/edu/ - Education

General knowledge is good for you, don't worry about that. The more things you know the more associations your brain can make to what you already know which helps retaining your knowledge and also helps you with creativity. So don't be ashamed to learn about what interests you.

The most important thing to know about learning is that the best way to learn is by recalling. Therefore, by far the most effective study method, even though it is hard as fuck, is to practice recalling thing. Doing exercises and mock tests of course help with this. Even better is just to get out a blank paper and start writing everything you know about the topic on it. You will pretty quickly find out where your knowledge is weak and you will remember things a lot better. When you are done you can control and correct what you have written and fill in the weak spots. Then you can repeat it again and again… If you have friends who put up with your bullshit you can give a mini-lecture about it to them too, it helps in the same way. Especially if they are curious and ask you hard questions that you might have missed.

There are some other tactics here that have been scientifically tested and are generally helpful, check this out: https://www.learningscientists.org/posters

For procrastination, distractions and similar, I used the so-called Pomodoro method with great success. You get a timer, set it to some time (usually the recommended is 25 minutes), and for that time you just focus on the work you want to do. After the time is over, you have a 5 minute break, during which you can do whatever you want. Then you repeat until you are done. It helps to have a concrete duration for the concentration instead of some abstract goal like finishing an essay or whatever that can take forever and even you don't believe that you will ever finish it. If 25 minutes is too much you can start with a shorter duration and when 25 minutes become too short you can increase it until you just start ignoring the timer because you have become engrossed in the study.

Of course you should read The Ignorant Schoolmaster which is required reading for this board btw.

Hope this thread gets some quality replies. Suffer from the same habits that OP does

Try learning an instrument.
It doesn't have to be expensive either. The point is to do another hobby that stimulates your brain along with reading. Reading isn't the only activity you want to be doing.

Let me tackle digital hygiene first. Stimulation addiction is a drug. It's an insidious, addictive drug that will be hard to kick. Going cold turkey won't work; you need a plan. I'll share some things that I've been doing:

1. Delete social media accounts. This is the easiest yet most effective step. You can't post or endlessly scroll on social media if you don't have an account. Social media is doing ZERO for you; seriously, go to whatever social media accounts you have and delete them right now. It'll be easy and dramatic first step towards your journey of digital hygiene.

2. Block websites. Firefox and Chrome have extensions. I use leechblock for FireFox. I permanently blocked 4chan, as it was a complete braindrain. Somewhat similarly, I block /leftypol/, Reddit, and YouTube for most of the day; I allow the evening because I'm still "tapering" off so to speak. /leftypol/ and YouTube are OK in heavy moderation IMO, but I am hoping to completely quit Reddit as it the most addicting social media for me—it's bad in the sense that one can still browse it even without an account.

3. Make your phone a dumbphone—delete useless apps. That isn't to say to throw away your smartphone for a Nokia, but to use your smartphone only for critical functions such as calling, texting, directions, quick duckduckgo searches, etc. Delete any app that doesn't serve a functional purpose (e.g., social media apps).

4. Try to avoid digital stimulation at night and in the morning. I bought a physical alarm clock and leave my phone in my living room when I go to bed. That way, I'm not instantly blasting my face with an electronic screen when I wake up.

Note that this is all prescriptive, and I don't like the prescriptive. This list may help you, but ultimately we all have to find what works for ourselves. So, if you really want to quit electronics, then you need to put in the effort to find out what best helps *you* quit.

Now for study habits, this is easier to tackle. It's in the name: habit. Do a small bit everyday, and by everyday I mean *everyday*. I personally make a to-do list in the morning which details everything I want to study/practice/write/do, and I try my best to finish my to-do list before it's time to go to bed. For example, today I planned to write 500 words of my essay, read around 10 pages of Capital, practice 30 min on guitar (ended up doing 45), and read a bit of Stirner, and I'm pleased to say that I did all of that.

>>6386
>Reading isn't the only activity you want to be doing.
Agreed. I'm currently writing an essay on the importance of focusing on cultivating useful knowledge over useless knowledge; it argues against the "Learn, learn, and learn!" maxim of this board. I wouldn't say that reading is per se useless, but it's not a *creative* pursuit. But reading is a much better habit to have than say binge watching Netflix. Indeed, I encourage all to pursue creative hobbies—make things! It's good for your brain.international_brigadeInternational Brigade

>>6388
>but I am hoping to completely quit Reddit
Lmao how? It became so insufferable I barely use it anymore

>>6388
lol this reads 100% something those self-promoting faggots post on reddit all the time, the only thing missing is a link to your blog. Vapid bullshit dressed up as if it was the definitive answer to all your problems.

>>6391
There are a few niche subs that I still browse that still take up too much of my time.

>>6392
>Vapid bullshit dressed up as if it was the definitive answer to all your problems.

? First, I was just sharing what has been working for me; maybe someone might find that useful. Second, I explicitly said that I didn't want to be prescriptive, and what I posted were only suggestions and not any "definitive answer." But go ahead, languish away and keep being angry for no reason—I'm sure that's healthy.international_brigadeInternational Brigade

>>6392
Why would you use redditors as an example, are you fucking dense?

>>6388
Thank you, comrade!

>>6400
Go to https://old.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/ you can see an endless stream of garbage like this. Take note how they highlighted not the important parts but some random keywords as if the reader was a search engine lol. I guess that works if you are writing for reddit or tumblr where people mindlessly scroll and you need to grab their attention but it is pretty insulting here.

The whole post is basically a humblebrag about how cool its author is without giving any actual advice. "Oh, you want habits? Just get them lol btw I have these awesome habits: …" and so on.

I guess it works because unlike the other posts in this thread it is generating "interactions" and that seems to be the hot stuff in marketing these days. Just wait, "International Brigade" poster will become a celebrated life coach in no time!

>>6388
I've managed to get off FB and insta, but yeah, Reddit is hard. It's such a stream lined way to get specific pieces of information without researching. The main thing is to start practicing digital leg work, like rather than information coming to you through a 3rd party (eg Reddit or BNA) trying to find little blogs and leftist news sources.

>>6404
hey look man, we are all just trying to get better. i know a lot of the internet is as you say but theres no need to be such a downer about it. i am going to buy an electronic alarm because of this post and i think itll help.

sometimes people havent consumed the same content and they need to see the shit youve seen before.

do you have any tips you found helpful?ak-47AK-47

also as an aside i have halved my screen time since deleting facebook.

progress!ak-47AK-47

>>6416
I did post tips but everyone ignored it.

>>6418
I downloaded the pdf you posted, that was helpful.
(Assuming you're that person who posted it)

>>6423
Here's the PDF from the link that I assume you did not open.

>>6425
I glanced at it but I was more drawn to the Ignorant Schoolmaster.

>>6425
It focuses on classroom education of course, since that's what interests teachers mainly, but it shouldn't be hard to apply it to your autodidact efforts. When I read about it there wasn't too much research about "heutagogy" (self-directed learning), and it seemed mostly bullshit to me.

Here's a PDF about the pomodoro technique that I tried to describe although this describes it as much more rigid, complex and micromanaging that I like it but reading bullshit like this is a good way to procrastinate.

Also adding a pdf about Anki which is pretty cool for practising recall although it works best for small self-contained things like vocabulary.

Finally an epub about practise which was written for teachers but you might find some good ideas in it.

>>6425
>>6427
Though you autistically lashed out at me (I may be wrongly assuming you're >>6404
, if not then in that case sorry), I will second the pomodoro technique and the anki software. I use both daily.international_brigadeInternational Brigade

>>6427
oh i use anki droid for chinese but itd be good to learn how best to use it. ive used to pomodoro technique but i tend to fall off after the first break. but that was a while ago. maybe ill try again
>>6418
i didnt ignore it, but i didnt respond to it. thanks for posting it. i was, like the other poster, drawn to the ignorant schoolmaster but immediately filed it into, "thats a book i should get into" instead of reading it.ak-47AK-47

Good thread, it sounds like it was written by me. Bump for the overboard.

>>6427
>>6383

Thank you!

For building habits in general:

>Atomic Habits
>Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

They are mainstream books, but extremely good

For studying I recommend Pomodoro technique, it did good job for me
Here is quick summary: https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/pomodoro-technique
I would also advise you to take quiz on the above site (top right corner), it will recommend best technique based on your answers, and they have pretty good summary of all major techniques too

>>6440
I've read that reading this book (Atomic Habits) in its entirety isn't really worth it, and that it's somewhat useful but not that much. The /b/ thread is gone now though, so I forgot exactly what the post said.

>>6440
>atomic habits
I thought this was just another one of those scammy self help books; is this shit actually legit?international_brigadeInternational Brigade

>>6442
could you give us an overview of what you remember?ak-47AK-47

>>6442
>>6443
What do you recommend instead

>>6440
lol the productivity "method" I got is "just fucking do it"

>>6456
Not that anon but this could help.
https://minihabits.com/mini-habit-ideas/
>>6457
This is legit too

>>6464
>This is legit too
what if there's no 'the most important thing' but rather a long, consistently intense task?

>>6465
Can you maybe give an example?

>>6465
You are supposed to break it down into smaller sub-tasks. But if it is related to studying, I would recommend the Pomodoro thing instead.

>>6383
Thanks for the tips and for the recommendation! This is an excellent book, and really worthwhile reading.

>>6383
>If you have friends who put up with your bullshit you can give a mini-lecture about it to them too, it helps in the same way.
That's why I often end up talking to myself, as though I'm giving a live presentation, when doing chores and stuff.
Heh.


:(

>>6388
>>6383
Nice posts. How do you deal with after-work fatigue?

>>6443
since making this thread i have read atomoc habits and can absolutely confirm that it is extremely good

>>6383
>The most important thing to know about learning is that the best way to learn is by recalling. Therefore, by far the most effective study method, even though it is hard as fuck, is to practice recalling thing.

i like to recall things by just talking to people about it.

>>6392
Chill out dude xe's just trying to help.

Op, I recommend pomodoro timer for studying. Also, make marginalia notes in your books.

>>6465
>>6457
The best advice for your query (from what I tried doing) is immersing yourself in the topic to get yourself more comfortable on the topic and/or get in the mood, (ex: watch youtube videos on the topic).

Productivity is a bitch for giving gains in the most random un-observable locations, so here's a list of stuff I also do:
>pomodomo + following the design of the system
<read the document. One example being that you can only cancel a pomodomo work session if you completed the task in less than five minutes
<I also have a windup kitchen timer, but I don't use it now since I don't want to interrupt my dogs naps
>using 11 lists to organize myself to get to work + on some of the lists it highlights what I need to do/have done
<Two of the lists you make daily, one for stuff that needs to be done today, and the other that can be done today as well.
>having a plastic bowl of cheerios near me to eat since of how impulsive I am
>a rubber duck
>waking up at X with Y hours of sleep to dig into my productive hours + having a dedicated section of work and relaxation
>having environments of doing an activity (hard when all your work is done with a laptop that you also use to relax, I guess I can block sites, but I want something stronger)
>drink coffee
<but also not too much or else I get jittery
<but also maybe I should drink all of it
<who knows.
>Drink energy drinks like bang
<Separate entry to highlight since it has loads of sugar in it so how to approach it is different
>Figure out that you had ADHD your whole life and also turns out chronic procrastination is one of the symptoms, so that's why people can just "do it", and you can't.
<But don't won't worry, brain genius like >>6464 & >>6466 can help you – people who approach help with this mentality it's super simple and easy to figure out despite the fact the knowledge needed can easily fill a 1/2 credit college class – since after all, they're so smart that they will give you this advice despite the fact that if it was true for all people then THIS THREAD WOULDN'T EXIST
<(Also I figured I have ADHD through other symptoms, plus talking to two experts on the topic, plus also (overkill) seeing that adderall affecting me how people with ADHD also take adderall)
>Watch/listen to material that makes you happy and puts you in a positive mood to do the task
<This contradicts the original advice – and honestly, it's probably the wrong approach. I just state it since I had an easier times sometimes listening to cumtown while working.
>Go for a walk
<Which despite popular belief, won't always 100% make you able to work again.
I can't remember anything else, and I don't know how much to think on approaching this topic on energy like >>11200

