Snippets about: Learning
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Jump In, Make Mistakes, Learn
Mia Blundetto, a US Marine Corps officer, had to learn parachute training on the job to lead a platoon in parachute operations. The training was difficult and sometimes scary. On one jump, Mia collided with another jumper, their parachutes tangling. Mia relates: "I realized that I was on top of the first jumper, so I just sort of swam out of his parachute and steered away from him."
Jumping out of an airplane is an extreme example, but learning by doing, even imperfectly at first, is often more effective than trying to perfectly prepare through bookwork alone. Mia's training gave her the skills to operate under pressure and adapt to difficulties. Getting into the field, making mistakes, and learning from them is often the fastest route to competence.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Make It Stick
Author: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel
Experimentation: Explore Outside Your Comfort Zone
Many of us view skill development as a linear progression - a gradual climb up the proficiency ladder, from novice to master. In reality, experts are often strikingly different from each other, even when equally accomplished.
What explains this divergence? The answer lies in experimentation - the willingness to explore unorthodox approaches, venture down uncertain paths, and develop distinctive ways of tackling problems. This experimental mindset is what separates true innovators from skilled-but-conventional practitioners.
Only by exploring off the beaten path can you find the hidden side doors to rapid growth and creative expression.
Section: 1, Chapter: 13
Book: Ultralearning
Author: Scott Young
Why Teaching To The Test Is Effective But Dangerous
In computer science, "overfitting" means tuning an algorithm to perform well on the exact data set it's given, at the expense of working well on new data. A spam filter that blocks everything with the word "Viagra" might work great on one batch of emails, but fail when spammers wise up and switch to "V!agra" instead.
The educational analog of overfitting is "teaching to the test" - optimizing lesson plans to boost standardized test scores, at the expense of generalized learning and problem solving skills. It works, but leaves students ill-equipped to handle novel challenges.
The solution in machine learning is "cross-validation": testing an algorithm on data it wasn't trained on, to see how well it generalizes. If performance is high on the training data but crashes on the test data, the algorithm is overfit.
The same approach can diagnose when teaching to the test goes too far. Periodically give students a very different assessment, on material not covered explicitly in class. If those scores are much lower than on the standard tests, the curriculum may be overfit. It's preparing students narrowly, not broadly.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: Algorithms to Live By
Author: Brian Christian
Reflection as Practice
After a challenging surgery, the neurosurgeon Mike Ebersold reflects on what could have gone better:
"A lot of times something would come up in surgery that I had difficulty with, and then I'd go home that night thinking about what happened and what could I do, for example, to improve the way a suturing went. How can I take a bigger bite with my needle, or a smaller bite, or should the stitches be closer together? What if I modified it this way or that way? Then the next day back, I'd try that and see if it worked better."
This mental rehearsal is a potent form of retrieval practice. By imagining alternatives and connecting them to his previous knowledge, Dr. Ebersold is expanding his mental models. Reflection works memory traces from different angles, strengthening mastery and preparing him to handle future variations.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Make It Stick
Author: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel
How Focusing Your Attention Changes Your Brain's Wiring
When you focus your attention on learning something, you initiate a process of building and strengthening neural connections in your brain related to that skill or knowledge. The more you focus on it, the stronger those neural pathways become.
This process, called neuroplasticity, means your brain physically changes shape based on what you pay attention to and practice. The key is to concentrate deeply and practice consistently over time. Even skills that feel challenging and foreign at first can become second nature with the right kind of focused practice.
However, the opposite is also true. When you procrastinate or distract yourself from focusing on something, those neural pathways related to it weaken over time. In this way, where you focus your attention literally shapes the physical wiring of your mind.
Section: 1, Chapter: 13
Book: A Mind for Numbers
Author: Barbara Oakley
The Best Learning is Slow
"It is difficult to accept that the best learning road is slow, and that doing poorly now is essential for better performance later. It is so deeply counterintuitive that it fools the learners themselves, both about their own progress and their teachers' skill"
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Range
Author: David Epstein
Staying Ahead of AI Advances:
"Adopting a mindset of continuous learning and adaptation, rather than fixating on AI's current limits, is key to staying ahead of the curve."
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: Co-Intelligence
Author: Ethan Mollick
Better Decision Making Is A Learned Skill
One of the key themes of Chapter 4 is that making better, less biased decisions is a learnable skill, not an innate ability. You can create habits and routines that will gradually improve your "batting average" on choices, even if it feels uncomfortable and unnatural at first.
Part of developing this skill is learning strategies for anticipating common decision traps, so you can spot them ahead of time and circumvent them. Groups can play a huge role by helping you catch flaws in your process in a timely way. Don't expect perfection, just aim to get a little more rational and objective over time. Those gains will compound.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Thinking in Bets
Author: Annie Duke
Pain + Reflection = Progress
One of Ray Dalio's core mantras is "Pain + Reflection = Progress." Every painful experience, if reflected on objectively, can provide a learning opportunity.
As he explains: "If you can develop a reflexive reaction to psychic pain that causes you to reflect on it rather than avoid it, it will lead to your rapid learning/evolving."
The key is to not waste your pain - radically open-mindedly reflect on it and the circumstances that led to it. What did it teach you about what works and doesn't work? How can you change your behavior as a result? As Dalio puts it: "Go to the pain rather than avoid it." Embrace it, learn from it, and evolve.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: Principles
Author: Ray Dalio
The Power of a Growth Mindset
In a study by psychologist Carol Dweck, seventh-grade students were taught about the brain's ability to grow and change through learning. They learned that intelligence is not fixed but can be developed through effort and practice. Compared to a control group that received only study skills training, the growth mindset group showed significant improvements in motivation and math grades over the course of the year.
They were more likely to see difficult problems as opportunities to learn rather than threats to their self-image. This simple shift in mindset led to measurable changes in academic performance.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: Make It Stick
Author: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel
"Use-Dependent" Brain Development
"The brain is formed in a 'use-dependent manner.' This is another way of describing neuroplasticity, the relatively recent discovery that neurons that 'fire together, wire together.' When a circuit fires repeatedly, it can become a default setting—the response most likely to occur. If you feel safe and loved, your brain becomes specialized in exploration, play, and cooperation; if you are frightened and unwanted, it specializes in managing feelings of fear and abandonment."
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: The Body Keeps the Score
Author: Bessel van der Kolk
A Master Class In Educating For Rethinking
The chapter showcases the work of Ron Berger, an award-winning elementary school teacher turned education reformer. Berger is a master at getting students to revise their thinking through project-based learning, feedback and critique. Some snapshots:
- He has students do multiple iterations of projects, normalizing the idea that the first attempt is just a "rough draft" to be polished.
- He builds a culture where students are motivated to seek and give constructive feedback to each other, seeing critique as a gift rather than an attack.
- He uses students' natural drive for community respect as a motivator, showcasing exemplary student projects and creating opportunities for peer teaching.
Through initiatives like these, Berger transforms his classroom into a psych-safe environment for trial and error. By making rethinking a regular habit, his students not only produce higher caliber work - they develop a growth mindset that serves them long after they leave school.
Section: 3, Chapter: 9
Book: Think Again
Author: Adam Grant
Why Kids Explore More Wisely
Children are endlessly curious, poking and prodding at the world around them. To adult eyes, it can look like unsystematic chaos. But there's wisdom in the way children explore. Psychologist Alison Gopnik argues children's exploration is more rational than it appears.
Children don't have rich mental models of the world yet. So spending lots of time reasoning from premises is less valuable to them than rapidly gathering new data. Since their beliefs are uncertain, exploring opportunistically tends to yield more knowledge than exploiting limited knowledge.
As we age and gain experience, our mental models firm up. We shift toward exploiting our accumulated wisdom rather than exploring to upend it. This makes us efficient - but also more likely to miss out on new possibilities.
