Ultralearning - Daniel's notes

![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51PfH156fIL._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Scott H. Young]] - Full Title: Ultralearning - Topics: [[Learning (Index)]] - Category: #books ## Summary ### Why ultralearning matters * Definition of ultralearning: a strategy for acquiring skills and knowledge that is both self-directed and intense. * The ability to learn hard things quickly is increasingly valuable in today’s world. * Doing hard things stretches your self-conception. * Three ways to incorporate ultralearning: part-time projects, learning sabbaticals, reimagining existing learning efforts. * Think of ultralearning as a set of principles rather than strict protocol. ### Principle 1: Metalearning. Frist, draw a map. * Determine the “why”: understanding your motivation to learn * Instrumental versus intrinsic: instrumental learning projects are about a different, non-learning result. In that case, double check whether the learning project will actually help you achieve your goal. * Expert interview method: Talk to people who have already achieved what you want to achieve. Find them at your current workplace, conferences, seminars, or LinkedIn. Write a simple email explaining why you’re reaching out to them and asking if they could spare fifteen minutes to answer some simple questions. * Determine the “what”: abilities and knowledge required * Brainstorm on a sheet of paper using three columns: * Concepts: ideas that you need to understand in flexible ways. * Facts: anything that you just need to memorise, but not understand too deeply. * Procedures: actions that you need to practise, which might not involve much conscious thinking at all. * Underline the concepts, facts, and procedures that are going to be most challenging. * Determine the “how”: resources, environments, and methods for learning * Benchmarking: Finding the common ways in which people learn the skill or subject: courses, syllabi, articles, recommendations. This provides a default strategy as a starting point. * Emphasise/exclude: Modify the default curriculum. Find areas of study that align with your goals. Omit or delay elements that don’t align with your goals. * How much to invest into metalearning: * 10 percent rule: Invest approximately 10 percent of your total expected learning time into research prior to starting. It’s particularly important to get tool and material selection right. * Comparing marginal benefits of metalearning to regular learning: Spend some time on each, then do a quick assessment of the relative value of the two activities. ### Principle 2: Focus. Sharpen your knife. * Start focusing = overcome procrastination * Causes of procrastination: craving to do something else, or aversion to doing the task itself * Most of what’s unpleasant in a task or what is pleasant about an alternative task doesn’t last that long. * First step: notice that you’re procrastinating * Second step: do a dash of work to overcome momentary obstacles. Start with 5 minutes (dash), then 25 minutes (Pomodoro), then just schedule work in your calendar. * Sustain focus = don’t get distracted * Environment: sights (notifications, people walking by), sounds (colleagues, music), smells (food), etc. * Task: certain ways of doing things are easier to sustain focus — e.g., listening to an audiobook makes it easier to get distracted * Mind: a calm and quiet mind helps sustain focus, non-reactive to intruding thoughts and feelings * Optimize the quality and direction of focus * Relationship between arousal (alertness and energy) and task complexity: * Yerkes-Dodson law: * For complex, unfamiliar, or difficult tasks, performance increases with physiological and mental arousal up to a certain point, but then decreases—bell-shaped curve. * For simple, well-learned tasks, performance increases monotonously with arousal. * High arousal leads to keen alertness, narrow focus, and higher motivation. Good for simple tasks, or tasks that require intense concentration towards a narrow target. * Lower arousal leads to more diffuse and relaxed focus, and better concentration. Good for complex tasks. * Noise increases arousal levels. * You can influence arousal to match task complexity. * When you’re sleepy = low arousal, consider playing loud background noise or working at a coffee shop. * When you’re working on a complex task = requires lower arousal, work in a quiet room. ### Principle 3: Directness. Go straight ahead. * Learning should be tied closely to the situation or context you want to use it in. Before embarking on a learning project, ask yourself what the target context will be. * Transfer of learning from one context to another empirically doesn’t work. This is especially true for the initial levels of learning. As you develop more expertise, transfer becomes easier. * Direct learning overcomes the problem of transfer by learning and applying things in the same context. * Direct learning provides more details such as situational cues. * Direct learning is often more difficult, uncomfortable, frustrating, or otherwise unpleasant. * To pass a test, it’s more important to study problem sets than to have access to lectures. * Tactic 1: Project-based learning. Produce something. * Tactic 2: Immersive learning. Surround yourself with the target environment in which the skill is practiced. Join communities and project teams. * Tactic 3: Flight simulator method. If practising in the real world isn’t possible. A simulation of the environment works to the degree to which it replicates the cognitive elements of the task in question. * Tactic 4: Overkill approach. Increase the challenge such that your actual learning will overshoot your target. Put yourself in extremely demanding environments. Aim for a particular test. Make your work publicly viewable. ### Principle 4: Drill. Attack your weakest point. * Certain aspects of the learning problem form a bottleneck that controls the speed of learning. Which aspect of the skill, if you improved it, would cause the greatest improvement to your abilities overall for the least amount of effort? * A drill simplifies a complex skill enough that you can focus your cognitive resources on a single aspect. * Direct-then-drill cycle: First, practice the skill directly. Then, analyze the direct skill and isolate components that form learning bottlenecks. Develop drills to practice those components. Last, go back to direct practice and integrate what you’ve learned. Go through this cycle fast and more frequently at the beginning of a learning project * Drill 1: Time slicing. Isolate a slice in time of a longer sequence of actions. Example: Just practice openings in chess. * Drill 2: Cognitive components. Isolate a particular cognitive component. Example: Just focus on pronunciation. * Drill 3: Copycat. Copy the parts of the skill that you don’t wan to drill, either from someone else or your past work. Example: Editing your previous writing. * Drill 4: Magnifying glass. Spend more time on one component of the skill than you would otherwise. Example: Do more research than necessary to develop skills for doing so. * Drill 5: Prerequisite chaining. Start doing an activity you don’t have the necessary skills for. Learn prerequisites as they are needed along the way. ### Principle 5: Retrieval. Test to learn. * 3 ways to practice learned material: * 1. Passively review the material. * 2. Practice retrieving the material using free recall. This results in the best long-term recall. * 3. Create a concept map. * It’s hard to know how well you’ve learned something. A common subjective proxy is “how easily and smoothly can you process it”. The more learning feels like a struggle, the more you feel like you haven’t learned it yet. * Tactic 1: Flash cards. This works well when there’s a pairing between a specific cue and a particular response, such as in language learning. It doesn’t work well when the situation in which you need to remember the information is highly variable. * Tactic 2: Free recall. Write down everything you can remember on a blank sheet of paper. * Tactic 3: Question-book method. Rephrase what you’ve learned as questions to be answered later. Restrict yourself to one question per section of text to force yourself to understand the main point instead of unimportant details. * Tactic 4: Self-generated challenges. Create challenges for yourself to solve later. * Tactic 5: Closed-book learning. Cut off the ability to search for hints and look up information. ### Principle 6: Feedback. Don’t dodge the punches. * High-quality feedback: accurate, immediate, information-intense * Be sensitive to what feedback is actually true and useful. Don’t over- or under-update. * Feedback is difficult to take. This makes feedback-seeking efforts underused and a source of competitive advantage. * The information content of feedback is measured by how well you can predict it. Good feedback is hard to predict and thus gives you more information. * Immediate feedback is better than delayed feedback in