The One Thing That Changed How I Read Non-Fiction Forever

More books won’t necessarily make you smarter. But reading like this will.

Ever finish a non-fiction book only to realize you can’t recall much from it a while after?

Same, and I used to be terrified of that happening. There are books I don’t just want to finish, I want to remember what’s in them and actually apply the ideas to my own life.

But the way we consume information now doesn’t help. We read passively and expect the insight to stick. And even though we understand it in the moment, we often struggle to actually implement it.

And I don’t want to just read ideas. I want to use them.

So I’ve always looked for ways to make what I read stick, especially with dense books where passive reading completely fails.

One of the first non-fiction books that really got me was Evolve Your Brain by Joe Dispenza, a dense neuroscience deep-dive that kicked off my obsession with how the mind works.

I went all-in on that book. I created a full color-coding system just to get through the anatomy and terminology. By the time I was done, the book looked like a war zone of highlights and margin notes.

But even after all that, I still wasn’t retaining much. That’s what frustrated me most, not just that I was wrecking my books, but how little actually stuck over time.

So I tried a different strategy. I went digital, and started writing everything in my notes app, from summaries to quotes or concepts I wanted to explore.

It felt more organized and less destructive, but I still wasn’t going back to review them, and those notes just turned into a digital graveyard of good intentions.

So after that, I tried something else when I first read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I made a habit of re-reading my notes (or rewriting key insights) before continuing with new pages. It helped. It felt like studying. But it was also slow and hard to keep up. And most days, I just wanted to read.

So as you can see, I’ve tried a lot in the past. This has always been something I really cared about.

Then GPT came along, and finally gave me a smarter way to read.

What about you? How do you approach reading non-fiction?

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AI makes it possible to finally read in a way that’s active, not passive

If you’re like me and want to actually retain and apply what you read, GPT can help you do exactly that.

It doesn’t replace the work, but it makes it more engaging. You can use it to clarify confusing parts, stress-test ideas, and explore how they might play out in your own life.

It closes the gap between knowing something and doing something with it. And that’s what most of us have been missing.

Sure, it won’t know every book word-for-word (unless you feed it a few passages or notes). But for most books I’ve tested, it knows enough to hold a smart conversation. And if you’re reading digitally, even better, just snap a photo, paste a quote, or drop in your book.

The point is to slow down and start a conversation with the material.

So here’s the system I built to make that happen, with plenty of examples you can choose from.

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Phase 1: Use GPT to build understanding while you read

Most readers wait until the end to process what they’ve learned. But that’s too late, most of it’s already faded.

This phase flips that. Instead of reading passively, you create a real-time feedback loop. You talk through ideas as they show up, so they stick better, faster, and deeper.

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1. Summarize & teach back (The Feynman Test)

After each chapter or section, you can pause and explain what you just read, not to take notes, but to test whether you actually understood it. The goal isn’t to repeat the author. It’s to make the ideas your own.

This is based on the Feynman Technique: a learning method that forces clarity by teaching. If you can explain something simply, you truly get it. If you can’t, you’ve just memorized the words, and that goes straight into short-term memory.

Use this prompt:

You are an AI student learning from the user. Your role is to help the user understand and retain what they’ve just read from a non-fiction book [Book Title], by having them teach it to you as simply and clearly as possible, following the Feynman Technique.

Act curious, engaged, and eager to learn. Ask the user to explain the idea they just read in their own words, as if they’re teaching it to someone completely new to the topic.

Don’t offer answers or summaries, let the user do the explaining. Your job is to:

1. Ask clarifying questions if something is unclear or vague.
2. Encourage the user to give a real-life example, analogy, or metaphor to reinforce the idea.
3. Help the user spot any gaps in their understanding by gently pointing out confusing areas and asking them to rephrase or elaborate.
4. Ask how the concept might apply to their life, work, or goals.
5. At the end, ask them to summarize the idea in 1–2 sentences to reinforce the key takeaway.

Stay in the role of a curious student throughout the entire conversation. Do not switch into “teacher mode”.

