Why Your Audiobook Habit Might Be Sabotaging Deep Learning

I was watching a video from Sascha Fast about Atomic Note-taking. He uses an article from Cal Newport about The Reverse Flynn Effect as an example on how to create an atomic note. (An atomic note is a note condensing a single idea.)

I didn’t want to write about note-taking, but about the note that Sascha creates in the video. It’s about the difference between push-based versus pull-based media consumption.

Reading is pull-based. You have to do work to consume the information. You need focused attention. It’s difficult to read properly when we are low on energy.

Audio and video are push-based. Listening to an audiobook or podcast also requires focused attention, but if our minds wander, there is no harsh feeedback. Even if we are focused, listening implies letting the information be pushed into our minds.

In contrast, reading gives you instant feedback—you realize that you don’t know or don’t understand what you just read—while audio or video keep flowing regardless.

It’s difficult to take notes while listening to an audiobook. If the subject is deep, we seldom rewind the audio to listen again for better understanding. This mismatch goes deeper than just attention—audio is inherently temporal and linear, note-taking is spatial and non-linear.

Some practical consequences that come to mind:

• We should align our learning needs with the media type. Maybe it’s fine to listen to a biography as an audiobook. But reading is more effective for more dense content.
• For audio during commutes, have a capture method ready (e.g., voice memos).
• Transcripts can help transform audio and video into pull-based media. They can be specially helpful if the subjects merits a second listen and revision of key parts.