real world contexts. In laboratory contexts, delayed feedback is more effective, probably because it offers a second, spaced exposure to the information. Thus, immediate feedback is best paired with delayed review to strengthen your memory. * Types of feedback: * Type 1: Outcome feedback. Are you doing it wrong? Tells you how well you’re doing overall, often in the form of a grade. * Type 2: Informational feedback. What are you doing wrong? Doesn’t tell you how to fix it. * Type 3: Corrective feedback. How can you fix what you’re doing wrong? Often only available through coaching and mentoring. * Reacting to feedback: * Tactic 1: Noise cancellation. Feedback contains signal and noise. Don’t react to random noise. * Tactic 2: Hitting the difficulty sweet spot. Adjust the situation so that you’re not able to predict whether you’ll succeed or fail. Avoid situations that always make you feel good or bad about your performance. * Tactic 3: Meta-feedback. About the success of your learning strategy and learning rate. * Tactic 4: High-intensity, rapid feedback. Get a lot more feedback a lot more often. Overcome initial aversion to feedback. Engage in learning more aggressively because you know you’ll be evaluated. ### Principle 7: Retention. Don’t fill a leaky bucket. * Theories that aim to explain why we forget: * Decay: Memories simply decay with time. * Interference: Overwriting old memories with new ones. Memories overlap in how they are stored in the brain. Memories that are similar but distinct can compete with one another. * Forgotten cues: Memories become inaccessible over time. * Memory mechanisms: * 1. Spacing: Repeat to remember. It’s better to spread out practice over time than to cram if you want to remember things in the long-term. Spend one hour per day over the course of a week learning the material rather than cramming it into one day. Consider refresher projects. * 2. Proceduralization: make it automatic. Procedural skills (knowing how) such as riding a bicycle are stored for longer than declarative knowledge (knowing what) such as knowing the Sine Rule for triangles. Aim to proceduralize core skills. * 3. Overlearning: Overshoot the target. Additional practice can increase the length of time that memories are stored. * 4. Mnemonics. Use pictures to remember words. ### Principle 8: Intuition. Dig deep before building up. * How to build intuition: * Work on hard problems. When you feel like giving up, set yourself a “struggle timer” to keep working for another ten minutes. * Prove things to understand them. Try to re-create the explanations and results of others instead of just following along. Dig deeper before you consider something “understood”. * Start with a concrete example. You’ll process the information on a deeper level. * Ask a lot of dumb questions. * Feynman technique: * Write down a concept or problem you want to understand on a sheet of paper. * Below, explain the idea as if you had to teach it to someone else — ideally, a child who doesn’t have much background knowledge. ### Principle 9: Experimentation. Explore outside your comfort zone. * In the early part of learning a skill, it’s often best to focus on the basics and best practices. As your skills develop, there are fewer people who can teach you. You need to unlearn ineffective approaches. * Many domains reward not just proficiency, but also creativity and originality. * There’s a tradeoff between exploration—trying out different things—and exploitation—concentrating your efforts on a thing long enough to become proficient at it. * Types of experimentation: * Resources: Pick a new resource and stick to it for a predetermined amount of time. Then, evaluate how well it’s working. * Technique: Try out various techniques. * Style: There are several ways of doing things. * How to experiment: * Copy existing things, then create your own based on them. * Compare methods side-by-side to find out what works for you. * Introduce new constraints to make old methods impossible to use. * Merge unrelated skills to open up new avenues. * Explore the extremes to search the space of possibilities and gain range. ### Chapter 13: Your first ultralearning project * Step 1: Do your research * Topic and scope * Primary resources * Benchmark for how others have learned this topic * Direct practice activities * Backup materials and drills * Step 2: Schedule your time * How much time are you going to commit? * When are you going to learn? Set a consistent schedule. * How long will the project last? Shorter projects are easier to stick with. * Put all of this into your calendar. * Step 3: Execute your plan * Metalearning. Have I done research into what are the typical ways of learning this subject or skill? Have I interviewed successful learners to see what resources and advice they can recommend? Have I spent about 10 percent of the total time on preparing my project? * Focus. Am I focused when I spend time learning, or am I multitasking and distracted? Am I skipping learning sessions or procrastinating? When I start a session, how long does it take before I’m in a good flow? How long can I sustain that focus before my mind starts to wander? How sharp is my attention? Should it be more concentrated for intensity or more diffuse for creativity? * Directness. Am I learning the skill in the way I’ll eventually be using it? If not, what mental processes are missing from my practice that exist in the real environment? How can I practice transferring the knowledge I learn from my book/class/video to real life? * Drill. Am I spending time focusing on the weakest points of my performance? What is the rate-limiting step that is holding me back? Does it feel as though my learning is slowing down and that there’s too many components of the skill to master? If so, how can I split apart a complex skill to work on smaller, more manageable components of it? * Retrieval. Am I spending most of my time reading and reviewing, or am I solving problems and recalling things from memory without looking at my notes? Do I have some way of testing myself, or do I just assume I’ll remember? Can I successfully explain what I learned yesterday, last week, a year ago? How do I know if I can? * Feedback. Am I getting honest feedback about my performance early on, or am I trying to dodge the punches and avoid criticism? Do I know what I’m learning well and what I’m not? Am I using feedback correctly, or am I overreacting to noisy data? * Retention. Do I have a plan in place to remember what I’m learning long term? Am I spacing my exposure to information so it will stick longer? Am I turning factual knowledge into procedures that I’ll retain? Am I overlearning the most critical aspects of the skill? * Intuition. Do I deeply understand the things I’m learning, or am I just memorizing? Could I teach the ideas and procedures I’m studying to someone else? Is it clear to me why what I’m learning is true, or does it all seem arbitrary and unrelated? * Experimentation. Am I getting stuck with my current resources and techniques? Do I need to branch out and try new approaches to reach my goal? How can I go beyond mastering the basics and create a unique style to solve problems creatively and do things others haven’t explored before? * Step 4: Review your results * Step 5: Maintain what you’ve learned * Maintenance: Set up a habit of regular practice. Integrate the skill into your life. * Relearning: For some skills, the cost of relearning it later are smaller than the costs of maintaining it continuously. * Mastery: Have several projects related to one skill. %% ## Highlights - Lewis explained his approach: Start speaking the very first day. Don’t be afraid to talk to strangers. Use a phrasebook to get started; save formal study for later. Use visual mnemonics to memorize vocabulary. What struck me were not the methods but the boldness with which he applied them. While I had timidly been trying to pick up some French, worrying about saying the wrong things and being embarrassed by my insufficient vocabulary, Lewis was fearless, ([Location 230](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=230)) - Despite their idiosyncrasies, the ultralearners had a lot of shared traits. They usually worked alone, often toiling for months and years without much more than a blog entry to announce their efforts. Their interests tended toward obsession. They were aggressive about optimizing their strategies, fiercely debating the merits of esoteric concepts such as interleaving practice, leech thresholds, or keyword mnemonics. Above all, they cared about learning. Their motivation to learn pushed them to tackle intense projects, even if it often came at the sacrifice of credentials or conformity. ([Location 439](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=439)) - ULTRALEARNING: A strategy for acquiring skills and knowledge that is both self-directed and intense. ([Location 461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=461)) - You already expend much of your energy working to earn a living. In