Highlight Less, Rewrite More

Highlighting creates the illusion of engagement without requiring actual thought. Your hand moves, the color appears, and your brain registers activity — but nothing was processed. A page full of yellow marks is not evidence of learning; it's evidence of reading with a marker. The information passes through you without leaving a trace.

Rewriting key ideas in your own words forces a different kind of work. Your brain has to compress, rephrase, and decide what matters. One sentence written in your own words is worth more than a full page of highlights, because the act of translation requires understanding. If you can't restate it simply, you don't really know it yet.