We spend over a decade in school being told what to learn, but almost no one ever teaches us how to learn. Most of us rely on instinct and ineffective habits like rereading and highlighting (methods that feel productive but create an illusion of knowledge).
This guide is a new operating system for your brain. It's a framework built on cognitive science for learning anything faster, deeper, and for longer.
Reading
The point of reading nonfiction is to gain understanding of something from someone who understands what you dont.
Summarizing/writing in your own words things makes you understand them.
Summarizing makes you understand because you say it a way you understand. If you don't understand it, you can't say it.
Study: two groups taking notes on lecture, one by computer other by hand. By hand understood much better.
Students who take notes on a lecture slower understand better, because they had to summarize to keep up with the pace of the lecture.
Instead of highlighting a book, summarize it in your own words.
I used to highlight everything and never write notes. I've since changed my strategy.
Highlighting text to come back to later is bad because when you return to it later, you've lost context and some understanding.
When you summarize text from a book, it should be <= 1 paragraph::size.
When you read without summarizing, it gives you a false sense of knowledge.
Seeing something again feels the same as recalling it again. This it makes it feel like you have strengthened the memory (via recall) but you have not.
When you summarize text, you should not be able to look at the text. This way you are forced to recall it, which strengthens the memory.
If you can't teach it to a 5th grader (simple and understandable) you don't understand it.
Why do you need to be able to teach it in an understandable way to ensure your own understanding?
Explaining to a 5th grader is used as an eample to ensure understanding because this wya you must substitute jargon for definitions (ensuring you know them) and the 5th grader will repeatedly ask why.
Good learning requires struggle.
To learn something, you either discover it yourself or have something else help you discover it. But you have to discover it regardless.
Good learning is often hard in the short term.
Bad learning is often easy in the short term, but hard in the long term.
Its fine for learning to take a long time because it's basically required for understanding.
The more effort you put into recalling a difficult memory, the more it's strengthened.
Ex: if reading a book in another language, instead of passively reading it, write your own sentences that use the words you learn.
Trying to answer something you don't know makes it easier to learn when you learn it, even if you fail.
Analogy: a concept is like a forest, you must find the gold in the forest, yuo can either have someone tell you where the gold is, and you follow the path to it. Or you can travel all the paths yourself and see which ones are incorrect. Thus you gain a greater understanding of the forest.
You must then look through your existing knowledeg, and try to guess an answer.
Ex: before learning why the sky is blue, ask yourself why you think the sky is blue.
Before asking for an answer, genuinely try to come to the answer yourself.
This is also important to build the skill of critical thinking.
(teaching) before giving someone the answer, ask them what they think the answer is, this will give them better understanding.
You'll think about the idea more, which will give you more understanding of the entire concept.
Stress releases cortisol in the brain.
Cortisol affects learning by weakening the ability to create long-term memories.
Stress harms learning because it consumes mental resources and releases cortisol.
Exercise helps you memorize things, because it reduces stress.
To understand, translate it into your own understanding, analyze it on a deeper level, and connect it to examples and other concepts.
When learning, ask how, why, and give examples.
To build a web of knowledge, think about how one piece of knowledge relates to other pieces of knowledge.
To connect ideas to ther ideas, you must first remove the idea from the context it was found in. (find the fundamental truth not specific to one context).
The feynman technique is when you PLAECHOLDER.
What you learn is more important than how you learn.
Q: why?
You should practice in ways that naturally interest you.
Ex: if trying to learn japanese, instead of reading boring japanese newspapers, read a book that interest you (ex: judo books).