When you're in an unfamiliar domain, there's value in embracing a childlike approach:
- Favor exploring over exploiting at first
- Interact and sample rather than introspect and plan
- Let randomness guide you to unexpected data
- Update beliefs rapidly as new information arrives
Section: 1, Chapter: 9
Book: Algorithms to Live By
Author: Brian Christian
Memorizing Helps Internalize Concepts
Memorizing gets a bad rap in learning. But the key is to memorize material you already understand. Doing this helps internalize the core concepts more deeply and frees up mental energy to connect ideas in new ways. Memory techniques like mnemonics, visualization, and memory palaces make memorizing more fun and effective. The more you memorize foundational concepts, the easier it is to assimilate new ones. The key is to memorize after understanding, not just blind rote learning. Memorizing is a powerful tool for internalizing core concepts.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: A Mind for Numbers
Author: Barbara Oakley
Four Strategies for Making Any Skill Stick
The human brain is hardwired to forget. Without active countermeasures, even our most intense learning efforts will fade over time. Here are four proven strategies to make any skill or knowledge stickier:
- Spacing: To truly lock in learning, strategically space your review sessions. As you practice, gradually increase the time between sessions. This spacing effect leverages your brain's natural forgetting curve to make memories last.
- Proceduralization: Our brains are masters at automating frequently-used skills. By drilling the component procedures of a skill to automaticity, we create a kind of muscle memory that resists decay. So when learning, focus on ingraining procedures, not just memorizing facts. Make it automatic.
- Overlearning: To overlearn, keep practicing beyond bare-bones competence. Drill those conjugations, practice problems, or chord progressions until they feel effortless. That extra layer of mastery will buffer against future forgetting.
- Mnemonics: Our ancestors cultivated memory into an art form, complete with baroque techniques like memory palaces and vivid associations. These ancient mnemonics can still juice up retention for modern learners. By converting abstract information into memorable images, mnemonics give your brain vivid hooks to latch onto.
Section: 1, Chapter: 10
Book: Ultralearning
Author: Scott Young
Generation for Deeper Understanding
Generation, or actively attempting to solve a problem or answer a question before being shown the solution, is a powerful learning strategy. Some ways to incorporate generation into your learning:
- When reading a textbook, pause at the end of each section and try to summarize the key points from memory before moving on
- After attending a lecture or workshop, write down the main takeaways and action steps without consulting your notes
- When working on a math or science problem, try to solve it on your own before looking at the solution or asking for help
- Engage in reciprocal teaching by taking turns with a study partner to explain concepts to each other and ask clarifying questions
Section: 1, Chapter: 8
Book: Make It Stick
Author: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel
10,000 Hours to Mastery: The Role of Practice in Achieving Expertise
Extensive research across various domains, from music to chess to sports, reveals a common thread: achieving world-class expertise requires approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. This challenges the notion of innate talent as the primary driver of success and emphasizes the importance of consistent, dedicated effort in developing mastery.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: Outliers
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
How World-Class Experts Achieve Seemingly Superhuman Retention
In 2015, New Zealander Nigel Richards shocked the Scrabble world by winning the French-language World Scrabble Championships. Richards didn't speak a word of French. His winning secret? Phenomenal retention through strategic overlearning.
He achieved extraordinary retention through principles that any ultralearner can apply:
- Overlearning: Richards practiced French Scrabble far beyond basic proficiency. By drilling words and letter patterns to automaticity, he made them nearly impossible to forget.
- Active recall: Rather than passively reviewing word lists, Richards constantly tested himself. He pushed his brain to retrieve words from memory, even when cycling or doing other activities. This effortful recall strengthened his retention far more than mere re-reading.
- Spaced repetition: Richards spread his practice over months, cycling through word lists again and again. By returning to words at regular intervals, he exploited the spacing effect to maximize long-term retention.
- Mnemonic devices: To make abstract letter combinations memorable, Richards used memory palaces, visualization, and other mnemonic techniques. By converting raw information into mental images, he gave his brain vivid hooks to latch onto.
Section: 1, Chapter: 10
Book: Ultralearning
Author: Scott Young
Desirable Difficulties
Introducing difficulties into learning helps long-term retention and transfer. Some desirable difficulties are:
- Generation: Trying to solve a problem before being shown the solution
- Reflection: Reviewing what went well and what could be improved after a practice attempt
- Spacing: Distributing practice over time, allowing some forgetting between sessions
- Interleaving: Mixing up practice of different but related skills or topics
- Variation: Practicing the same skill in different contexts or variations
These difficulties feel less productive than straightforward studying or repetitive practice, but they are more effective at building durable, flexible knowledge and skills.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Make It Stick
Author: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel