Reading and continuous learning

If you have a deadline, research your options ahead of time before finalizing that deadline. It may take you longer to complete a project than initially anticipated.

Procrastination is often due to the lack of motivation to complete the project. 

Offer yourself a reward for working on the project consistently or for when you finish the project.

• The adaptiveness of the brain, which scientists have now better understood is called Neuroplasticity.
• Studies show that brains of adults and elders can learn a new language just as a child could, provided they get the opportunity and are not inhibited towards making mistakes.

A child's brain is indeed completely raw, known as 'Tabula Rasa' and they can find it easier to master certain skills of perception, but at the same time, adults have the advantage of analysis, self-reflection and greater discipline.

The barrier to learning in adults may consist of preconceived notions, negativity or lack of confidence.
Older adults also underestimate the power of their own memories, reinforcing the belief that they cannot learn or remember, and making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Education has no age limit, and older adults need to break these psychological barriers to learning, leading to profound benefits and a sharper mind.

• Color Code. Assign color to common themes in your lectures, when highlighting information.
• Organize your notes by compiling handouts, putting tabs, writing neatly, using outlines, to make your notes appealing.
• Study the Graphics. Use charts and graphics in your textbook to easily remember information.
• Draw pictures or figures to accompany the information you're trying to learn.
• Watch documentaries or videos to get a bigger picture and expand your knowledge on the topic you want to learn.
• Draw concept maps to easily categorize a certain subject. Illustrate pictures relating to each subtopic.

It means producing something novel or original, evaluating, solving problems, whether on paper, on stage, in a laboratory or even in the shower.

Geniuses know “how” to think, instead of “what” to think.

People who are more creative can simultaneously engage brain networks that don’t typically work together.

We can use this same model to learn new concepts.

“In order to talk to each other, we have to have words, and that’s all right. It’s a good idea to try to see the difference, and it’s a good idea to know when we are teaching the tools of science, such as words, and when we are teaching science itself.” 

Richard Feynman

Learning how to learn is critical for everyone. Most of us have to deal with a changing world and to learn how to manage tons of new information.

However, most of our learning methods are outdated and far from optimal. It may even be giving us an illusion of learning, like re-reading and highlighting that don't provide proper feedback to show what you haven't learned.

Focused and diffuse modes provide two models for how we develop, elaborate, deepen and broaden connections. Both methods are important.

• The focused mode of learning is about bringing related concepts together into a unit, called a chunk. 
• The diffuse mode operates through a wider net of connecting general ideas across different fields. We use this diffuse mode while we sleep, exercise or daydream.

Most learning techniques with lots of theory and colorful infographics do not assist in making the information stick in our minds.

There is a need for ‘desirable difficulties’ which exercise our minds and translate into long-term retention of knowledge.

.. or a Q&A session primes the brain to absorb the information afterward, and failing to answer it initially is part of the game.

The brain needs to know that it doesn’t know.

The behaviorist perspectives of learning originated in the early 1900s. The main idea of behaviorism is that learning consists of a change in behavior because of obtaining, strengthening and applying associations between input from the world, and observations of the individual.

• Learning is reinforced by exercise and repetition, followed by a positive reward.
• Learning takes place when the right parts of more complex behavior are rewarded.

Cognitive psychology started in the late 1950s and contributed to the move away from behaviorism.

• Instead of viewing people as collections of responses to external stimuli, people are viewed as information processors.
• Cognitive psychology was influenced by the computer that processes information, that became analogous to the human mind.
• Cognitive psychology understands learning as absorbing knowledge, acting on it, and storing it in memory.
• The main teaching methods are lecturing and reading textbooks, where the learner receives knowledge passively.

A big part of our forgetting is related to a healthy functioning of our memory: our brains select what’s important and dismiss the rest.

Studies show that forgetting plays a positive role in how the brain works - forgetting has the potential to increase long-term retention, information retrieval and performance.

When you deliberately remember something you’ve learned or came across recently, you signal to your brain that it needs to hold onto that piece of information.

When you are exposed to the same information multiple times, it takes less time to trigger and set in motion the information in your long-term memory and it becomes easier for you to fetch the information when you need it.

A mental model is an explanation of how something works. They are beliefs, worldviews or frameworks of thinking. You carry a certain kind of thinking in you to arrive at a solution to a problem.

Some examples:

• Demand and Supply: to understand the economy
• Game Theory: to understand trust and relationships
• Entropy: to understand disorder and decay

“Scientists generally agree that no theory is 100 percent correct. Thus, the real test of knowledge is not truth, but utility.”