Always ask one question at a time and wait for the user to respond before continuing.

Why this works:

This isn't just summarization, it's active recall combined with immediate feedback. You'll be surprised how often you think you understand something until you try to explain it.

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2. Clarify confusion on-the-spot

When you hit confusing passages (and you will), don't skip them. Use ChatGPT as an on-demand tutor to break down complex concepts.

Use this prompt:

I'm struggling with this concept from [Book]: "[paste confusing passage or describe concept]"

Please help me understand it better by:
1. Explaining it in plain English, like you would to a smart 12-year-old.
2. Creating a simple analogy or real-world example that captures the core idea.

Why this works:

Analogies act like bridges between what you already know and what you’re trying to learn. When the comparison clicks, the concept sticks. And even when it doesn’t, the mismatch helps clarify where your understanding needs work.

P.S. I built a whole game with Gemini around this idea in a previous post: “Game 6: Master clarity by explaining the complex like you’re talking to a 5-year-old”. So if you’re using ChatGPT to clarify while reading, and you want to level up your clarity muscle, go try it.

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3. Connect new ideas to old ones

Real learning doesn’t stop at new info. It starts when you connect it to what you already know, and poke at it from different angles.

Use this prompt:

You are an AI thinking partner. The user is bringing you [a new idea] they just read in [Book] and a connection they’ve already made to [another concept, belief, or experience].

Your role is to help them:
- Sharpen the comparison between the two ideas
- Uncover where the ideas align or conflict
- Reflect on what this changes in how they think, decide, or act

Do this by:
1. Asking clarifying questions about the connection they made and why it stood out to them.
2. Helping them surface subtle similarities or differences they might have missed.
3. Pushing them to apply the ideas to a specific situation in their life or work.
4. Asking them to summarize what shifted for them—what’s more clear, useful, or worth rethinking now.

Stay focused on helping the user refine their own thinking. Don’t explain concepts. Don’t summarize the book. Ask one question at a time and wait for a reply before moving forward.

Why this works:

When you connect new ideas to things you already understand, you’re reinforcing them with mental anchors. That makes them easier to remember, faster to recall, and more useful when you’re applying them later. It’s how your brain builds lasting knowledge.

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4. Pause and reflect on what resonates

When something clicks emotionally, stop and dig.

Use this prompt:

I read in a book this idea: [insert quote or concept]
I think it matters because [your hunch].

Help me unpack why this feels important to me.

Ask me a few thoughtful questions to help me:
- Reflect on why this idea stuck out
- Explore what it might reveal about my values, beliefs, or priorities
- Notice if it challenges anything I thought I already knew
- Understand where in my life this could apply or change something
- Clarify whether this is something I want to act on or just remember

Why this works:

When something hits emotionally, it’s usually touching something deeper (your values, beliefs, or something unresolved). Digging into that turns knowledge into insight, and insight into change.

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Phase 2: Apply and reinforce the big ideas once you’re done reading

Reading a book isn’t the end, it’s the start of figuring out what it means for your life. This phase turns insight into action.

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1. Extract the essentials

Now that you’ve finished the book, you can use GPT to help you zoom out, see the big picture, and pull out the key insights.

Use this prompt:

I just finished [Book Title]. Here are the most important ideas I pulled:
[insert your list of 3–7 insights]

Help me:
- Spot if I’m missing any major ideas from the book
- See how well I actually understand these by asking me to explain them back
- Push me to connect each one to something I believe, do, or want to apply
- Then help me boil it all down to a 3-sentence summary I won’t forget

If you’ve got memory turned on, GPT can even help you apply it on your own life:

Based on everything you know about me, tell me which ideas from this [Book] seem most important to remember and most connected to my work and life.

Why this works:

Compression is a cognitive superpower. When you distill complex ideas into concise summaries tied to your goals and beliefs, you’re forcing your brain to prioritize, integrate, and personalize the information. This moves it from short-term recognition to long-term usable knowledge.

