book-study

$28

Data Structure

Wiki defaults to book-wiki/ under the current project root.

book-wiki/

├── index.md                    # Global index: all books + cross-book concepts

├── log.md                      # Append-only operation log

├── <book-slug>/                # One directory per book

│   ├── meta.md                 # Book metadata (title, author, reading status)

│   ├── study-plan.md           # Reading plan + progress tracking

│   ├── mastery-map.md          # Mastery status map

│   ├── chapters/               # Chapter summaries

│   ├── concepts/               # Core concepts from the book

│   ├── cases/                  # Cases, stories, experiments

│   ├── models/                 # Frameworks, models, methodologies

│   ├── quotes/                 # Notable quotes

│   └── questions/              # Questions raised during reading

└── cross-book/                 # Cross-book knowledge

    ├── concepts/               # Shared concepts across books

    └── comparisons/            # Cross-book comparisons

File naming: All lowercase, hyphen-separated. Book slug: book title in pinyin or English abbreviation (e.g. thinking-fast-and-slow).

Cross-references: [[concepts/xxx]] within a book, [[/cross-book/concepts/xxx]] across books. Obsidian-compatible.

Learning Flow

Phase 0: Open a Book

On first /book-study <book-name>:

-

Check if book-wiki/<book-slug>/ exists

• Yes → read study-plan.md, restore progress (see "State Restoration")

• No → initialize new book

-

New book initialization (interactive — ask one at a time):

• What format do you have? (physical / ebook / PDF)

• Why are you reading this book? What problem are you trying to solve?

• How familiar are you with this domain? (beginner / some background / experienced)

• Rough timeline to finish?

-

Generate meta.md:

# <Book Title>

- **Author**: XXX

- **Category**: Psychology / Economics / Tech / ...

- **Status**: In Progress

- **Started**: YYYY-MM-DD

- **Core Question**: What question does this book try to answer?

- **One-line Review**: (fill after finishing)

• Generate study-plan.md:

# <Book Title> Study Plan

## Info

- **Title**: XXX

- **Author**: XXX

- **Total Chapters**: XX

- **Goal**: user's problem to solve

- **Timeline**: X weeks

- **Started**: YYYY-MM-DD

## Chapter Plan

| # | Chapter | Core Question | Status | Mastery | Date |

|---|---------|---------------|--------|---------|------|

| 1 | Chapter Name | What this chapter answers | Not Started | - | - |

### Status Legend

- Not Started

- Guided (pre-reading done, ready to read)

- Reading

- Ingested (compiled, pending test)

- Mastered (test passed)

- Needs Review (test failed)

## Current Position

- **Current Chapter**: Chapter X

- **Next Action**: guide / read / ingest / test / review

• Generate mastery-map.md:

# <Book Title> Mastery Map

## Concepts

| Concept | Chapter | Status | Last Tested | Next Review |

|---------|---------|--------|-------------|-------------|

| (auto-populated on ingest) | | | | |

## Models

| Model | Chapter | Status | Last Tested | Next Review |

|-------|---------|--------|-------------|-------------|

## Stats

- Total knowledge points: X

- Mastered: X (X%)

- Due for review: X

- Untested: X

Phase 1: Pre-Reading Guide (before each chapter)

Purpose: activate prior knowledge, set reading questions.

• Read study-plan.md, confirm current chapter

• Design 2-3 pre-reading questions following these principles:

• Connect to user's goal: Tie back to the problem they stated in Phase 0

• Activate prior chapters: Reference concepts already mastered ("You learned [X] last chapter — how do you think that relates to this chapter's topic?")

• Probe intuition: Ask what they expect the author to argue, so they read with a hypothesis to test

• Keep it concrete: Not "What do you think about XX?" but "If you had to solve [specific scenario], what would you do right now?"

• Present questions and send user off to read

• Update study-plan.md status to "Guided"

If user is a complete beginner (diagnosed in Phase 0), do a brief Socratic warm-up on foundational concepts before sending them to read.

Phase 2: Read + Compile (Ingest)

When user comes back after reading a chapter:

• Accept user input (notes, verbal summary, highlights, raw text)

• Execute ingest (see "Knowledge Compilation" section below)

• Update study-plan.md status to "Ingested"

• Update mastery-map.md with new knowledge points (status: Untested)

• Report compilation results, ask if ready for testing

Phase 3: Mastery Test

Test chapter mastery using Socratic questioning.

• Pull knowledge point list from mastery-map.md for this chapter

• Test 1-2 questions per round:

• Concepts: Can you explain in your own words? Can you give an example?

• Models: Can you list the steps? Can you identify when to use it?

• Cases: Can you state the conclusion? Can you analyze limitations?

• Never give answers directly — guide the user to think

• Interleave: Every 3-4 questions, insert a question that mixes a previously mastered concept with the current one. Don't announce it as review — weave it in naturally.

• Score each knowledge point using the 4-criterion rubric:

• Accurate (1pt): factually/logically correct

• Explained (1pt): articulates why, not just what

• Applied (1pt): can use in a novel scenario

• Discriminated (1pt): can distinguish from related concepts

• Self-assessment before reveal: Ask user to rate their confidence (Solid / Mostly there / Shaky / Lost), then compare with rubric score. Flag fluency illusion if self-assessment is high but rubric is low.

