Ruthless automation

I have a stack of almost 20 books about various software products, including Emacs, OpenSSL, OpenSSH, Apache, PHP, etc etc, that still await reading. I’ve started most of them and never finished a single one. So in the interest of actually learning something, I’m trying a new method.

1. Read 1-2 pages each day at the start of work.
2. Write on a post-it note the commands, options, whatever, that I learned from those pages.
3. Put the post-it where it’s in view, such as on the laptop keyboard.
4. Try to use each of those at least once that day in actual work, not just in playing around.

The hope is that by actually using the information, rather than just reading, I’ll retain it and be able to make use of the knowledge. We’ll see how it goes.