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learning how to learn

December 27, 2021

Why?

  • reading/learning can be a “priceless opportunity to furnish your mind and enrich the quality of your life”
  • read/learn for better understanding of others and myself
  • read/learn to make fewer mistakes.
  • read/learn to increase knowledge
  • read/learn to find meaning
  • read/learn improves vocabulary, focus, memory and imagination
  • Odds are that no matter what you’re working on, someone somewhere, who is smarter than you, has probably thought about your problem and put it into a book.
  • there are few things that hold us back and rob us our productivity, prosperity, positivity and peace of mind and reduce our capacity to think, focus, learn, grow, and be fully human
    • drowning in data and rapid change, we long for strategies and tools to regain some semblance of productivity, performance, and peace of mind
    • the fleeting ping of digital dopamine pleasure replaces our ability to sustain the attention necessary for deep relationships, deep learning or deep work
    • overuse of digital technology results in the breakdown of cognitive abilities. Short-term memory pathways will start to deteriorate from underuse if we overuse technology.
    • we’re letting technology do much of our critical thinking and reasoning for us.

Study group patterns

Learning knowledge

How to Read

Mental Models

Learning Organization

Range: Why Generalists

  • TODO????

learning how to learn

the problem when you follow your passion

  • I realized that by only following my passion, I didn’t have many choices.” Barbara Oakley

  • Learning How to Learn opens with the story of the author, Barbara Oakley. She makes a confession about how she sucked at math. She was so bad, that she stopped learning and focused solely on the subjects she enjoyed. Fast-forward a couple of years in the future, and she got a degree in computer science – and you need a lot of math to get such a degree.

  • If we only concentrate on subjects we like. We do get better, yes. But if we go a bit off track. If we go outside our comfort zone. We can improve much faster. Broaden our passions and open ourselves to many other wonderful opportunities.

  • The main thing that stands in your way. The main hurdle that prevents you from understanding hard subjects. Is your ability to learn.

  • If you improve your learning skills, you can greatly improve your life.

  • Commonly, we convince ourselves that we can’t learn something. “It’s not our thing,” we say. “It’s too hard for me.”

  • But not the subject is hard, we simply don’t know how to learn. We don’t know how to approach different and difficult subjects.

  • When you acquire new mental learning tools. Understand how to approach a subject. You can learn anything, even if you failed at it many times before.

  • That’s exactly what the book teaches us. How to get better at learning, so we can conquer new territories and expand our knowledge map.

Focused Mode vs Diffuse Mode

  • The brain works in a focused and diffuse mode. Sometimes it’s focused and other times when it wanders. Both modes are necessary to learn effectively. You can be in only one mode at a time. You can change your brain through learning. Diffuse mode uses a different part of the brain than when you’re focused. You can make connections between ideas when your brain is in diffuse mode. When you’re focused, you make trails in your brain. When you first learn a subject, you lay trails in your brain.

  • You follow the trail you laid for the subject when you are working on a problem. When you want to think, you’re in focused mode. When you want to think more freely, you’re in diffuse mode – when you want to see the bigger picture.

  • To learn effectively:

    • Focus to turn on the relevant parts of the brain to get the process started.
    • Move to diffuse mode.

  • Focused Mode

    • Certain parts of your brain go to work when you’re thinking about something.
    • Put specific parts of the brain to work.
    • Paying attention.

  • Diffuse Mode

    • Activates certain parts of your brain when you’re thinking about nothing.
    • Relaxed mind.
    • Think about nothing in particular.
    • Daydream.
    • Doodle.

Procrastination

  • What is procrastination? It’s putting something off for later. When you put off something that’s important to your success, at first it doesn’t seem like it has much impact, but over time it can have a devastating effect. When you get accustomed to procrastinating, it makes doing important tasks harder. You get stressed and miss deadlines. You’ll also fall behind. Procrastination is bad for effective learning. You run out of time to focus on studying information. No time to focus on what you learned.

  • To stop procrastination, get going. Francesco Cirillo came up with the Pomodoro Technique. You can use the Pomodoro Technique to avoid procrastination and to focus. Time and practice work hand-in-hand. You learn more effectively. You need the time to practice what you’re learning. Procrastination robs you of time. When you have enough time, you can build learning structures. When you think about something you don’t like, it activates the insular cortex, which is the pain center of the brain.

