inspectional-reading

The first level of Adler's "How to Read a Book" methodology, applied as a reusable skill. Answers two questions before any deeper reading happens: What kind of document is this? and Is it worth reading carefully?

The skill is invoked autonomously by an agent — it reads the document and produces structured output. It does not host a dialogue with the operator.

Workflow

- [ ] Step 1: Read the metadata (title, authors, date, source, length)
- [ ] Step 2: Read the abstract / introduction completely
- [ ] Step 3: Examine table of contents or section headings
- [ ] Step 4: Skim the conclusion and any end-material at a glance
- [ ] Step 5: Classify the document type
- [ ] Step 6: Assess worthiness for the calling agent's purpose
- [ ] Step 7: Output structured findings

Time budget: 10-15 minutes for a typical paper / chapter / methodology document. If a document needs more, you've drifted into the next level of reading — stop and produce the inspectional output you have.