comparison, ultralearning is a small investment, even if you went so far as to temporarily make it a full-time commitment. However, rapidly learning hard skills can have a greater impact than years of mediocre striving on the job. Whether you want to change careers, take on new challenges, or accelerate your progress, ultralearning is a powerful tool. ([Location 483](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=483)) - Your deepest moments of happiness don’t come from doing easy things; they come from realizing your potential and overcoming your own limiting beliefs about yourself. ([Location 487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=487)) - Ultralearning is a potent skill for dealing with a changing world. The ability to learn hard things quickly is going to become increasingly valuable, and thus it is worth developing to whatever extent you can, even if it requires some investment first. ([Location 565](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=565)) - Professional success, however, was rarely the thing that motivated the ultralearners I met—including those who ended up making the most money from their new skills. Instead it was a compelling vision of what they wanted to do, a deep curiosity, or even the challenge itself that drove them forward. ([Location 567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=567)) - The best ultra learners are those who blend the practical reasons for learning a skill with an inspiration that comes from something that excites them. ([Location 573](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=573)) - Doing hard things, particularly things that involve learning something new, stretches your self-conception. It gives you confidence that you might be able to do things that you couldn’t do ([Location 575](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=575)) - There are three main ways you can apply the ideas of ultralearning, even if you have to manage other commitments and challenges in your life: new part-time projects, learning sabbaticals, and reimagining existing learning efforts. ([Location 619](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=619)) - Metalearning: First Draw a Map. Start by learning how to learn the subject or skill you want to tackle. Discover how to do good research and how to draw on your past competencies to learn new skills more easily. Focus: Sharpen Your Knife. Cultivate the ability to concentrate. Carve out chunks of time when you can focus on learning, and make it easy to just do it. Directness: Go Straight Ahead. Learn by doing the thing you want to become good at. Don’t trade it off for other tasks, just because those are more convenient or comfortable. Drill: Attack Your Weakest Point. Be ruthless in improving your weakest points. Break down complex skills into small parts; then master those parts and ([Location 750](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=750)) - build them back together again. Retrieval: Test to Learn. Testing isn’t simply a way of assessing knowledge but a way of creating it. Test yourself before you feel confident, and push yourself to actively recall information rather than passively review it. Feedback: Don’t Dodge the Punches. Feedback is harsh and uncomfortable. Know how to use it without letting your ego get in the way. Extract the signal from the noise, so you know what to pay attention to and what to ignore. Retention: Don’t Fill a Leaky Bucket. Understand what you forget and why. Learn to remember things not just for now but forever. Intuition: Dig Deep Before Building Up. Develop your intuition through play and exploration of concepts and skills. Understand how understanding works, and don’t recourse to cheap tricks of memorization to avoid deeply knowing things. Experimentation: Explore Outside Your Comfort Zone. All of these principles are only starting points. True mastery comes not just from following the path trodden by others but from exploring possibilities they haven’t yet imagined. ([Location 756](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=756)) - learning about how knowledge is structured and acquired within this subject; in other words, learning how to learn it. ([Location 812](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=812)) - Being able to see how a subject works, what kinds of skills and information must be mastered, and what methods are available to do so more effectively is at the heart of success of all ultralearning projects. Metalearning thus forms the map, showing you how to get to your destination without getting lost. ([Location 828](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=828)) - Over the short term, you can do research to focus on improving your metalearning before and during a learning project. ([Location 850](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=850)) - “Why?” refers to understanding your motivation to learn. If you know exactly why you want to learn a skill or subject, you can save a lot of time by focusing your project on exactly what matters most to you. “What?” refers to the knowledge and abilities you’ll need to acquire in order to be successful. Breaking things down into concepts, facts, and procedures can enable you to map out what obstacles you’ll face and how best to overcome them. “How?” refers to the resources, environment, and methods you’ll use when learning. Making careful choices here can make a big difference in your overall effectiveness. ([Location 867](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=867)) - Instrumental learning projects are those you’re learning with the purpose of achieving a different, nonlearning result. ([Location 875](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=875)) - If you’re pursuing a project for mostly instrumental reasons, it’s often a good idea to do an additional step of research: determining whether learning the skill or topic in question will actually help you achieve your goal. ([Location 884](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=884)) - Tactic: The Expert Interview Method The main way you can do research of this kind is to talk to people who have already achieved what you want to achieve. ([Location 890](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=890)) - If your goal is career related, look for people who have the career you want and send them an email. You can find them at your current workplace, conferences, or seminars, or even on social networking websites such as Twitter or LinkedIn. ([Location 897](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=897)) - The key is to write a simple, to-the-point email, explaining why you’re reaching out to them and asking if they could spare fifteen minutes to answer some simple questions. Make the email concise and nonthreatening. Don’t ask for more than fifteen minutes or for ongoing mentorship. ([Location 905](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=905)) - A good way to do this is to write down on a sheet of paper three columns with the headings “Concepts,” “Facts,” and “Procedures.” Then brainstorm all the things you’ll need to learn. ([Location 918](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=918)) - Concepts are ideas that you need to understand in flexible ways in order for them to be useful. Math and physics, for example, are both subjects that lean heavily toward concepts. ([Location 922](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=922)) - In the second column, write down anything that needs to be memorized. Facts are anything that suffices if you can remember them at all. You don’t need to understand them too deeply, so long as you can recall them in the right ([Location 926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=926)) - In the third column, write down anything that needs to be practiced. Procedures are actions that need to be performed and may not involve much conscious thinking at all. ([Location 931](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=931)) - Once you’ve finished your brainstorm, underline the concepts, facts, and procedures that are going to be most challenging. This will give you a good idea what the major learning bottlenecks are going to be and can start you searching for methods and resources to overcome those difficulties. ([Location 936](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=936)) - Benchmarking The way to start any learning project is by finding the common ways in which people learn the skill or subject. This can help you design a default strategy as a starting point. ([Location 953](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=953)) - Good resources to consider for this approach are universities (MIT, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are good examples but far from the only ones). Generally course lists and syllabi are available by looking on their websites aimed at existing students. ([Location 958](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=958)) - An hour spent searching online for almost any skill