  • The Pomodoro Technique is a great productivity system that helps keep your attention on task (25 minutes), and reminds you to take a break (5 minutes).

  • Learning best happens when you rest deliberately. Using your phone during a break doesn’t help your brain recharge.

  • A 2013 study showed that students who didn’t use their cellphones wrote better notes, recalled more, and scored a letter grade and a half higher than their phone-using counterparts.

  • Moving back and forth between different tasks (i.e. task-switching) can reduce focus/learning, and increase forgetting. However, task-switching can be useful for creative work, because it can prevent fixation and broaden your awareness.

  • For deeper focus, try keeping away from digital devices. If you can’t, make sure social media apps and notifications are turned off.

  • If interruptions are unavoidable, create a ready-to-resume plan. This can be as simple as noting where you left off while working on a math problem, so that you can return to it after. Having a plan provides closure for your brain and allows you to switch focus without being preoccupied. It will also help you return to your work more efficiently lat

Getting Unstuck

  • Napping and doing nothing are actually terrific ways to take a break. Getting a cup of tea or going for a short walk are also great.

  • Focused mode is when your attention is directed towards a single activity, like writing or drawing a picture. Diffuse mode is when your mind wanders, like while riding the bus or going for a walk, and is when you can come up with new insights and approaches. Alternating between the two modes is one of the best ways to learn new—and difficult—things.

  • You can leverage the power of diffuse mode to make progress on difficult problems in the background. Try working on a hard problem before a meal, a break, or sleeping for the night.

  • The “hard start” technique can help you on tests. Spend a few minutes on the most challenging parts, and then switch to the easier problems. Your brain will continue tugging at the thread of the challenge parts behind the scenes.

  • Diffuse mode is great for writing first drafts, while focused mode is better for editing. However, many people get caught up in editing as they go, which leads to trouble getting the first draft out of your head and onto the page. You can cover the screen while you write or use apps like Write or Die to overcome your tendency to self-edit and nitpick.

Deeper Learning

  • On a neurological level, learning is when new neurons connect to each other. The dendrites are like long legs that reach out and attach to other neurons through dendritic branches, which are like toes.

  • Each time you remember a set of information or engage a skill, old neural connections are activated.

  • Active learning means pushing yourself and working your brain. Passive learning is when you scan a book or listen inattentively. To learn actively, it helps to retrieve the knowledge or skills you are using. This helps to build and reinforce new connections, and forces you to check your understanding.

  • Retrieval practice gives you feedback about what you know well, and what you need to practice more. If you can’t pull it out of long-term memory and into short term memory, it isn’t likely to stick

  • Other ways to learn actively: think through problems on your own (without the answers), try to recall concepts and passages from what you read, come up with questions, explain and teach others, and use self-testing.

  • Elaboration is when you explain a concept in your own words, whether it is to yourself or others. In a 1983 study, students who talked through problems as they worked on them scored much higher than students who didn’t. You can put the power of elaboration to work by verbalizing the chords you are playing while learning the piano, or explaining your methods at each step of a math problem.

  • Interleaving means varying the skills or knowledge you acquire during a practice session. An example in baseball would be practicing with a combination of different types of pitches(like change-ups, curve balls, and sliders) in one session, instead of just with one type.

  • Exercise increases levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This chemical is like fertilizer for dendritic spines, which helps to promote new connections between neurons.

  • Some dietary choices that can help learning: caffeine(in moderation), carbs (for short-term energy), intermittent fasting,

  • “Learning means linking dendritic spines with adjacent neurons to form neural connections in long-term memory.”

  • “Ten hours of learning crammed into one day are not nearly as effective as ten hours of learning spaced out over ten days.”

  • During the day, your brain produces toxic waste products called metabolites. During sleep, your brain cells shrink which allows these metabolites to be cleared out.

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  • ​Cognitive overload occurs when you try to grasp too many pieces of information at once. Try connecting the pieces of information together to form chunks, as they are easier to remember that way.

How to Internalize Learning

  • Learning happens through two cognitive avenues: the declarative system and the procedural system. Your declarative system functions alongside your working memory when you practice a new skill. You procedural system works when you internalize elements of a skill, and can use them reflexively. Both types of learning can occur side by side, and can reinforce each other.

