# Collecting information only feels like progress

Date: 2021-06-11 10:57:09 +08:00Date modified: 2021-07-19 17:47:49 +08:00

We are tricking ourselves, falling into one of the Pitfalls and illusions of competence with the Presence of the material fools students into learning. The keyword here is "feels like progress". The most important thing you should know when finding yourself with this tendency is information is only stored, not consumed. Information is only acquired when you try to make sense of it.

Collecting information is like going to a gym, reading all of the articles and books about working out, and simply stopping at that. You've been hanging out in the gym for a year and yet, your body is the same as last year. On a personal level, this is reaching into Professional narcissism where you know all about specific things like the reason people really get fat and how to manage diet but you haven't done anything.

Nonetheless, it is still useful if we can control our resource-collecting tendencies. One of the simplest ways to reduce this is to Create an inbox to store your thoughts. Or rather, an inbox of resources that you'll have to filter later.

## Backlinks

- When note-taking, don't satisfy your ego
- Create roadmaps to stay on track
- Information is only acquired when you try to make sense of it
- Presence of the material fools students into learning