should turn up courses, articles, and recommendations for how to learn it. ([Location 962](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=962)) - The Emphasize/Exclude Method Once you’ve found a default curriculum, you can consider making modifications to it. I find this easier to do with skills that have obvious success criteria (say drawing, languages, or music) and for which you can generally make a guess at the relative importance to the subject topics prior to studying them. ([Location 966](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=966)) - The Emphasize/Exclude Method involves first finding areas of study that align with the goals you identified in the first part of your research. ([Location 970](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=970)) - The second part of the Emphasize/Exclude Method is to omit or delay elements of your benchmarked curriculum that don’t align with your goals. ([Location 973](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=973)) - The 10 Percent Rule A good rule of thumb is that you should invest approximately 10 percent of your total expected learning time into research prior to starting. ([Location 984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=984)) - make sure you haven’t latched onto the first possible resource or method without thinking through alternatives. ([Location 990](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=990)) - A more sophisticated answer to the question of when and how to do research would be to compare the marginal benefits of metalearning to regular learning. ([Location 1001](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1001)) - After spending some time on each, do a quick assessment of the relative value of the two activities. If you feel as though the metalearning research contributed more than the hours spent on learning itself, you are likely at a point where more research is still beneficial. ([Location 1003](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1003)) - starting, sustaining, and optimizing the quality of one’s focus. ([Location 1070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1070)) - PROBLEM 1: FAILING TO START FOCUSING (AKA PROCRASTINATING) ([Location 1072](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1072)) - Why do we procrastinate? The simple answer is that at some level there’s a craving that drives you to do something else, there’s an aversion to doing the task itself, or both. ([Location 1081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1081)) - first step to overcoming procrastination: recognize when you are procrastinating. ([Location 1085](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1085)) - Make a mental habit of every time you procrastinate; try to recognize that you are feeling some desire not to do that task or a stronger desire to do something else. ([Location 1090](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1090)) - A first crutch comes from recognizing that most of what is unpleasant in a task (if you are averse to it) or what is pleasant about an alternative task (if you’re drawn to distraction) is an impulse that doesn’t actually last that long. If you actually start working or ignore a potent distractor, it usually only takes a couple minutes until the worry starts to dissolve, even for fairly unpleasant tasks. ([Location 1099](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1099)) - Eventually, if working on your project is not troubled by extreme procrastination, you may want to switch to using a calendar on which you carve out specific hours of your day in advance to work on the project. This approach allows you to make the best use of your limited time. However, it works only if you actually follow it. ([Location 1115](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1115)) - Arousal (the general, not sexual, variety) is your overall feeling of energy or alertness. ([Location 1211](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1211)) - High arousal creates a feeling of keen alertness, which is often characterized by a fairly narrow range of focus, but one that can also be somewhat brittle. This can be very good for focusing on relatively simple tasks or ones that require intense concentration toward a small target. ([Location 1215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1215)) - More complex tasks, such as solving math problems or writing essays, tend to benefit from a more relaxed kind of focus. Here the space of focus is often larger and more diffuse. ([Location 1220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1220)) - The relationship between task complexity and arousal is interesting because the latter can be modified. ([Location 1229](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1229)) - More interesting, however, was that the sleepy subjects did better when a loud noise was played in the background, while the well-rested subjects did worse. The conclusion drawn by the researchers was that the noise increased arousal levels, which benefited the low-arousal sleepy subjects, but it increased arousal too much for the well-rested ones, causing their decline in performance. This implies that you may want to consider optimizing your arousal levels to sustain the ideal level of focus. Complex tasks may benefit from lower arousal, so working in a quiet room at home might be the right idea for math problems. Simpler tasks might benefit from a noisier environment, say working at a coffee shop. ([Location 1231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1231)) - Directness is the idea of learning being tied closely to the situation or context you want to use it in. ([Location 1291](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1291)) - directly learning the thing we want feels too uncomfortable, boring, or frustrating, so we settle for some book, lecture, or app, hoping it will eventually make us better at the real thing. ([Location 1299](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1299)) - During the MIT Challenge, I recognized that the most important resource for being able to eventually pass the classes wasn’t having access to recorded lectures, it was having access to problem sets. ([Location 1319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1319)) - The easiest way to learn directly is to simply spend a lot of time doing the thing you want to become good at. ([Location 1326](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1326)) - The “real” situation may be infrequent, difficult, or even impossible to create, and thus learning in a different environment is unavoidable. ([Location 1329](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1329)) - Transfer has been called the “Holy Grail of education.” It happens when you learn something in one context, say in a classroom, and are able to use it in another context, say in real life. ([Location 1344](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1344)) - psychologist Robert Haskell has said in his excellent coverage of the vast literature on transfer in learning, “Despite the importance of transfer of learning, research findings over the past nine decades clearly show that as individuals, and as educational institutions, we have failed to achieve transfer of learning on any significant level.” ([Location 1348](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1348)) - Haskell suggests that a major reason is that transfer tends to be harder when our knowledge is more limited. As we develop more knowledge and skill in an area, they become more flexible and easier to apply outside the narrow contexts in which they were learned. However, I’d like to add my own hypothesis as an explanation for the transfer problem: most formal learning is woefully indirect. ([Location 1383](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1383)) - Directness solves the problem of transfer in two ways. The first and most obvious is that if you learn with a direct connection to the area in which you eventually want to apply the skill, the need for far transfer is significantly reduced. ([Location 1387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1387)) - By learning in a real context, one also learns many of the hidden details and skills that are far more likely to transfer to a new real-life situation than from the artificial environment of a classroom. ([Location 1395](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1395)) - The simplest way to be direct is to learn by doing. ([Location 1412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1412)) - Tactic 1: Project-Based Learning Many ultralearners opt for projects rather than classes to learn the skills they need. ([Location 1444](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1444)) - Tactic 2: Immersive Learning Immersion is the process of surrounding yourself with the target environment in which the skill is practiced. ([Location 1453](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1453)) - Joining communities of people