>>11752
Honestly agree with them. The poster (>>6388) solutions doesn't really get into the deep reasons for why people struggle to get working, (and is abit contradictory).
You need to remember that people are more adaptive than you think, and there being one problem isn't going to completely stop them from working, (cutting off access to social media is fine advice, but someone being unable to work just because of twitter isn't realistic).

And with this missing deep analysis, the poster tries to go deep but in the most pseudo-intellectual way, with the shining example being "It's in the name: habit. Do a small bit everyday, and by everyday I mean *everyday*.". It's good advice, yes, but the poster clearly doesn't understand why it's good advice.
Doing a small bit doesn't work when:
>you can effectively break down the sub tasks of the main task
>you struggle to get a routine started
>you have a deadline ahead – (also applies to the deadline is far ahead but you're trying to work ahead or trying to accomplish personal deadlines that you gave yourself since the task needs to have parts done ahead of time) – (there's more stuff as well like having a huge workload of many things) – and you can't afford doing a little amount of work.
Then the rest of the help paragraph reads like a humble brag.

>>11200
Nap, food, drink (energy drinks like rainbow bangs), basically anything that can help you energize.
Alternatively: take a step back and approach it as if you can't ever do it after work, but instead maybe before or during it. Highlight on the latter with an example: when I worked at home depot, I would hide in the handicap stall for 10 minutes every 2/3 hours. Add the 5 minutes to walk that and another back, plus the break – it really helped dealing with the shift there.

>>12186
Sorry, forgot to add this: does anyone know a site to download a collection of picture books for children in different languages? I want to read them to learn:
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Esperanto.
I have no idea what thread to ask, and I don't like the idea of having a whole thread dedicated to it.

One small thing that I've found really helps me focus is to do proofreading for Marxists.org. If you're going to be reading off a laptop, I think setting the goal of proofreading the text really helps you to actually finish it. Note the transcription errors, check them against a source PDF from archive.org if needed, fix them using basic HTML skills, and then email the proofed file to a "Proofreading Coordinator" volunteer. Every bit of proofreading helps, and believe it or not, some of the most important Marxist classics are also the ones with the most errors, because they were scanned in first back in the 90s using very primitive OCR software.

>>6465
>>6457
Christ, I'm sorry about my >>12186, I was annoyed at those two posts who claim "just do it", and didn't give a clear answer. The solution to you approach I'd recommend is to mind map every activity your task requires.

I haven't completed it, (infact I'm still reading it), but the book I'm recommended, (and mentioned earlier in the thread) is great. It recommended using that mind map the sub tasks of a task to the point of each task is broken down to something that requires 2 minutes to complete it, then filter the tasks that HAVE to be required for the day through a bucket system, (he's against lists since lists are static, but I still use lists anyway but instead update them constantly. This in result has made me create 12 lists + daily creation of 3 lists for school. Over kill but I have adhd and I find this as a tool that has allowed me to do much more than I originally did).

