Yeah the key for me is to think about what's being said and question it or relate it to things I know. Integrate it into the knowledge network with as many links as possible. "Yes, of course, because...", or "Hmm, but doesn't this implication of this contradict the implications of this other thing"?

This way I have a path to the new information from old information, and I'm unlikely to forget it. For me at least, atoms of information are much harder to remember than connections. And they're much less useful, too.