>So much of what we call creativity and intelligence is just memory.<p>This matches my experience very closely. In fact, I find that programmers (and STEM people in general) tend to look down on remembering things since "you can just Google it".<p>However, after working with some very smart people I have a newfound respect for memory. The problem with "I'll just Google it when I need it" is that often great ideas and solutions are based on information that you remember, but you won't get any of those ideas or come up with those solutions if the building blocks aren't there. It's like trying to build a house with half the foundation missing. Remembering things allows you to build new theories and solutions to problems that you could never come up with if you didn't remember those things.
I remember being very meticulous about my learning process and tried to build a sandcastle of knowledge. I had notebooks for every subject, I went over them every so often just to be sure I don't forget stuff etc. I was living in a 19th century time-frame and hoped to be one of those autodidacts, Renaissance men, polymaths who knew everything there was to know about the world they were living in. Romantic and vain dreams, that don't match our times.<p>I grew out of it and the truth is similar to Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap! So, why waste my time on trying to memorize stuff I don't really need, just to satisfy my own superiority complex and to feel like an erudite man? Now I'm using Just-In-Time approach: If I don't know or can't remember something, I will look it up.
The whole post is based on<p>> If I forget everything I read, I can’t apply my knowledge to the problem at hand. I can’t transfer it.<p>Which is true, but I'm not really sure your solution is the best way to solve this problem. When you learn react, you are not trying to memorize the full book, you are trying to learn to be able to code in react which is a really different thing. The world champion of french Scrabble doesn't speak french [1]<p>To me you are over engineering the learning process. Learning benefits a lot from forgetting, there is no point trying to memorize a full book so that's normal to forget most of it<p>There are benefits from memorizing a full book but not for the case you are showing as an example (learning React or js)<p>[1] <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/21/424980378/winner-of-french-scrabble-title-does-not-speak-french" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/21/424980378...</a>
Spaced repetition definitely works (and is much better than nothing), but I found it to be quite dull.<p>Recently, I've been reading "The memory code" by Lynne Kelly and found that most of the ancient cultures faced the problem of memory and used memory spaces (aka "method of loci").<p>I tried it out recently to memorize the timeline of evolutionary history while walking in city streets. I found I could memorize 1-3 items per minute, which very high recall hours and days later. The structure between items was readily apparent, so that I could, for instance, easily estimate that there were ~650 million years between the first terrestrial eukaryotes and first appearance of sharks.<p>The streets have acquired new meaning and the process was really quite enjoyable. With this tool, I actually want to learn the structure of many more things.
I used Anki to remember anything. It worked the best. It solved the purpose.<p>Then I read Erich Fromm's "To Have or To Be" - and it changed me. It made me question if I was just "having" all that knowledge or really "practicing" it.<p>It felt good to know lots of interesting facts of chemistry, physics, geography and code. But I just "had" them - never "enjoyed" them.<p>Will highly recommend the book. For a moment, pause and re-think, why do we need to remember everything?
I'm a mapper <a href="http://wiki.c2.com/?MappersVsPackers" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.c2.com/?MappersVsPackers</a> I hold many ideas, some of them contradictory, in limbo in my brain until they match up with others, and my map of the world gets a bit larger and better connected.<p>I strongly suspect you are a packer... and wow, that's a lot of work.<p>My approach to getting a skill is to dive in, recklessly, and pound away, until I've beat the technology into submission, and it does it exactly what I want, how I want.<p>I strongly suspect this approach wouldn't work for you. (Unless you did it a lot, and <i>become a mapper</i> if that is even possible)
Lots of good ideas here and I'm probably going to experiment with some of them as I more deliberately build out my own process.<p>I have one major gripe that I think is worth pointing out: it may behoove you to be more selective in applying this rigorous treatment, if you aren't already.<p>You sort of touched on this with your ideas about sampling books before committing, realizing that most stuff is probably not worth reading. Similarly, most knowledge is not worth running through a high friction retention process.<p>Every unit of time you dedicate to a particular learning task has an opportunity cost. There's a roughly multiplicative factor applied to this cost per task with every additional layer in your retention process. You really want just enough process to get close to an optimal point on the tradeoff between 'exploiting' particular knowledge versus 'exploring' other things.<p>The above is also why I've started to conceptualize the learning process as a funnel. At the top end is inbound content in the form of books, blog posts, videos, etc. The bottom is what becomes indelible learning and enhances understanding. There are several stages in this funnel and what flows through each stage should narrow (both naturally and as a consequence of process) as you progress. With this in mind, I would argue that there should be at least one or two intermediate funnel stages between inbound content and the process you've described.
