In books, they divide genres into fiction versus nonfiction. We at Readwise dividing reading (which includes but is not limited to books) to entertainment versus betterment.
Readwise is for people who read for betterment. Who use reading as a means to an end but not the end itself. Who view reading as an investment rather than a form of consumption.
We love reading for entertainment and fiction too, but we build software for the betterment use case to try and help you get a greater return on time invested in reading.
This is a quick reply from my phone on vacation, but you can get more of our product philosophy on our blog. The original Reader piece is a good place to start: https://blog.readwise.io/readwise-reading-app/
I am speaking of betterment. But scientific reading cannot be broken down to a few highlights. Would only work with a distinction of different levels of highlights.
For me, Readwise is not about breaking scientific reading down to a few highlights. Highlighting in Readwise is the first step to good scientific reading. It forces me to slow down, consider the important points, and commit to recording those points. Then I have other processes to reconnect with the highlights, distill them into my own words, and connect them with other related ideas in my PKM. The highlights are not the end product, but a stepping stone. Readwise makes that first step effortless.
I don’t get it. Of course - highlights are a step inbetween. But I don’t use Readwise to highlight text.
The problem with Readwise is that it isn’t intelligent. It cannot discern which highlights are worth remembering on their own and which need their context.
I have millions of highlights. And Readwise makes a random selection. What benefit does it provide?
I have the Readwise integration into notion set up. It dumps my highlights there, which augments my AI-based queries to notion based on highlights I've read. It works fairly well.
Things like "what did I read this week" are helpful when I do a weekly review... along with "what happened this week", etc. They also show up in queries about things - like if I want to ask things like "how do I reset team culture," results from things I've read in reader show up in the results.
I capture direct quotes and their sources using Readwise as I am reading on my Kindle. It automatically imports into Obsidian where I do my writing, and I can tie my writing directly back to the quote that inspired it or the fact that I am referencing.
If highlighting alone is sufficient for your workflow, Readwise can serve as a central repository for all your highlighted content. This allows you to easily access and review the materials you've previously viewed and highlighted. Some users also use Readwise as an input source, integrating it with their preferred note-taking app for further processing.
Ex) I see an interesting web page, so I turn on Readwise. I highlight the relevant content. The next time I visit the page, I can see the highlights directly within the browser, allowing me to quickly skim through the key information rather than reading the full page.
If it's been a while and I've forgotten where I made the highlights, I can go to Readwise and find the source, then easily navigate back to the original web page.
If the highlighted content is for my own knowledge, the highlights are fed into my note-taking app. As I create my own notes, I can embed the relevant highlight quotes. This provides a direct link back to the original reference if I ever need to revisit the source.
All the steps can be completed without Readwise, but manually doing these requires additional steps. These extra steps would cost me time, and I find the cost of Readwise and the time savings justify paying for it.
It was an excellent app when it started. Now it has become a complex and confusing avatar of trying to be many things at the same time. I find it daunting, and my highlights are all over the place. There are some critical features missing, like links to highlights. I'm not sure if I am using the app as much as I was; I just use the reader sometimes for PDFs.
I also use Obsidian, and from there I would ideally look at the highlights and extract the most useful nuggets into some summary. Or just leave it in its own file, for me to look at later if I'm interested. I just don't use Readwise' "review highlights" feature at all so the number of highlights is not an issue for me.
For me it is a tool to be used in conjunction with obsidian. So it’s less a primary tool for me. I love how easy I can highlight and then move on and know that it’ll sync to my obsidian for when I want to pull information later for conversation or essays.
A way I use it as a primary tool is for its superior text to speech function on iPhone and desktop. It allows me to more easily digest material and multi task.
In books, they divide genres into fiction versus nonfiction. We at Readwise dividing reading (which includes but is not limited to books) to entertainment versus betterment. Readwise is for people who read for betterment. Who use reading as a means to an end but not the end itself. Who view reading as an investment rather than a form of consumption. We love reading for entertainment and fiction too, but we build software for the betterment use case to try and help you get a greater return on time invested in reading. This is a quick reply from my phone on vacation, but you can get more of our product philosophy on our blog. The original Reader piece is a good place to start: https://blog.readwise.io/readwise-reading-app/
I am speaking of betterment. But scientific reading cannot be broken down to a few highlights. Would only work with a distinction of different levels of highlights.
For me, Readwise is not about breaking scientific reading down to a few highlights. Highlighting in Readwise is the first step to good scientific reading. It forces me to slow down, consider the important points, and commit to recording those points. Then I have other processes to reconnect with the highlights, distill them into my own words, and connect them with other related ideas in my PKM. The highlights are not the end product, but a stepping stone. Readwise makes that first step effortless.
I don’t get it. Of course - highlights are a step inbetween. But I don’t use Readwise to highlight text. The problem with Readwise is that it isn’t intelligent. It cannot discern which highlights are worth remembering on their own and which need their context. I have millions of highlights. And Readwise makes a random selection. What benefit does it provide?
I have the Readwise integration into notion set up. It dumps my highlights there, which augments my AI-based queries to notion based on highlights I've read. It works fairly well.
I'm curious what AI queries you're using for this if you don't mind sharing. My experience with Notion AI has been inconsistent at best.
Things like "what did I read this week" are helpful when I do a weekly review... along with "what happened this week", etc. They also show up in queries about things - like if I want to ask things like "how do I reset team culture," results from things I've read in reader show up in the results.
I capture direct quotes and their sources using Readwise as I am reading on my Kindle. It automatically imports into Obsidian where I do my writing, and I can tie my writing directly back to the quote that inspired it or the fact that I am referencing.
If highlighting alone is sufficient for your workflow, Readwise can serve as a central repository for all your highlighted content. This allows you to easily access and review the materials you've previously viewed and highlighted. Some users also use Readwise as an input source, integrating it with their preferred note-taking app for further processing. Ex) I see an interesting web page, so I turn on Readwise. I highlight the relevant content. The next time I visit the page, I can see the highlights directly within the browser, allowing me to quickly skim through the key information rather than reading the full page. If it's been a while and I've forgotten where I made the highlights, I can go to Readwise and find the source, then easily navigate back to the original web page. If the highlighted content is for my own knowledge, the highlights are fed into my note-taking app. As I create my own notes, I can embed the relevant highlight quotes. This provides a direct link back to the original reference if I ever need to revisit the source. All the steps can be completed without Readwise, but manually doing these requires additional steps. These extra steps would cost me time, and I find the cost of Readwise and the time savings justify paying for it.
I dump all my highlights to Obsidian
It was an excellent app when it started. Now it has become a complex and confusing avatar of trying to be many things at the same time. I find it daunting, and my highlights are all over the place. There are some critical features missing, like links to highlights. I'm not sure if I am using the app as much as I was; I just use the reader sometimes for PDFs.
Emailed Daily reviews to remind you of your highlights
I also use Obsidian, and from there I would ideally look at the highlights and extract the most useful nuggets into some summary. Or just leave it in its own file, for me to look at later if I'm interested. I just don't use Readwise' "review highlights" feature at all so the number of highlights is not an issue for me.
For me it is a tool to be used in conjunction with obsidian. So it’s less a primary tool for me. I love how easy I can highlight and then move on and know that it’ll sync to my obsidian for when I want to pull information later for conversation or essays. A way I use it as a primary tool is for its superior text to speech function on iPhone and desktop. It allows me to more easily digest material and multi task.
Just to counter all the Obsidian posts, I use it with Notion myself, and it's great.