wealth is built by one generation, the second generation benefits from the halo effect and greater access to resources and powerful networks, which are not necessarily an indication of individual ability (eg. Trump).

In revolutions, the land and resources that were concentrated in the hands of a few spendthrifts, despots (who squander human potential) etc. are freed up. As with war, the question is: but at what cost and who bears that cost? And how are the spoils distributed? We are still living some of the consequences of poor distribution after WWII

@wwnso98 I agree, almost no war is never worth the cost.

What I liked about the book was that it changed my thinking. Before I thought in black and white with regard to war: 'War is simply bad' after I read the book I still think war is bad but it made me see the nuances and the aspects that I had not considered before. It made me see the world in a different lens, no longer black and white, but grey.

Yes I agree! History is such an important subject but the way it is taught is so boring and with no connection to what we can learn from it from the future.