Learning How To Learn

• “Focused” and “Diffused” Modes

  

  When learning, there are times in which you are focused and times in which you allow your mind to wander. Both modes are valuable to allow your brain to learn something. Take regular breaks, meditate, think about other things, and give yourself plenty of time in both modes.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Chunking

  

  This is the idea of breaking what you want to learn into concepts.  The goal is to learn each concept in a way that they each become like a well-known puzzle piece.  In order to master a concept, you not only need to know it but also to know how it fits into the bigger picture.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Beware of Illusions of Competence

  

  There are many ways in which we can make ourselves feel like we have “learned” a concept. Instead of highlighting or underlining, rather take brief notes that summarize keys concepts.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Recall

  

  Take a couple minutes to summarize or recall material you are trying to learn. It goes a long way to taking something from short-term memory to long-term learning.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Bite-Sized Testing

  In order to avoid or break through illusions of competence, you should test yourself as you’re encountering new material. Recall is a simple example of this mini-testing.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Over-Learning

  

  Do not spend too much time in one sitting going over the same material over and over again. The law of diminishing returns certainly applies. Spread it out over many sessions and over many different modes of learning.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Interleaving

  Once you have a basic understanding of what you are trying to learn, practice jumping back and forth between problems that require different techniques . This will solidify your understanding of the concepts by learning how to choose to apply them in various situations. Know when to apply a particular concept is as important as knowing how.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Process over Product

  When facing procrastination, think of the process over the product. Instead of thinking that you have to get X done, rather think to spend an hour on X. It is then not overwhelming, and doesn't require a long breakdown of tasks.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Metaphors and Analogies

  

  They are often talked about as helpful study techniques.  Try to make a deliberate effort to teach what you learn to someone else and, in doing so, you will likely be forced to explain concepts with relatable metaphors and analogies.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Study Groups / Teamwork

  ... have proven to be most beneficial to maintain continued progress and hold each other accountable. Finding the right group is key.

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• What learning is

  

   There are two kinds of thinking, focused and diffused . Focused thinking involves working on a singular task.  Diffused thinking happens when you’re not focused on anything. Learning happens at the crossover of these two kinds of thinking.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Procrastination and how to combat it

  Procrastination usually happens when you reach a difficult point and find it uncomfortable to keep going. The Pomodoro technique is effective in combatting this. This is where you work for 25 minutes, then take a break for 5 minutes.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Sleep your way to better learning

  

  Sleep is perhaps the best way to engage unconscious diffused thinking. Being in focused mode is to brain cells what lifting weights is to muscles. You’re breaking them down. Sleep provides an opportunity for them to repaired and for new connections to be formed.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Spaced repetition, a little every day

  Spaced repetition involves practising something in small timeframes and as you get better at it, increasing the amount of time between each timeframe.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Chunking

  A chunk is formed by first grasping an understanding of a major concept and then figuring out where to use it .Ask: What are the important concepts to learn? Then, where should you apply them?

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Deliberate practice

  Spend time and effort trying to create chunks. Instead of learning every intricate detail, seek out what the major concepts are. Figure out how to apply them by testing yourself. Work through example problems.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Don’t be held back by old thoughts

  The danger of becoming an expert in something is losing the ability to think like an amateur. You get so good at the way that’s always worked, you become blind to the new. Have an open mind and don’t be afraid of asking the stupid questions.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Recall

  Bring the information you’ve just learned back to your mind without looking back at it. Rereading the same thing over and over again can give you an illusion of understanding it . But recalling it and reproducing the information in your own words is a way to figure out which parts you know and which parts you don’t.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• The Habit Zombie

  To make a good habit,  create a cue make a routine around it give yourself a reward if you follow through and  you’ll start forming a belief about you being the type of person who has the good habit.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Product comes after process

  Focus on the process. Thinking about the outcome of your learning is the quickest way to get discouraged about it. Because there is no end. Learning is a lifelong journey.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Free up your working memory

  

  Create a to do list the night before, including the time of day you’ll call it quits. Putting things down means they’re out of your head and you can devote all of your brainpower to focused thinking rather than worrying about what it was you had to do later.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Unlocking your potential

  

  Learning doesn’t happen in a straight line. Learning looks more like a broken staircase than a straight line. Learning tough skills doesn’t happen over the course of days or weeks or months. Years is the right timeframe for most things.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Everyone has to start somewhere

  The first year you learn something new you might not be very good. The second year you might be worse because you realise how much you don’t know. There’s no need to envy those who seem to know what they’re doing. Every genius starts somewhere. Even Charles Darwin was a college dropout.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Learning is the ultimate meta-skill

  ... as it can be applied to any other skill. So if you want to improve your ability to do anything, learning how to learn is something you should dedicate time to.

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Learning

  Traditionally, we’re taught to learn using the “blocking” strategy. This instructs us to go over a single idea again and again (and again) until we’ve mastered it, before proceeding to the next concept.  But several new neurological studies show that an up and coming learning method called “interleaving” improves our ability to retain and perform new skills over any traditional means by leaps and bounds.

