• names of people I haven't seen in a while
• concepts, unless I've "gotten my hands dirty" implementing them
• stuff I read online
• tend to skim, missing details
• distractions on individual pages/screens
• Instapaper/Readability/full-screen mode (esp. with the iPhone) ease this

What seems to work for me

• cue cards
• especially true when I make the cue cards
• examples where it worked:
• learning Chinese in my twenties. I folded cue cards in two, then used the four sides for
• outside: pronunciation in Pinyin
• other side, outside: simplified character, since that's what we used to learn
• inside: English translation
• other side inside: traditional character, in order to at least recognize them in contexts outside mainland China (North American Chinatowns, for example), which tend to use traditional)
• notes on the edges, such as which chapter of the textbook the word or phrase came from
• taking an exam on railway safety procedures in my early thirties
• reading the book twice, as recommended by the examiners, who said the test was simple, absolutely did not work. Failed the exam miserably using that method
• my girlfriend stepped in an noticed that I had to try a different approach, and suggested cue cards
• one side: the situation
• other side: what to do in that situation
• learning by doing
• true in my late twenties/early thirties
• I can read all about how to install a web server, but actually rushing through the instructions and breaking things leads to more success
• "muscle memory", as much as muscle memory can be applied to typing on a keyboard
• taking photos of stuff, mostly because it's easy
• if not remembering the thing, then at least remembering where I can look it up
• tagging is useful not for the social aspects, but for the individual aspect. That is, I don't expect anybody to know or guess what I tag something with, but I do know what I would tag something with if I need to find that something

Don't know either way if they work for me (questions about my learning style):

• does taking notes and reviewing them work?
• in fact, almost any lecture or event I attend will be well-documented, likely video- or at least audio-recorded. So why even bother in the first place?