The Mental Digestive Process
Step 2: It is the process of masticating these materials, as you would food that you are preparing for digestion. （收集材料之后要仔细咀嚼，便于消化。）
What you do is to take the different bits of material which you have gathered and feel them all over, as it were, with the tentacles of the mind. You take one fact, turn it this way and that, look at it in different lights, and feel for the meaning of it. You bring two facts together and see how they fit. （所谓咀嚼材料，是指要用思维的触角去遍历搜集到的各种材料。针对每一条材料，采取多样化的角度去观察，去审视，去感受其内涵。通过将不同的材料不断地两两组合，发掘它们之间的关联性。）
What you are seeking now is the relationship, a synthesis where everything will come together in a neat combination, like a jig-saw puzzle. （接下来，需要去寻找材料彼此之间的关联点，并整合不同的材料以形成一套完整的认知拼图，正如玩拼图游戏一般。）
在咀嚼材料的过程中，有两点需要特别注意：
1. First, little tentative or partial ideas will come to you. Put these down on paper. Never mind how crazy or incomplete they seem: get them down. These are foreshadowings of the real idea that is to come, and expressing these in words forwards the process. Here again the little 3 X 5 cards are useful. （你的脑海中会不时闪现一些瞬时的想法，记得将它们记录在纸上。不要介意想法多么疯狂或不成熟，记下来！它们是真正想法来临之前的铺垫，用简单的词语记录下这些铺垫性的想法可以有效推进真正的想法诞生的过程。同理，用小卡片做记录仍然是极其有效的方法。）
2. The second thing that will happen is that, by and by, you will get very tired of trying to fit your puzzle together. Let me beg of you not to get tired too soon. The mind, too, has a second wind. Go after at least this second layer of mental energy in this process. Keep trying to get one or more partial thoughts onto your little cards. （在咀嚼材料，并努力完成材料之间的匹配拼接的过程中，第二件必然会发生的事情是，你会变得非常疲惫。我希望你不要疲惫得太快。不要忘记，你的思维也是存在第二大脑的（此处应该是指潜意识）。至少要在你的第二大脑当中努力追寻更多的哪怕是不完备的想法，并记录在小卡片上。）
But after a while you will reach the hopeless stage. Everything is a jumble in your mind, with no clear insight anywhere. When you reach this point, if you have first really persisted in efforts to fit your puzzle together, then the second stage in the whole process is completed, and you are ready for the third one. （但是，一段时间之后，你会进入一个无望的状态。你的脑海将会变成一团乱麻，没有明确的突破口。如果你确实是通过前期的持续努力进入这种状态，意味着第二个步骤已接近尾声，即将进入产生新想法的第三步。）
整体看来，作者提出的催生新想法的第二步有点类似王国维提到的第二重境界：‘衣带渐宽终不悔,为伊消得人憔悴’，也与钱理群所说的“沉潜十年”在道理上如出一辙。简言之，就是要整个人，整个心思都沉浸到所搜集到的大量原始材料当中，拆解，重组，乃至击穿，吃透这些材料。即便一时无法打通它们，也要全身心地投入其中，乃至进入忘我的境界（即无意识状态）。隐藏的潜台词是要使自己的思维能够不自觉地在意识和无意识之间进行来回穿梭，直至新想法，或灵感的突然降临。