This is pretty much the method I settled on while studying as well, but I use Obsidian.md just for linking while doing my "metacognition" as the author calls it. The important thing for me is that while in my 25 minute block of study that I don't go hunting for those links to my other files though, sometimes, they just come to mind. To me, that's a signal that that particular note has 'stuck' if I'm recalling it while writing about other things.
I have found getting the things I want to learn about into audio form (if its not already a podcast), be that by finding recordings (or striping it from videos with newpipe or youtube-dl -x), or using ebooks or OCRing books to text files and playing them in a tts app, and then putting headphones on and riding my bike(being sure to still be able to hear traffic) or rambling around in a forest or mountain, is a very good way to make things memorable. It's a low effort loci method I guess. It's never as good as sitting down an purposefully making a memory palace and then doing recollection practice, but it is much less energy to do.<p>Its also good for things you cant be bothered reading. This morning I listened through the H1B visa thread this way. (and heard some interesting bug in the HN site where the posts started to be "one million minuets ago" then "buffer overflow minuets ago" ..)
Great read, I kind of do this but on just one page in a notebook. Splitting it up into 3 'areas' (for want of a better word) makes a lot of sense and makes those notes a lot more useful, thanks!<p>I think a few commenters are missing the point or just skimming over the post. It's not about memorising a 'book' or subject by rote, it's about being able to consume, rearrange and remember the subject in a way that's more suitable to how you remember or think about things.
It not only clears your thoughts as you study (allowing you to move through the material quicker) but aids in recollection with better organised note taking.
Cheers
How timely. Due to covid-19 and most of my corporate training going from live to virtual, I decided I needed to improve my teaching.<p>I invested a bit on physical tooling and I doubled down and studied learning earlier this year.<p>I just created an online course on learning and it was released today!?<p>(Full disclosure I'm the author of said course) if you are interested in a course that has a bunch of overlap with this article, check it out.<p><a href="https://mattharrison.podia.com" rel="nofollow">https://mattharrison.podia.com</a>
This post touches many topics I learned in a MOOC about meta-learning: focus time (there's also the important diffuse time, eg shower thoughts), recall, practice, forming long term memories, resting. I highly suggest the MOOC, it's free without certification, and you can start any time:<p><a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn" rel="nofollow">https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn</a>
Realizing that one forgets the majority of what they learn day-to-day is a harrowing realization. It was for me, at least.<p>I built this simple web app to help me keep track of what I learn, and later opened it up to the general public. I've gotten good feedback so far - interested to hear more: <a href="https://wyl.today" rel="nofollow">https://wyl.today</a>
In college, a very long time ago, I read a strategy of remembering things. Imagining your house. And in your house you would place a specific thing you were trying to remember in a specific place in that house. I'd put formulas in a drawer.<p>It seemed to work for Organic Chemistry.
Similarly, I've been putting meeting notes, life decisions and reading notes in RoamResearch in the hopes that it can replace my "crappy" natural memory at least a little bit. But I haven't really collected any fruits from it (a few months now).
it's a really interesting post, and I really like your approach to studying. Thank you for detailing it so clearly.<p>I've never used Drafts and I'm curious about how do you keep your files organised after a session. You write a sort of recap of what you've learned, that's clear. But how are the other 3 files grouped together? Only by date or timestamp? Do you ever go back to or search through your old files?<p>Also, another curiosity:instinctively I would keep my study material on the iPad and take notes on the laptop. What's the advantage in doing it the other way around?<p>And thanks again!
I think I would prefer to use 3 pieces of paper in place of 3 text files.<p>Maybe there is an easy way to digitize these later? Take a picture with an ipad and continue to add to them?
mild resentment at the "you'll just memorize the tutorial and your knowledge will be shallow"-- seems mildly judgemental and contradictory of "life's too short to do things that don't interest you"
Why not just write everything down in a private git repo which you can grep later.<p>Write your thought in a structured, bite sized chunks and you'll be able to recall it quickly.