吾生也有涯，而知也無涯。 以有涯隨無涯，殆已！ 已而為知者，殆而已矣！
— 庄子
Principles
- Balance breadth and depth.
- Generally, aim for a 70/30 split. Spend ~ 1/3 of your time exploring things you have no business dabbling in.
- Novelty => easy dopamine. Know when to prioritize mastery over exposure. Less but better.
- Learning = changed behaviour.
- Growth: learn -> apply -> learn -> apply
- Procrastination: learn -> learn -> learn -> learn
- Knowledge is potential, not power. Power is the ability to convert knowledge into impact.
- If you don’t struggle, you’re doing it wrong
- If it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong
- Decide what mode: 80/20? 50/1? Massive input?
- When learning a new field, BFS before DFS. Build out the branches before filling in the leaves. Zoom all the way out to see the big picture.
- After BFS, JIT > AOT
- Avoid illusions of knowing
- Can you explain it in different ways and to different age groups/audiences?
- Use active recall + spaced repetition
- Make connections, know the context of what you’re learning, why it matters, where it fits into your knowledge graph
- Distill the info as much as possible. Strip everything away until you’re staring at its core.
The illusion of mastery
Being able to explain something in a simple, accessible way shows you’ve done the work required to learn. Skipping it leads to the illusion of knowledge—an illusion that can be quickly shattered when challenged.
The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to convey it to another. You can read out directly what you’ve written. You can present the material like a lecture. You can ask your friends for a few minutes of their time while you’re buying them dinner. You can volunteer as a guest speaker in your child’s classroom or your parents’ retirement residence. All that really matters is that you attempt to transmit the material to at least one person who isn’t that familiar with it.
When you only know what something is called, you have no real sense of what it is. When you know something, the labels are unimportant because it’s not necessary to keep it in the box it came in.
We talk in fact-deficient, obfuscating generalities to cover up our lack of understanding.
You need to reflect in order to learn. Spend the extra time to make sure you understand fully. Don’t rush it to maintain the illusion of understanding.
To figure out new ideas and solve problems, it’s important not only to focus initially, but also to subsequently turn our focus away from what we want to learn.
Cultivate relaxed concentration
Keep in mind that when you procrastinate, you are leaving yourself only enough time to do superficial focused-mode learning. You are also increasing your stress level because you know you have to complete what feels like an unpleasant task.
Keep your working sessions short
Einstellung effect: getting stuck in solving a problem or understanding a concept as a result of becoming fixated on a flawed approach. Losing sight of the big picture.
Do something else until your brain is consciously free of any thought of the problem. Taking these breaks is the most efficient way to solve a problem you are stuck on.
Purpose of note-taking
Objective: to process the information. During lectures, trying to not miss a thing = assigning equal importance to everything. Note taking != transcribing. Extract big ideas and leave blanks to fill in/create questions to answer.
Benefits:
- forces you to focus and process the material
- easy reference (build system of knowledge)
How do you plan to use this information? Identify the purpose first - it determines how much detail you include
- If open book exam, it makes sense to include more details
- otherwise, focus on big ideas
Do NOT chase speed. The more processing, the better. Make connections.
Things to do while learning: paraphrasing, analogizing, question making, making connections, creating examples, diagramming, creating mental pictures and imagining
Studying from notes:
- take out a piece of paper and explain concepts to yourself/a friend
- think of it as taking notes from your notes
See also: