Day 13 30DC - Data Mining for Gold

Marketing guru and all around exceptional human being Gary Halbert used to talk about the Golden Nugget method. This is a way of being an expert at any subject in about 48 hours of work.

The technique, which you can use in analog or digital form, is to survey as many other publications or information sources as you can that are about your topic. Scan these sources for information that is unusual, interesting, or that somehow snags your attention. In other words, you are looking for anything noteworthy.

When you find such snippets or factoids, jot them down, either on a 3.5" file card as Halbert suggests, in a pocket paper notebook, or in a digital notebook, such as WordPad, Google Notebook, EasyNoter (love this, thanks Marlon!), or any text editor.

When you capture this information, be sure to note the source as well, so you can find it again or give proper credit later.

My own recommendation is to make some additional notes to yourself about the context or the interest factor of the information. Why did you think it was interesting? What made you say "Wow!"? Why is it particularly relevant to your topic?

Maybe your note is something like this: "Speed Reading [topic]: The Guardian Newspaper had a champion speed reader read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
so they could print an early review. She read the entire book in 47 minutes." http://books.guardian.co.uk/ [include source URL]

While that is fascinating, what made you write it down in relation to your topic? Those extra bits of info you attach to your note help your brain organize this material, and make it easier for you to use the snippet later when you need something to add to an article, blog or essay.

It aids the brain in correlating the information with what you already know, and helps your memory as well. In the parlance of accelerated learning, it's related to cognitive correlation, and emotional integration.

It's easy to become an expert at anything when you know how to take good notes.