  How to Learn and Master Any Skill Twice as Fast, According to Science

• Interleaving

  ... space out learning over a longer period of time, and it randomizes the information we encounter when learning a new skill.   Interleaving causes your brain to intensely focus and solve problems every step of the way, resulting in information getting stored in your long-term memory instead. For example, instead of learning one banjo chord at a time until you perfect it, you train in several at once and in shorter bursts.

  How to Learn and Master Any Skill Twice as Fast, According to Science

• Using interleaving to pic up a new skill

  Practice multiple parallel skills at once Try planning when and what you want to cover in a lesson in advance. Go back over the basics to practice older material. Keep track of your progress to stay motivated. Trying skills from new angles and failing a lot helps you break out of your comfort zone.

  How to Learn and Master Any Skill Twice as Fast, According to Science

• Single & Double Loop Learning

  The first time we aim for a goal, follow a rule or make a decision, we are engaging in single loop learning.  If we question our approaches and make honest self-assessments, we shift into double loop learning.   Here we assess our biases, question our mental models, and look for areas where we can improve. 

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• How Success Becomes an Impediment

  Many skilled people excel at single loop learning where they become accustomed only to success.  They aren’t used to failing, so they struggle to learn from their mistakes and often respond by blaming someone else. “their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it the most.”

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• The Key to Double Loop Learning

  

  Push the single loop to the point of failure, to strengthen how you act in the double loop. Stop getting defensive. Instead, collect and analyze relevant data, draw conclusions and test  them. Change your mental models. Problem-solving isn’t a linear process where you can make one decision and then sit back and await success. Fail early. Fail fast.  If you learn to deal with failure you can have a worthwhile career.

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• Key questions to consider

  What is the current theory in use? How does it differ from proposed strategies and goals? What unspoken rules are being followed, and are they detrimental? What could change, and how? Forget the details; what’s the bigger picture?

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• Just start, break the initial barrier

  Every task has a certain Activation Energy (AE), where you initiate certain steps in order to start a task. Reducing the Activation Energy of new habits you want to form will make it is easier to get started. If you want to exercise, have your shoes and weights ready the previous night.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Practice chunking

  A memory chunk is a solid connection in your mind that relates various bits and pieces of information.  Focus on the concept you want to form a chunk of. Write down the basic ideas of what the concept is all about. Build up from these fundamentals to finally create a chunk.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Learn, Practice, Recall — Repeat

  Just forming chunks is not sufficient. You have to maintain them. The more you look after the chunks, the longer they last. While reviewing material, recall it instead of just reading it passively. Try and recall in a different setting than where you studied it.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Take it easy

  

  Whenever you face a problem, take a break. Sleep. Clean your room. Do anything except work on the problem.  This takes your brain into its “diffuse mode” — this mode works on the things you have been focusing on in the background. Come back to the problem later.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Understand your procrastination

  

  A procrastinator is a person who has a HABIT of getting distracted by things. Break this habit by eliminating distractions. Another option is the Cue-Routine where you take notice what you do in response to certain distracting cues ,and then make sure to resist it.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Set an ending time for tasks

  Parkinson’s second law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Setting a micro deadline for daily tasks holds your brain accountable to the tick of the clock.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Use visual and spatial memories

  

  The #1 thing you need to do to correctly memorize concepts is understand them.  To successfully understand something, visualizing it is key. 

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Use metaphors and stories

  Metaphors will help you understand and recall more easily.  You take something obvious from your memory, and see how it is related to the new concept you are trying to learn. 

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Learn what you want

  People learn when they are self-motivated, not when someone comes in front of them for four hours a week, and tells something to them. Start learning what you want, since that is what actually matters — that is what you must care about.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Intersection of skills

  Transfer learning is the ability to take what you learn in one domain and apply it to a new skill. Learn to apply old skills to new skills and vice versa.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Sleep

  Lack of sleep affects memory and recall.  Sleep helps your brain get into the diffuse mode and thus gets creative ideas about your ongoing projects cooking.

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Learning and practice

  Acquiring information is not learning. Although textooks can help, they only work when combined with practice.

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium

• The Research Phase

  Get the big picture . Scan articles etc. to get an idea of what the field is about. Determine scope.  Limit the size of what you want to learn. “Physics” or “philosophy” is too wide and will take decades. “Classical mechanics”, while still wide, might be a bit easier. Define success . Make a clear goal for your learning. Find resources   Create a learning plan from what you have learned in you previous steps. Filter resources . Narrow down your resource list (Step 4) to the most important essentials.

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium

• The Learning Phase

  Learn enough to get started. Playing around with the information will give context and tacit knowledge to go back and do more verbal, analytic learning. Learn enough to do something useful with it. Teach. It is the only way to know for sure that you’ve learned something and a great way to fill in the gaps in your learning.

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium

• Two big lessons in learning

  The first lesson is that learning is a loop. It’s not a pretty loop, and it looks something like this: play → study → teach → play → study → play → study → teach … and so on. The other big lesson? Learning is about play.

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium