Second Brain Case Study: Progressive Summarization as Religious Experience

This is a conversation with Allison Andrade, an undergraduate student at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She was one of several cohorts of students taught to use Progressive Summarization by a professor, Wes Daniels (who has written about that experience here).

In this wide-ranging conversation we talk about:

My background in religion and how it has influenced my work


Examples of states of flow in religious experience, drawing on ideas and terminology from the book Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal (affiliate link; my members-only summary here)


The importance of making “ecstasis” more accessible to more people, by making it available within societal conventions


Progressive Summarization as an intentional way of planning and writing papers in discrete chunks


The power of small intermediate packets to provide a consistent pace of positive reinforcement in difficult endeavors


How she organizes her notes for writing research papers that span many topics


How Progressive Summarization is taught and used in a college-level course, including crowdsourcing the summarization and interpretation of classroom texts


The value of reflective written documents in tracking one’s learning and recontextualizing personal growth


The role of mind-altering substances and religious rituals in “depatterning” believers

You can read more about Allison’s research in her paper: The Intersection of Quaker Practice and Productivity.

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