  • While the declarative system operates step by step, the procedural system identifies patterns and works more intuitively.

  • When learning a new language, it is important to activate your procedural system. While your declarative system is able to hold onto lots of words and information, it can take a long time to access them. When you learn a language procedurally, the vocabulary and speech comes more readily.

  • Wherever possible, converse with a native speaker of the language. While you will make a lot of mistakes, they can help correct you and you can train your procedural system to internalize the patterns of speech in your target language.

  • Gestures can also help you to anchor the meaning of new words.

Observe How You Learn

  • Another key component of getting better is getting better at watching yourself how you study.

  • It’s one thing to read a book. Try a couple of techniques from the book and call it a day.

  • It’s quite another to do the above and sit down at the end of the same day to observe what you did best and what can be further improved.

  • An adventurous idea from the book is to get comfortable at the end of the day. Grab a notebook, and try to answer a couple of questions. These for example:

    • What new did you learn today?
    • How did your learning go?
    • Was there something you did especially well?
    • Anything you might have done better?
    • What made a difference in your learning that day?
    • At what time did I stop learning?
    • Even if you no longer consider yourself a student. You can change the questions a bit.

  • Analyze your working day… What went well? What didn’t? What can you improve? What do you have control over?

  • The main idea is to regularly reflect on your days. Try to spot patterns. With these insights, make some changes and start observing again.

  • Few ideas from the authors that can help you further improve:

    • Study in different places: It might seem odd, but studying in one particular place can interfere with your memory. If you always study in, say, the library, your attention octopus gets used to this. So, the material you’ve learned in the library can “come out” only if you visit the library. If you acquire new information in a variety of places, your attentional octopus, as said in the book, “ends up getting used to finding things in your long-term memory locker regardless of where you’re studying.”
    • Try different materials: Some people prefer to learn by watching videos, others by reading text. Third, for example, might want to attend seminars. We all have our preferred learning style. However, according to studies mentioned in the book, relying on one medium to learn is not the best way to learn. It’s much better to mix sources. Watch a video, yes, but also read.
    • Set quitting time: Scheduling time to stop studying or stop working – depending on your stage in life. Is the best thing you can do for yourself. When you have a firm schedule, you know that you have from here to hear to study, you will better concentrate.

  • Actionable Notes:

    • Use metaphors: When you are learning something new. Or when you are trying to explain something you know to others, use metaphors. Metaphors help you get new things faster. You connect the new information to something you already know. This way, you reuse previously created paths in your brain. By doing so, you learn faster and you remember for longer. So, when you are confronted with a complex idea, try to find something similar you already know. Something to relate the new concept to. And if a metaphor is no longer useful, replace it with a new one.
    • Active recall: Good learning requires three main components: learning, practice, and sleep. The more you do these three, the stronger the connections between the neurons inside your brain will become. But usually, we try to cheat. We try to learn everything in one day and think that this will be enough for strong foundations. The best way to ensure that your building blocks remain in your head, is by doing an active recall. If you study for a test, or if you simply want to ensure that your current knowledge will remain intact, you need to schedule active recall sessions. For instance, you learn a new concept on Monday. On Tuesday, review your main points. On Wednesday, recite or write down the main components of the new idea without looking at your notes. On Friday, try to do the same. The more you practice, the less you’ll have to look at your notes. Thus, the stronger the foundations.
    • Memory palace technique: The memory palace is probably the oldest technique for remembering things. Used by the famous Roman writer Cicero for his speeches, the memory palace will help you recall long complicated subjects more easily. The basics of this tool are the following: You imagine a place you know well. For example, your house. Once you have a mental picture of your house, take the information you want to remember and place it in objects around your house. The goal is to cut the big piece of info into chunks and place these smaller chunks in different things. A piece of info on a picture. Another piece on your shelf. One more on the dining table. Then, imagine silly situations. Once the setting is complete, picture yourself walking around your house and interacting with the objects you put information inside in some sort of order. If you want to remember a grocery list, you can imagine the bottle of milk as a 6-foot-tall bottle that talks, and the carton of eggs as 6 children that are holding hands.
    • Avoid rut think: A counterintuitive way to improve in one field is learning about a completely different field. Not an adjacent field, but something in a far away spectrum. Why is that? Well, as we get better in one field, our internal pathways cement. We get better at doing a particular task, but if there is a slight deviation, we’ll be clueless about what to do. Our thinking becomes less flexible. To mix things up, to get better at what you’re passionate about. It’s much wiser to learn a bit about something completely different. This will introduce new ideas and help you avoid what is called “rut think”.
    • Thinking fast and slow: If your attention octopus hasn’t grown many hands. You’ll have a hard time quickly remembering things. You’ll have to “run” to the locker every time you need to remember something. All of this makes you a slow thinker. But slow doesn’t equal bad. Actually, the authors mentioned that slow thinkers can come up with some original ideas. Here’s why: When you think fast, you rush to the solution without thinking a lot about the details. And while you do (probably) give a correct answer, you prevent yourself from coming up with a better answer. Conversely, slow thinkers “hike” towards the solution. By doing so, they see all the possible options and can come up with quite better solutions. So, don’t feel bad if you think kind of slowly. Use it to your advantage.