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2. Play devil’s advocate

It’s easy to agree with ideas that resonate. But the real upgrade is training yourself to challenge even the ones you like.

Use this prompt:

I just finished [Book Title]. Take the [core argument] and challenge it.

- What might the author be missing, overgeneralizing, or assuming without enough proof?
- Where might this idea break down in real life?
- What would someone with an opposing view say, and would they have a point?

Help me unpack how those opposing perspectives challenge the author’s thinking. Show me what blind spots they expose. Push me to see where my own agreement with the author might be too quick, too one-sided, or rooted in assumptions I haven’t questioned yet.

Why this works:

This isn’t just about playing devil’s advocate, it’s about stress-testing your thinking. By stepping into the shoes of someone who disagrees, you surface assumptions you didn’t know you had, reveal the limits of the idea, and train yourself to engage with information more objectively. The goal isn’t to reject the book’s message, but to round it out with depth, nuance, and awareness of where it might not hold.

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3. Apply it on your own life

Don’t stop at “this makes sense”. Make it real, testable, and specific.

Use this prompt:

My top 3 takeaways from [Book Title] are:
[list]

Here’s my current context:
[brief description of what’s going on in your work/life right now]

For each insight, help me design:
- One small experiment I can run in the next 1–2 weeks
- A clear success metric
- A likely obstacle and how I can prep for it or work around it

Why this works:

This is where theory turns into action. You’re not just learning, you’re running small, intentional tests to see what holds up in the real world. It builds momentum, reveals nuance, and helps ideas evolve from abstract advice into personalized systems.

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4. Make it stick

Capture the core principles you want to live by from the book, and set up your future self to use them.

Use this prompt (for ChatGPT with memory on):

Update your memory about me with these 3 principles from [Book Title] that I want to live by:

[list]

If I ever talk to you about [insert recurring challenges, decisions, or goals], bring these up and ask how I’m applying them.

Then follow up with this later on:

It’s been [a month] since I read [Book Title].
Quiz me on the key concepts. Don’t go easy.

Test what I actually remember, not just what I think I do. Push me to:
- Explain key concepts in my own words
- Apply them to my current challenges or projects
- Spot where my understanding is still vague or shaky

Don’t just quiz for recall, test my understanding, application, and where my grasp might still be shaky.

Why this works:

You’re turning GPT into a long-term accountability mirror. Instead of letting insights fade, you’re embedding them into future conversations, so when it matters most, they resurface and shape your choices.

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Once you start using GPT to interact with books…

They stop being things you consume, and start becoming tools you work with.

These were just a few ways to use GPT to go deeper and engage with a book, but there’s a lot more you can try:

• Use the Socratic method to break down assumptions with relentless “why” and “how” questions

• Stress-test ideas by applying them to edge cases and unexpected scenarios

• Role-play real situations to pressure-test your understanding

• Translate ideas across disciplines (like turning a business insight into a parenting strategy or a psychology model into a team workflow)

• Dig deeper into mental models that sharpen how you think and make decisions

Use these as inspiration, or build your own prompts, based on how you think and what you want to take from the book.

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The compound effect of active reading

This was never about reading faster or avoiding the work. If anything, this approach adds more.

But it’s about reading smarter, so the ideas don’t just sound good in the moment, they actually shift your defaults.

Because when you engage with books like this:

• You remember more, without trying harder

• You connect ideas across fields

• You turn highlights into habits

• You stop being a passive consumer of ideas and start becoming an active builder of your own knowledge system

And if the idea that AI can stretch your mind instead of shrinking it intrigues you, I explored it more here.

If this helped you think differently or gave you something useful, you can help me keep the brain food coming, for the price of a sandwich.

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Final takeaway: Start with just one prompt when reading your next book

You don’t have to use all of this. Even one well-placed prompt can double the impact of what you read.

The point isn’t to “AI everything”. It’s to add friction where it creates clarity. To slow down just enough that ideas stick.

And if you try any of these prompts, I’d love to hear what changes for you.