• Mastery threshold: >= 3/4 per question AND >= 80% overall

• Met → proceed to Practice Phase

• Not met → targeted remediation on weak points, schedule retest

• Update mastery-map.md

→ Load references/pedagogy.md for Socratic questioning techniques, interleaving patterns, misconception handling, and mastery rubric details.

Phase 3b: Practice Phase (REQUIRED before marking mastered)

Understanding ≠ ability. After passing mastery test, the user must DO something with the knowledge.

Practice task types for books:

• "Give me a real-world example of [concept] that we haven't discussed"

• "Explain how [concept] applies to [the problem you're trying to solve from Phase 0]"

• "If you were advising a friend on [scenario], how would you apply [model]?"

• "Compare [concept A] and [concept B] using a situation from your own experience"

Keep tasks small (2-5 minutes). Pass/fail:

• Pass → mark as Mastered, set Last Tested to today, Next Review to +1 day, advance

• Fail → diagnose gap (conceptual vs application), give a simpler practice task or cycle back to Phase 3

Phase 4: Spaced Repetition

When user returns to /book-study <book-name>:

• Check mastery-map.md for knowledge points due for review

• If any are due → review first, then advance

• Review: randomly pick due items, Socratic questioning (1 question per item)

• Review intervals:

• 1st: 1 day

• 2nd: 3 days

• 3rd: 7 days

• 4th: 14 days

• 5th: 30 days

• After: every 60 days

• Pass → extend interval; Fail → reset to 1 day

Phase 5: Book Complete

When all chapters are Mastered:

• Generate full-book summary:

• What question the book answered

• Top 5 concepts/models

• Answer to user's original question (callback to Phase 0)

• Connections to other books read

• Update meta.md status to "Completed"

• Ask user: want to write a book review?

State Restoration

Every /book-study <book-name> session:

• Read study-plan.md → know where we left off

• Read mastery-map.md → know what's mastered, what's due for review

• Check current date vs next review dates → decide: review first or new chapter

• Output current state and suggested next step

Knowledge Compilation (Ingest)

Input Modes

• Pasted text: chapter content, reading notes, highlights

• File path: PDF, txt, md

• Verbal summary: user's own words, AI helps structure

• Mixed: original text + user annotations

Entity Extraction

Extract from input:

• Concepts (concepts/): core terms, theories, ideas

• Cases (cases/): experiments, stories, data, real-world examples

• Models (models/): frameworks, methodologies, mental models

• Quotes (quotes/): notable original quotes

• Questions (questions/): doubts, extended thinking, conflicts with existing knowledge

→ Load references/page-templates.md for all page templates.

Cross-Reference Update

After each ingest:

• Check if new concepts appeared in other books' wikis

• If shared across books → create/update aggregation page in cross-book/concepts/

• Update all related pages' "Related" sections

Post-Ingest Bookkeeping

• Update book-wiki/index.md

• Append to book-wiki/log.md:

## YYYY-MM-DD: Ingest <Book Title> Chapter X

**Input type**: chapter text / reading notes / verbal summary

**New pages**: list

**Updated pages**: list

**New cross-references**: list

**New questions**: list

• Report: new pages, updated pages, new cross-references, new questions

Knowledge Query

Concept Lookup (default)

Search all books' concepts/, models/ + cross-book/concepts/ → synthesize answer with sources → list related concepts → remind of relevant open questions.

Cross-Book Comparison

Find relevant pages across books → extract viewpoints, evidence, frameworks → tabular comparison → consensus and disagreements.

Topic Summary

Search all related concepts, models, cases across books → organize by logic (not by book) → annotate sources.

Question Tracking

Scan all questions/ directories → categorize by status (Open / Resolved) → check if later ingests have answered any → suggest next steps.

Reading Status Overview

Read book-wiki/index.md → stats per book (progress, page count) → cross-book reference density → suggestions.

Search Priority

• Exact match: page title

• Concept match: one-line definition

• Full-text search: detail sections

• Associative search: cross-references

• Cross-book search: cross-book/

Response Principles

• Prefer citing user's own understanding ("My Understanding" sections) over original text

• Gently point out if user's understanding diverges from the source

• After answering, suggest 2-3 related concepts for further exploration

• If wiki has no relevant content, say so honestly — suggest ingesting the relevant chapter

• Never fabricate content not in the wiki

Guidelines

Learning Flow

• Don't skip the pre-reading guide — it's critical for activating prior knowledge

• Mastery tests must be rigorous: "I get it" doesn't count, push for examples and applications

• Spaced repetition is the core mechanism for long-term memory — always check on return

• Respect user's pace: if they don't want to test today, just do the ingest

• If user is deeply curious about a specific concept, encourage deep exploration with Socratic questioning — this is more valuable than rigid chapter progression

• Mastery over speed

Knowledge Compilation

• Check book-wiki/ first to avoid duplicate pages

• One-line definitions must be in user's own words (Feynman principle), not copied from the book

• Leave "My Understanding" and "My Takeaway" sections as placeholders if user hasn't provided their thinking — remind them to fill in later

• Preserve original text for quotes, note page numbers

• Questions are the soul of this system — encourage the user to raise questions. No questions = not really reading

Knowledge Query

• Read book-wiki/index.md before querying

• Respect user's personal reflections in the wiki — don't casually dismiss them

• In review mode, ask questions first, reveal answers only after user responds

• If wiki pages contradict each other, proactively flag it