who are actively engaged in learning can have a similar impact, since it encourages constant exposure to new ideas and challenges. ([Location 1458](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1458)) - Tactic 3: The Flight Simulator Method ([Location 1461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1461)) - it’s the cognitive features—situations where you need to make decisions about what to do and cue knowledge you’ve stored in your head. This suggests that when direct practice is impossible, a simulation of the environment will work to the degree to which it remains faithful to the cognitive elements of the task in question. ([Location 1465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1465)) - Tactic 4: The Overkill Approach The last method I’ve found for enhancing directness is to increase the challenge, so that the skill level required is wholly contained within the goal that is set. ([Location 1473](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1473)) - The overkill approach is to put yourself into an environment where the demands are going to be extremely high, so you’re unlikely to miss any important lessons or feedback. ([Location 1479](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1479)) - One way you can overkill a project is to aim for a particular test, performance, or challenge that will be above the skill level you strictly require. ([Location 1485](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1485)) - Deciding in advance that your work will be viewable publicly alters your approach to learning and will gear you toward performance in the desired domain, rather than just checking off boxes of facts learned. ([Location 1489](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1489)) - Whenever you learn anything new, it’s a good habit to ask yourself where and how the knowledge will manifest itself. If you can answer that, you can then ask whether you’re doing anything to tie what you’re learning to that context. ([Location 1493](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1493)) - Learning, I’d like to argue, often works similarly, with certain aspects of the learning problem forming a bottleneck that controls the speed at which you can become more proficient overall. ([Location 1548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1548)) - In order to improve your performance in one aspect, you may need to devote so much attention to that one aspect that the other parts of your performance start to go down. ([Location 1567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1567)) - Drills resolve this problem by simplifying a skill enough that you can focus your cognitive resources on a single aspect. ([Location 1570](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1570)) - A drill takes the direct practice and cuts it apart, so that you are practicing only an isolated component. ([Location 1575](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1575)) - The first step is to try to practice the skill directly. ([Location 1580](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1580)) - The next step is to analyze the direct skill and try to isolate components that are either rate-determining steps in your performance or subskills you find difficult to improve because there are too many other things going on for you to focus on them. From here you can develop drills and practice those components separately until you get better at them. ([Location 1583](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1583)) - The final step is to go back to direct practice and integrate what you’ve learned. ([Location 1586](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1586)) - Cycling between direct practice and drills, even within the same learning session, is a good idea when you’re just starting out. Later, as you get better at what you are trying to do and a lot more effort is required to noticeably improve your overall performance, it’s more acceptable to take longer detours into drills. ([Location 1593](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1593)) - You should focus on what aspects of the skill might be the rate-determining steps in your performance. Which aspect of the skill, if you improved it, would cause the greatest improvement to your abilities overall for the least amount of effort? ([Location 1598](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1598)) - The key is to experiment. Make a hypothesis about what is holding you back, attack it with some drills, using the Direct-Then-Drill Approach, and you can quickly get feedback about whether you’re right. ([Location 1605](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1605)) - The second difficulty with this principle is designing the drill to produce improvement. This is often hard because even if you recognize an aspect of your performance you’re weak on, it may be tricky to design a drill that trains that component without artificially removing what makes it difficult in actual application. ([Location 1607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1607)) - Drill 1: Time Slicing The easiest way to create a drill is to isolate a slice in time of a longer sequence of actions. ([Location 1613](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1613)) - Drill 2: Cognitive Components Sometimes what you’ll want to practice isn’t a slice in time of a larger skill but a particular cognitive component. ([Location 1620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1620)) - by copying the parts of the skill you don’t want to drill (either from someone else or your past work), you can focus exclusively on the component you want to practice. ([Location 1628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1628)) - Drill 4: The Magnifying Glass Method Suppose you need to create something new and can’t edit or separate out the part you want to practice. How can you create a drill? The Magnifying Glass Method is to spend more time ([Location 1635](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1635)) - Drill 5: Prerequisite Chaining One strategy I’ve seen repeatedly from ultralearners is to start with a skill that they don’t have all the prerequisites for. Then, when they inevitably do poorly, they go back a step, learn one of the foundational topics, and repeat the exercise. This practice of starting too hard and learning prerequisites as they are needed can be frustrating, but it saves a lot of time learning subskills that don’t actually drive performance much. ([Location 1641](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1641)) - First, you can review the material. You can look over your notes and book and study everything until you’re sure you’ll remember it. Second, you can test yourself. You can keep the book shut and try to remember what was in it. Finally, you can create a concept map. You can write out the main concepts in a diagram, showing how they’re organized and related to other items you need to study. ([Location 1701](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1701)) - Human beings don’t have the ability to know with certainty how well they’ve learned something. Instead, we need to rely on clues from our experience of studying to give us a feeling about how well we’re doing. These so-called judgments of learning (JOLs) are based, in part, on how fluently we can process something. If the learning task feels easy and smooth, we are more likely to believe we’ve learned it. If the task feels like a struggle, we’ll feel we haven’t learned it yet. ([Location 1731](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1731)) - Free recall tests, in which students need to recall as much as they can remember without prompting, tend to result in better retention than cued recall tests, in which students are given hints about what they need to remember. Cued recall tests, in turn, are better than recognition tests, such as multiple-choice answers, where the correct answer needs to be recognized but not generated. Giving someone a test immediately after they learn something improves retention less than giving them a slight delay, long enough so that answers aren’t in mind when they need them. ([Location 1748](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1748)) - An interesting observation from retrieval research, known as the forward-testing effect, shows that retrieval not only helps enhance what you’ve learned previously but can even help prepare you to learn better. Regular testing of previously studied information can make it easier to learn new information. ([Location 1768](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1768)) - The research is clear: if you need to recall something later, you’re best off practicing retrieving it. ([Location 1780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1780)) - Directness sidesteps this question by forcing you to retrieve the things that come up often in the course of using the skill. ([Location 1791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1791)) - The