Also three notes:
1) If you want to double check what I said on the book, what I talked about is covered in the first part of the book/chapter 1-3.
2) I can't think of an example of a task that can't be broken down, so I'd recommend replying with a task that you're struggling in breaking down. Keep in mind that research on the topic, asking for help, organize notes, or just in general any strategies that can make you more comfortable to approach the task – are themselves a subtask to break down from the main task in helping you to take down the task.
3) Also everything I said in that original post is very applicable, and the answer was in that post, It's just poorly organized to answer you problem).

>>12192
>>12193
Sorry for not responding, I didn't respond at first since I didn't realize you could mass download the collections, then I didn't respond since I wanted to download the books first and then thank you two.
(I have a bad habit of doing a small one off task only when I can stack it with two relative small one off tasks – Ex: I like throwing out the garbage when I have to also throw out the recycling than just throwing out the garbage).

Anyway, thank you for the collections. I think I'm going to just focus on one language on a time instead of "multi"-tasking learning multiple languages.

>>12194
This is a good tip. It helps me understand my class material when I'm marking up the slides and adding comments like: "X is a bad example since of Z problems that muddle the point", "how is this applicable to Y", or just general corrections/questions that instantly come to mind when I see the material.

>>12194
I did proofread some texts on theanarchistlibrary.org and in my experience it is very bad for comprehension. At least when I was doing it I was focused on the text itself and not the meaning, the errors constantly interrupted the reading, and in general it was a very different experience from reading.

In the middle of my first year of law school I ended up doing quite a bit of research into the whole learning-how-to-learn thing. I had been waiting tables and working in offices for a few years, so I developed the schizo attention span that comes with constantly emailing and calling people. So I went ahead and read some of the books in the attached chart as well as watched lectures and read blogs about the whole thing. My absolute favorite book was Make it Stick. If this had been out back when I was in undergrad I think things would have been different. I'm not exactly sure what I thought learning was back then, maybe it was just that you read the book, listen to the prof, make some notecards, and then take a test. I was conditioned by 16 years of 'school' and secondary sources. Books who's entire point is to introduce you to the vocabular of an entire field. History books that give dates and names. It was as if my education was only to learn the most shallow of all things. It wasn't until my senior year of undergrad that I would actually read papers and do my own research on a minimal number of things. This was few and far between as I had horse blinders of graduating on.

In law school this all changed. I was thrown into a pit of type A wolves. Gunners everywhere around me. People straight from undergrad who had already learned these techniques and strategies for learning. People who never became rusty because they never left the ivory towers of academia.

The actual content of law school throws you straight in. It is your job to look up definitions. The textbooks are all loosely put together judicial opinions. While the author puts them in a linear order, the content itself isn't directed at students, it is a decision set forth to end a dispute. This means that every single case-book was spotty at best at what it was designed to teach the student. If you wanted to actually know what the law in your state was, you had to go look it up. If you wanted to know if the case was still good law, you had to look it up. If you wanted to know the historical context of the law in question, you had to look it up. Oh, did the opinion use weird Latin or archaic English? Look it up.

That's not even getting to the point of what the exams were like. Generally you get one exam at the end of the semester. That's it. No quarterly tests, weekly exams, attendance extra credit, homework assignments. One exam. And only some of the professors had practice or previous exams (the social dynamic of the black market of these exams and class outlines becomes an entirely different subject), but eventually I learned the 'study to the professor' deal. You found, through others, outlines of the class material from type A straight A students the year before. You used those as your hub for that class. You found outlines in banks and wherever you could get your hands on them.

The entire system hides the ball. The professors tell you to read, take notes, and put them in an outline, then study from your outline for the exam. This is all bullshit. You get someone else's outline from the class, modify it to their current lectures, and do research on what the black letter rules are. That's what they don't tell you. The exams aren't there to test your knowledge of case law, its to test whether you can apply general rules and exceptions to a given fact scenario. This led me and my friends to getting our hands on as many practice questions as we could. Ripping through book after book of fact situations and trading answers. (this is that application and physical practice all the learning books tell you about). We would time each other and make it as close to the exam process as possible to prepare. You only had one shot.

