Read a Book with One Question
Added 2026-10-31
Set the question first, then choose chapters, notes and skips.
I want to read a book without going cover to cover. Do: 1) turn "the problem I want to solve" into three small questions answerable from the book; 2) based on them, suggest three chapters to read first and what to skip; 3) say what one line to record after each chapter; 4) design a table to answer the original question afterwards; 5) tell me when to give up on the book.
Site original
Chinese original
How to use
读书的效率来自问题，不来自速度。
Try tweaking it
- Ask for one diagnostic question first to locate where you are stuck.
- Replace "explain it" with "give three progressive exercises; correct me after I answer".
What you should get
- A diagnosis of exactly where you are stuck
- A small set of self-checkable exercises
Common mistakes
- Asking it to explain from scratch, and still not knowing where you went wrong.
- Memorising the explanation as the answer, then failing on any variant.
How to check the output
- It names exactly where you are stuck instead of re-explaining everything.
- Exercises are graded and self-checkable.
Where it works
- Good for: diagnosing where you are stuck, then giving the smallest exercise instead of a lecture.
- Watch out: ask it to flag uncertainty rather than memorising a confident but wrong explanation.