problem with relying on direct practice exclusively is that knowledge that isn’t in your head can’t be used to help you solve problems. ([Location 1794](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1794)) - Tactic 1: Flash Cards Flash cards are an amazingly simple, yet effective, way to learn paired associations between questions and answers. ([Location 1814](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1814)) - The major drawback of flash cards is that they work really well for a specific type of retrieval—when there’s a pairing between a specific cue and a particular response. ([Location 1818](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1818)) - However, when the situation in which you need to remember the information is highly variable, this kind of practice can have drawbacks. Programmers can memorize syntax via flash cards, but concepts that need to be applied in real programs often don’t fit the cue-response framework that flash cards demand. ([Location 1820](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1820)) - Tactic 2: Free Recall A simple tactic for applying retrieval is, after reading a section from a book or sitting through a lecture, to try to write down everything you can remember on a blank piece of paper. ([Location 1823](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1823)) - Tactic 3: The Question-Book Method Most students take notes by copying the main points as they encounter them. However, another strategy for taking notes is to rephrase what you’ve recorded as questions to be answered later. ([Location 1830](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1830)) - One rule I’ve found helpful for this is to restrict myself to one question per section of a text, thus forcing myself to acknowledge and rephrase the main point rather than zoom in on a detail that will be largely irrelevant later. ([Location 1839](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1839)) - as you go through your passive material, you can create challenges for yourself to solve later. You may encounter a new technique and then write a note to demonstrate that technique in an actual example. ([Location 1844](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1844)) - Tactic 5: Closed-Book Learning Nearly any learning activity can become an opportunity for retrieval if you cut off the ability to search for hints. ([Location 1846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1846)) - What often separated the ultralearning strategy from more conventional approaches was the immediacy, accuracy, and intensity of the feedback being provided. ([Location 1894](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1894)) - Feedback works well when it provides useful information that can guide future learning. If feedback tells you what you’re doing wrong or how to fix it, it can be a potent tool. But feedback often backfires when it is aimed at a person’s ego. Praise, a common type of feedback that teachers often use (and students enjoy), is usually harmful to further learning. When feedback steers into evaluations of you as an individual (e.g., “You’re so smart!” or “You’re lazy”), it usually has a negative impact on learning. Further, even feedback that includes useful information needs to be correctly processed as a motivator and tool for learning. ([Location 1914](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1914)) - The first is overreacting to feedback (both positive and negative) that doesn’t offer specific information that leads to improvement. Ultralearners need to be sensitive to what feedback is actually useful and tune out the rest. ([Location 1924](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1924)) - explains why feedback-seeking efforts are often underused and thus remain a potent source of comparative advantage for ultralearners. Feedback is uncomfortable. It can be harsh and discouraging, and it doesn’t always feel nice. ([Location 1932](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1932)) - Outcome Feedback: Are You Doing It Wrong? The first type of feedback, and the least granular, is outcome feedback. This tells you something about how well you’re doing overall but offers no ideas as to what you’re doing better or worse. This kind of feedback can come in the form of a grade—pass/fail, A, B, or C—or it can come in the form of an aggregate feedback to many decisions you’re making simultaneously. ([Location 1954](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1954)) - Informational Feedback: What Are You Doing Wrong? The next type of feedback is informational feedback. This feedback tells you what you’re doing wrong, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you how to fix it. ([Location 1973](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1973)) - Corrective Feedback: How Can You Fix What You’re Doing Wrong? The best kind of feedback to get is corrective feedback. This is the feedback that shows you not only what you’re doing wrong but how to fix it. This kind of feedback is often available only through a coach, mentor, or teacher. ([Location 1987](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=1987)) - If their responses come from using it as a whole, not from each aspect individually, asking for greater specificity may lead to guesses from those giving feedback. ([Location 2011](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2011)) - In general, research has pointed to immediate feedback being superior in settings outside of the laboratory. ([Location 2022](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2022)) - Interestingly, laboratory studies tend to show that delaying the presentation of the correct response along with the original task (delayed feedback) is more effective. The simplest explanation of this result is that presenting the question and answer again offers a second, spaced exposure to the information. If this explanation were correct, all it would mean is that that immediate feedback is best paired with delayed review (or further testing) to strengthen your memory compared with a single exposure. ([Location 2027](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2027)) - Tactic 1: Noise Cancellation Anytime you receive feedback, there are going to be both a signal—the useful information you want to process—and noise. Noise is caused by random factors, which you shouldn’t overreact to when trying to improve. ([Location 2043](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2043)) - Tactic 2: Hitting the Difficulty Sweet Spot Feedback is information. More information equals more opportunities to learn. A scientific measure of information is based on how easily you can predict what message it will contain. If you know that success is guaranteed, the feedback itself provides no information; you knew it would go well all along. Good feedback does the opposite. It is very hard to predict and thus gives more information each time you receive it. The main way this impacts your learning is through the difficulty you’re facing. Many people intuitively avoid constant failure, because the feedback it offers isn’t always helpful. However, the opposite problem, of being too successful, is more pervasive. Ultralearners carefully adjust their environment so that they’re not able to predict whether they’ll succeed or fail. ([Location 2056](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2056)) - Basically, you should try to avoid situations that always make you feel good (or bad) about your performance. ([Location 2064](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2064)) - Tactic 3: Metafeedback Typical feedback is performance assessment: your grade on a quiz tells you something about how well you know the material. However, there’s another type of feedback that’s perhaps even more useful: metafeedback. This kind of feedback isn’t about your performance but about evaluating the overall success of the strategy you’re using to learn. One important type of metafeedback is your learning rate. ([Location 2065](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2065)) - Tactic 4: High-Intensity, Rapid Feedback Sometimes the easiest way to improve feedback is simply to get a lot more of it a lot more often. ([Location 2077](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2077)) - Fear of receiving feedback can often hold you back more than anything. By throwing yourself into a high-intensity, rapid feedback situation, you may initially feel uncomfortable, but you’ll get over that initial aversion much faster than if you wait months or years before getting feedback. ([Location 2082](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2082)) - Being in such a situation also provokes you to engage in learning more aggressively than you might otherwise. Knowing that your work will be evaluated is an incredible motivator to do your best. ([Location 2084](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2084)) - Over the intervening years, psychologists have identified at least three dominant theories to help explain why our brains forget much of what we initially learn: decay, interference, and forgotten cues. Though the jury is still out on the exact mechanism underlying human long-term memory, these three ideas likely form some part of explaining why we tend to forget things and, conversely, provide insight into how we might better retain what we’ve learned. ([Location 2194](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2194)) - Decay: Forgetting with Time The first theory of forgetting is that memories simply decay with time. ([Location 2197](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2197)) - Interference: Overwriting Old Memories with New Ones Interference suggests a different idea: that our memories, unlike the files of a computer, overlap one another in how they are stored in the brain. In this way, memories that are similar but distinct can compete with one another. ([Location 2206](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2206)) - Forgotten Cues: A Locked Box with No Key The third theory of forgetting says that many memories we have aren’t actually forgotten but simply inaccessible. The idea here is that in order to say that one has remembered something, it needs to be retrieved from memory. ([Location 2220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2220)) - In recalling facts, events, or knowledge, we’re engaging in a creative process of reconstruction. The memories themselves are often modified, enhanced, or manipulated in the process of remembering. ([Location 2231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2231)) - Memory Mechanism 1—Spacing: Repeat to Remember One of the pieces of studying advice that is best supported by research is that if you care about long-term retention, don’t cram. Spreading learning sessions over more intervals over longer periods of time tends to cause somewhat lower performance in the short run (because there is a chance for forgetting between intervals) but much better performance in the long run. ([Location 2254](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2254)) - would have on my memory. If you have ten hours to learn something, therefore, it makes more sense to spend ten days studying one hour each than to spend ten hours studying in one burst. ([Location 2259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2259)) - Another strategy for applying spacing, which can work better for more elaborate skills that are harder to integrate into your daily habits, is to semiregularly do refresher projects. ([Location 2284](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2284)) - Automatic Will Endure Why do people say it’s “like riding a bicycle” and not “like remembering trigonometry?” This common expression may be rooted in deeper neurological realities than it first appears. There’s evidence that procedural skills, such as riding a bicycle, are stored in a different way from declarative knowledge, such as knowing the Pythagorean Theorem or the Sine Rule for triangles. This difference between knowing how and knowing that may also have different implications for long-term memory. Procedural skills, such as the ever-remembered bicycling, are much less susceptible to being forgotten than knowledge that requires explicit recall to retrieve. ([Location 2290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2290)) - What has happened is that what was originally the primary access point to knowledge, your explicit memory of the key location, has faded away and now needs to be recalled with the more durable procedural knowledge encoded in your motor movements. ([Location 2305](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2305)) - Because of the fact that procedural knowledge is stored for longer, this may suggest a useful heuristic. Instead of learning a large volume of knowledge or skills evenly, you may emphasize a core set of information much more frequently, so that it becomes procedural and is stored far longer. ([Location 2309](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2309)) - fully proceduralize core skills ([Location 2316](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2316)) - Memory Mechanism 3—Overlearning: Practice Beyond Perfect Overlearning is a well-studied psychological phenomenon that’s fairly easy to understand: additional practice, beyond what is required to perform adequately, can increase the length of time that memories are stored. ([Location 2329](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2329)) - Memory Mechanism 4—Mnemonics: A Picture Retains a Thousand Words The final tool common to many ultralearners I encountered was mnemonics. ([Location 2361](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2361)) - Simply spending a lot of time studying something isn’t enough to create a deep intuition. ([Location 2516](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2516)) - Rule 1: Don’t Give Up on Hard Problems Easily ([Location 2525](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2525)) - One way you can introduce this into your own efforts is to give yourself a “struggle timer” as you work on problems. When you feel like giving up and that you can’t possibly figure out the solution to a difficult problem, try setting a timer for another ten minutes to push yourself a bit further. ([Location 2531](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2531)) - Rule 2: Prove Things to Understand Them ([Location 2537](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2537)) - Feynman didn’t master things by following along with other people’s results. Instead, it was by the process of mentally trying to re-create those results that he became so good at physics. ([Location 2543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2543)) - dig much deeper before they considered something to be “understood.” ([Location 2549](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2549)) - Rule 3: Always Start with a Concrete Example ([Location 2571](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2571)) - A finding from the literature on memory, known as the levels-of-processing effect, suggests that it isn’t simply how much time you spend paying attention to information that determines what you retain but, crucially, how you think about that information while you pay attention to it. ([Location 2576](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2576)) - Rule 4: Don’t Fool Yourself ([Location 2590](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2590)) - One way to avoid this problem of fooling yourself is simply to ask lots of questions. Feynman took this approach himself: “Some people think in the beginning that I’m kind of slow and I don’t understand the problem, because I ask a lot of these ‘dumb’ questions: ([Location 2598](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2598)) - The method is quite simple: Write down the concept or problem you want to understand at the top of a piece of paper. In the space below, explain the idea as if you had to teach it to someone else. If it’s a concept, ask yourself how you would convey the idea to someone who has never heard of it before. If it’s a problem, explain how to solve it and—crucially—why that solution procedure makes sense to you. When you get stuck, meaning your understanding fails to provide a clear answer, go back to your book, notes, teacher, or reference material to find the answer. ([Location 2613](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2613)) - Part of the reason for this is that the early part of learning a skill tends to be the best trodden and supported, as everyone begins at the same place. As your skills develop, however, not only are there fewer people who can teach you and fewer students you could have as peers (thus lowering the total market for books, classes, and instructors), but you also start to diverge from those you’re learning from. ([Location 2758](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2758)) - A second reason for the value of experimentation as you approach mastery is that abilities are more likely to stagnate after you’ve mastered the basics. ([Location 2763](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2763)) - Getting better, however, increasingly becomes an act of unlearning; not only must you learn to solve problems you couldn’t before, you must unlearn stale and ineffective approaches for solving those problems. ([Location 2765](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2765)) - many skills reward not only proficiency but originality. A great mathematician is one who can solve problems others cannot, not merely a person who can solve previously solved problems easily. ([Location 2770](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2770)) - 1. Experimenting with Learning Resources ([Location 2776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2776)) - your impulse to experiment be matched with a drive to do the necessary work. ([Location 2781](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2781)) - A