Anyway, the point is that law school opened my eyes from the previous learning processes I had experienced. While everything I just mentioned is about exams, that process itself opened me up to more autodidactic learning. I started reading judicial philosophy and other analysis about the law as a means of control by the wealthy and powerful. How property law protects capital. I started actually reading Marx and not just regurgitating the socialism 101 type stuff. The strange part about it was that the things I was actually interested in, I didn't need to make an extensive system of notes to remember it because I'd be thinking about it and processing it already. These networks of systems we use to manage knowledge are there when the will has dried up. Friends will point out that I know a lot about a topic or say that I'm 'smart', or that they wouldn't want to see me in court, but this is dubious at best. It's all a selective system. My ability to dialectically analyze the law does not help when arguing motions in front of a judge. There are attorneys out there that use the same critical thinking within the framework of the law and they are far more effective. I'm over here rambling like zizek and they already got their judgement signed. The point being, that, at least for me, when I'm really into something, the work and research itself serves as the mechanism for processing to long term memory as opposed to when you are required to learn something you do not find interesting from a textbook or dry and dull primary text. The use of spaced repetition, memory palaces, chunking, napping, writing notes, smart note systems, all these things are great and reinforce things generally for when you need them, lest you turn into me shouting 'fundamental ideological presupposition' at the beginning of every argument.

Wow this turned into a rambling blog post. Hope some part of it is helpful or interesting.

>>12445
:( The discussion before covered many good points already. Thought personal anecdotes would help. I guess not. Sorry, anon.

>>12446
Sorry I'm just jealous of other people's successes

>>12447
I didn't write the part about how I failed the bar exam before eventually passing and how my new friends all moved away or how my old friends all see me different now or how the options for an attorney are working at a big evil firm or getting paid pittance actually helping people. I tried to keep it related to learning and processes.

>>12194 (me)
>>12374
You're not wrong that proofreading is a different experience than reading for its own sake. It does hurt your comprehension a bit, but on the other hand it might be the only way to motivate you to read it at all. At least for me the knowledge that I'm helping smarter and more charismatic people understand the text allows me to read more than my willpower on its own.

I'll add another comment about the different formats of written content. Paper books I think are great for staying focused, great for taking notes, and as you'd expect have the least errors, but the major downside is that you have to shell out for the books, which can get expensive fast. A lot of leftist stuff is out of print too - today there are usually public domain printings which is nice, but they're often shitty reproductions of PDFs you can get for free on archive.org.

Then you have e-books for your e-paper e-reader, which I think everyone should own, but there are drawbacks. The nice things are that they're super legible with big fonts and a frontlight, super portable, and you can pirate the books for free. The downside though is that finding highlighted passages and especially checking footnotes is a huge pain in the ass and makes books where that is important almost unreadable.

Finally you have PDFs and the like on your PC. Here it's by far the easiest to take notes, take quotes, and check sources. On the other hand, eyestrain and it's very, very easy to get distracted. As a result, while I start reading most books on my laptop, I very rarely finish them there.

I'm not sure how helpful that rant was to others but it did remind me that I should probably try to make e-book versions of the stuff I proofread for Marxists.org. It's trivial to download source PDFs these days compared to the early 2000s when most of the site was produced, so in $current_year I think the big advantage of transcription is to make e-books possible. It's still more work though, and projects always seem to stall when it's time to turn your reading into code for a finished product.

>>12456
If you're using epubs then Koreader makes footnote usage very easy and seamless, they just pop-up as a box on the bottom of the page. The problem with using epubs though is that you can't reference them properly, because they (usually) don't have regular page numbers.

>>12457
Koreader is custom firmware, right? I've been meaning to experiment with that on my Kobo Clara HD but I've never found the time. It's worth noting that I think my biggest issue with footnotes is actually being able to tap those tiny numbers, I keep missing.

Almost all the epubs I've read that are professionally released seem to have proper page numbers. You render fonts bigger than in the original book of course so there's 3 or so virtual pages per one paper page, but I think you can usually get a citation within one page of the original.

>>12456
That's pretty sad. Why not read something that you are actually interested in?

>>12460
Maybe I was a little too harsh with my first post. I usually DO read things I'm actually interested in, it just helps a lot to have the sunk cost of work done to guarantee that I complete it on time instead of leaving halfway through to play video games etc. And yes, there are definitely books out there that are difficult to get through but ultimately rewarding to learn from. "Luminous summits of science" and all that.

Although I will confess that I've had a couple proofreading projects that I thought I would like, ended up being bad, but I forced myself through it anyway just to finish the project.

>>12458
Yeah, but it's pretty easy to install. Used to be a but complicated, but they streamlined it pretty well. I'd recommend you give it a try with Kobo Start Menu, makes it pretty simple. Also koreader has an option to make the footnote links have a larger tap area (which I use) and it works pretty nice. Their PDF viewer is also much better, at least in comparison with my Glo HD.

>>12470
Different anon but I am going to look into this. Got a kobo thanks to /lit/ but never got much further beyond complaining about calibre. Just always scared third party software will brick it.

>>12471
I don't think it's possible to brick with koreader; it doesn't really mess with the system, just loads some software. There used to be a way to bypass Nickel, which is the Kobo OS, but it was never recommended and also not a very good idea anyway. Try it out! I think you might like it. It's easy to uninstall. As a side note, some people prefer Plato to Koreader; it's another reader available. You can find both in the Mobileread forums.

>>12192
>>12193
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU DOWNLOAD THESE LIKE HOLY FUCKING SHIT
I don't get it, I couldn't even download them so I could then figure out a way to mass bullk dedrm them.

Also, why the fuck is it so hard to find a collection of children books in spanish?
I looked all over r/opendirectory and used google search engines to find other directories and I still couldn't find them.

Also how the fuck do you download from calibre libraries!?
Wget doesn't work.
The scripts made by the community doesn't work.

Like what the fuck is this difficulty.

I'm not angry at you guys, I just spent like 15+ hours trying to do this and I'm genuinely miserable about the whole thing.

>>12531
That’s what using a computer or fixing problems feels like all the time and I’ve become so accustomed to failure I just stopped.

>>12531
After realizing that I didn't check the google drives, (since the only site r/opendirectory had that was was still online I thought it didn't work), I tried it and in 3 minutes I found a drive full of them:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aFXs4YhCPB9TwemhXaPJ0Hv0SiVrv41A

Honestly, it can't be a more fitting ending than this.
I stayed up 6 hours past my bed time because of this

>>12534
Yeah…
Well with this experience, I learned:
If you're taking too long, do it on a different day.

Too bad I'm too stupid and obsessive to learn this

>>12531
To download on archive.org you have a few options. If the book is public domain, it usually is available to download straight from the page, no problems. If it is loan only, you have a couple of options, both of which entail having an archive.org account:
1. You can manually loan the book, download the adobe drm file thing and open it in adobe's spyware software (Adobe Digital Editions); it'll download the book, which you can find by clicking in "go to folder" (or something like that) in the drop down menu, where a pdf file will be; you then have to drop this pdf file on a Calibre with the DeDRM plugin installed, which will promptly remove the drm. By then you can just find the book in Calibre's folder strutcture and voilà, you got a free pdf. (I recommend testing if it really removed the DRM by just opening the file). Then you can return the book. This is time-consuming and annoying, but it works.
2. Just use this python script: https://github.com/MiniGlome/Archive.org-Downloader. It works pretty good, and it can do bulk downloads.
I know you solved your problem, but this might be useful for other comrades.

bumping for interest

>>12546
just tried option 2, thanks anon! it works perfectly.