How I read a paper
seed#literature#craft
The three-pass method. Full per-paper template: 80_Literature-Template.
- Pass 1 (5 min) — title, abstract, headings, figures, conclusion → category, the one-sentence claim, and worth a pass 2?
- Pass 2 (~1 hr) — figures + key results, skip the proofs → problem, key idea, results that matter, and the single quote worth keeping.
- Pass 3 (deep) — only if you'll build on it → assumptions to challenge, failure modes, could I reproduce this from the paper alone?
Extract, don't hoard: every paper note ends with so what for my tracks? — the idea to steal and the open question it leaves. Paraphrasing in your own words is the muscle being built.