good strategy to take is to pick a resource (maybe a book, class, or method of learning) and apply it rigorously for a predetermined period of time. Once you apply yourself aggressively to that new method, you can step back and evaluate how well it is working ([Location 2783](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2783)) - 2. Experimenting with Technique ([Location 2785](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2785)) - 3. Experimenting with Style ([Location 2794](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2794)) - There’s a tension, therefore, between spending time trying out different resources, techniques, and styles, and concentrating your efforts on a single approach long enough to become proficient at it. ([Location 2807](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2807)) - Tactic 1: Copy, Then Create ([Location 2828](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2828)) - Tactic 2: Compare Methods Side-by-Side ([Location 2837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2837)) - By applying two different approaches side by side, you can often quickly get information not only about what works best but about which methods are better suited to your personal style. ([Location 2840](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2840)) - Tactic 3: Introduce New Constraints ([Location 2851](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2851)) - A powerful technique for pushing out of those grooves of routine is by introducing new constraints that make the old methods impossible to use. ([Location 2854](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2854)) - Pushing out to an extreme in some aspect of the skill you’re cultivating, even if you eventually decide to pull it back to something more moderate, is often a good exploration strategy. This allows you to search the space of possibilities more effectively, while also giving you a broader range of experience. ([Location 2883](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2883)) - The first decision you should make is how much time you’re going to commit. ([Location 2960](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2960)) - The second decision you need to make is when you are going to learn. ([Location 2963](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2963)) - recommend setting a consistent schedule that is the same every week, ([Location 2965](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2965)) - The third decision you need to make is the length of time for your project. I generally prefer shorter commitments to longer ones because they are easier to stick with. ([Location 2971](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2971)) - Finally, take all this information and put it into your calendar. ([Location 2975](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2975)) - for those who are embarking on longer projects of six months or more, I strongly recommend doing a pilot week of your schedule. ([Location 2984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2984)) - Metalearning. Have I done research into what are the typical ways of learning this subject or skill? Have I interviewed successful learners to see what resources and advice they can recommend? Have I spent about 10 percent of the total time on preparing my project? Focus. Am I focused when I spend time learning, or am I multitasking and distracted? Am I skipping learning sessions or procrastinating? When I start a session, how long does it take before I’m in a good flow? How long can I sustain that focus before my mind starts to wander? How sharp is my attention? Should it be more concentrated for intensity or more diffuse for creativity? Directness. Am I learning the skill in the way I’ll eventually be using it? If not, what mental processes are missing from my practice that exist in the real environment? How can I practice transferring the knowledge I learn from my book/class/video to real life? Drill. Am I spending time focusing on the weakest points of my performance? What is the rate-limiting step that is holding me back? Does it feel as though my learning is slowing down and that there’s too many components of the skill to master? If so, how can I split ([Location 2996](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=2996)) - apart a complex skill to work on smaller, more manageable components of it? Retrieval. Am I spending most of my time reading and reviewing, or am I solving problems and recalling things from memory without looking at my notes? Do I have some way of testing myself, or do I just assume I’ll remember? Can I successfully explain what I learned yesterday, last week, a year ago? How do I know if I can? Feedback. Am I getting honest feedback about my performance early on, or am I trying to dodge the punches and avoid criticism? Do I know what I’m learning well and what I’m not? Am I using feedback correctly, or am I overreacting to noisy data? Retention. Do I have a plan in place to remember what I’m learning long term? Am I spacing my exposure to information so it will stick longer? Am I turning factual knowledge into procedures that I’ll retain? Am I overlearning the most critical aspects of the skill? Intuition. Do I deeply understand the things I’m learning, or am I just memorizing? Could I teach the ideas and procedures I’m studying to someone else? Is it clear to me why what I’m learning is true, or does it all seem arbitrary and unrelated? Experimentation. Am I getting stuck with my current resources and techniques? Do I need to branch out and try new approaches to reach my goal? How can I go beyond mastering the basics and create a unique style to solve problems creatively and do things others haven’t explored before? ([Location 3005](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3005)) - by setting up a habit of regular practice, even if it is a minimal one. ([Location 3042](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3042)) - integrate the skill into your life. ([Location 3046](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3046)) - Forgetting, as was discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus more than a hundred years ago, falls off with an exponentially decaying curve. That means that memories that are retained for longer are less and less likely to be forgotten when you follow up at a later date. This pattern suggests that maintenance practice, too, can fall off on a decaying rate, so that the bulk of the knowledge you’ve acquired will be preserved. ([Location 3049](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3049)) - Alternative Strategy 1: Low-Intensity Habits Low-intensity habits work well when engaging in learning is spontaneous, your frustration level is low, and learning is automatically rewarding. ([Location 3088](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3088)) - Habits tend to work best when the act of learning is mostly a process of accumulation, adding new skills and knowledge. Ultralearning and more deliberate efforts are better suited to when improvement in a field requires unlearning ineffective behaviors or skills. ([Location 3100](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3100)) - The most obvious is to acquire credentials. ([Location 3116](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3116)) - Another reason to pursue formal education is that it creates a learning environment that may be beneficial. ([Location 3119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3119)) - To me, such motivational effects, coming from implicit comparison to a reference group, suggest adopting a twofold approach. If a person in whom you want to encourage an ultralearning spirit has a natural aptitude, competition is probably good. ([Location 3389](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3389)) - For a person who either is of moderate ability or is behind other people, such as learning a skill in a domain in which he or she has no experience, or who is starting to learn a new skill later in life, you should make an effort to make the project unique. This will encourage the person to frame his or her progress by comparing to his or her past self, not due to competition with others. ([Location 3391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3391)) - Finishing a project, therefore, isn’t usually accompanied by a sense of finishing learning but by the creation of a feeling of possibility as one’s eyes are opened to all the things left to learn. It’s this aspect of learning that I find most interesting. Many pursuits in life have a kind of saturation point, after which the longing for more of a thing eventually diminishes as you get more of it. A hungry person can eat only so much food. A lonely person can have only so much companionship. Curiosity doesn’t work this way. The more one learns, the greater the craving to learn more. ([Location 3444](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07J2CKYXC&location=3444))