How to make a personal curriculum?

1. Define objectives
2. Build a strategy
3. Brainstorm using Gemini
4. Research books using YouTube, Reddit, and other platforms
5. Curate and Shortlist a list of books
6. Select a place to take notes (Physical notebook, Notion, any note-taking app)
7. Now the most vital part: READ!😂

My Core Objectives

MOTIVE: Entertainment

OUTPUT GOAL: Understanding the topics at a foundational level to formulate my own opinion on the matter.

My Reading Strategy

PACE: No time limit

SCOPE: Breadth > Depth. Basically, exploring topics on the beginner level to figure out my preferences.

FORMAT: Fictions paired with highly accessible, foundational non-fiction.

LENGTH:<300 pages. However, open to 500+ page mammoths if needed.

The Brainstorming Phase

To start, you can input a prompt like this using Gemini’s pro model with some background info:

I want to create a personal curriculum. I want to assign myself books and read them to broaden my knowledge. I am interested in Literature, philosophy, sociology, business, etc. But I am not opposed to any subject. Before making a curriculum, ask me questions to better understand what I want.

The topics I’ve decided to explore (and my background):

• Economics (Did intro to micro and intro to macro at my university)
• Sociology (Did Sociology 101 in university)
• Politics (Did Political Science 101 in university)
• Philosophy (No prior knowledge)
• Psychology (No prior knowledge)
• Anthropology (No prior knowledge)
• Neurodiversity (No prior knowledge)

Research Time

Now comes arguably my favorite part: Consuming about the books rather than consuming the books themselves!
I looked into the books Gemini suggested and found some new ones along the way. I mostly used YouTube and Reddit.

I was watching a video of The Book Leo (one of my favorite Booktubers) and found a book called Wordslut by Amanda Montell. Since I found the video very fascinating, I decided to add the book to my Personal Curriculum TBR. Wordslut falls under Sociology, specifically Sociolinguistics.
[Sidenote: The Video is a must-watch. It’s gonna help me navigate future interactions a lot. I heavily recommend watching it.]

My ECO101 faculty suggested the book Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt. She said it’s a bit old-school but worth a read for beginners. I had taken her course last year, but I got the rec when I visited her last month to pick up my recommendation letter for my university scholarship application.

I am extremely tempted to add Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky for Sociology. But I had already read it back in 2022. So, I’m contemplating whether to add Suicide by Émile Durkheim or The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman. Durkheim’s book is apparently a foundational study on how social forces affect individuals. Goffman’s book treats life like a theater where we all perform roles. After seeing this video by BBC Radio 4, I’m definitely going with Goffman.

I have been looking for any excuse to read Animal Farm by George Orwell. So don’t mind me adding this to my list for the Politics category. 1984 by Orwell is one of my favorite books, so I’m really looking forward to this one.

While I was looking for reviews for The Stranger by Albert Camus, I stumbled upon this video, The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Philosophy, and decided to read Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy by Simon Blackburn.

Please don’t judge me when I say this, but the next book I chose was because of the title. It’s called The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. You do see my point, right? The author is a neurologist. In the book, he recounts the stories of some of his patients with neurological disorders. So, I thought it would be a perfect fit for my Psychology Category.

Last year or so I watched this video StarTalk Live Podcast: Big Brains at BAM with Neil deGrasse Tyson and it got me interested in knowing about Neurodiversity. I think as humans, we all should have a basic understanding on the matter. Neurodiversity is an incredibly complex topic so I am starting with What I Mean When I Say I’m Autistic: Unpuzzling a Life on the Autism Spectrum by Annie Kotowicz. This is a very short memoir and should be easy to read.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin is an Anthropological Sci-fi. As a massive sci-fi fan, I don’t even wanna know the plot. I didn’t even know this sort of sci-fi existed, to be honest. The author’s father was a famous anthropologist, and she used this book to conduct a thought experiment. In the book, a human ambassador is sent to an icy planet to study a society where people have no fixed gender.

Short-listed Books

Where and how to take Notes?

Since this is my first time, I will be trying out Notion and various note-taking apps. I am planning to use Gemini to understand the concepts as I am reading a book. I’ll use Perplexity for research if I need to find extra material for any topic. And finally, I’ll be using NotebookLM to dissect and understand the materials.
[Leaving space here to add my notion blog after I make one]

The Step you can’t avoid: Reading

[Here I will be adding links to the reading blogs of the books as I read them]