Quotes

“Marking a book is literally an experience of your differences or agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him”

“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do”

“Doing the work required to hold on opinion means you can argue against yourself better than others can.”

“what an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected business. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital”

“Teach thy tongue to say I do not know, and thou shalt progress”

“I’m no genius, I’m smart in spots - but I stay around those spots.”

“any fool can know. The point is to understand”

“it takes one to know one”

“the first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you’re the easiest person to fool”

True experts recognize the limits of what they know what what they do not know. If they find themselves outside of their circle of competence, they keep quiet or simply say, “I don’t know”.

“Skim a lot of books, read a few. Immediately re-read the best ones twice.”

The blank sheet primes your brain for what you’re about to read and shows you what you’re learning

reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author

understanding is a two way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying.

marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him

“priceless opportunity to furnish your mind and enrich the quality of your life”

“The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money”

“Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides”

“go to bed smarter than when you woke up”

“we don’t read other people’s opinions. We want to get the facts, and then think”

“when it comes to reading, you don’t need to finish what you start”

“The pencil,” he argues, “becomes the sign of your alertness while you read”

The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.

“borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your bespoke blueprint.”

“first you make your habits and then your habits make you”

“anything is good for your heart is good for you head”

lifelong learning adds years to your life and life to your years

TEAM: Together Everyone Achieve More

be kind to yourself

learning is not solo, it’s social

genius leaves clues

“What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand”

there’s no failure, only failure to learn.

practice makes progress

to understand is to know what to do

“the key to better comprehension is asking better questions”

you shall receive when you ask questions

“It’s easy to believe that you should only concentrate on subjects that come easily for you. But my story reveals that you can do well in subjects you don’t even like. The truth is, it’s okay to follow your passions. But I also found that broadening my passions opened many wonderful opportunities. Learning new subjects I didn’t think I could do turned out to be an adventure!” Barbara Oakley

“The neuron-aliens are like friends who become better friends because they talk a lot… Researchers often use the phrase “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” You can think of the “wiring together” as creating a set of brain-links. Learning something new means creating new or stronger links in your brain. A new set of brain-links!” Barbara Oakley

“The fact that trails in your brain can change and grow is called neuroplasticity. (It’s pronounced “new-row-plas-TI-sity.”) This fancy word just means that your neurons are like clay you can mold. That is, your neurons can change. This is why you can change!” Barbara Oakley

“In any case, your octopus can get tired. It can hold on to information for just a little while—maybe ten to fifteen seconds. Then the information begins to slip away unless you concentrate or repeat it to hold it in mind.” Barbara Oakley

“Basically, Nelson tells himself corny visual jokes that help him remember. You’ll be amazed by how easy it is to remember things when you have a goofy way of remembering them. And it’s fun making them up!” Barbara Oakley

“You create and strengthen sets of brain-links through deliberate practice. That’s focused, repeated work on the more difficult parts of a concept. Don’t waste much time on the easy stuff that you already know.” Barbara Oakley

“Everybody’s different. That’s why it’s important to become your own personal learning scientist. You can see what works best in your learning. Think like a scientist and start looking for patterns in what works and what doesn’t work for you.” Barbara Oakley

References

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Written by Tony Vo father, husband, son and software developer Twitter