It usually occurs when we're actively doing a task like cooking a meal, solving a math problem, writing your notes, programming software, composing music, etc.
Similar to ourselves, the brain has a routine to follow not only to make our body function as-is day-to-day but also improve ourselves in terms of habits and skills when we put the effort.
Nonetheless, both of these modes can be used to our advantage to familiarize with new information, see the bigger picture, and learn a new skill.
As counterintuitive as it is, sleep does have its function that helps with the brain such as preventing sleep-related disorders (e.g., insomnia), removing toxins that accumulate while you're awake, and strengthening relevant neural structures while erasing less important ones.
Your working memory is said to have four chunks at a time.
For more efficiency, your brain can link various neural structures to represent an information.
An example is numbers and operations such as \(5 * 4 = 20\), \(1 + 1 = 2\), and \(5 - 29 = -24\).
You know what numbers are, what do the symbols mean, and if you read the equations, you already have the answer just after you read it.
Another example is reading the word 'electronics' may invoke an image of the common appliances and gadgets you have in home such as your smartphone, fridge, and laptop even though they are different objects.
This is the gist of chunking.
Chunking is the process of simplifying groups of information (or neural structure) as you learn and use more of them.
Neuroscientifically speaking, a chunk is a group of neurons that learnt to sing in tune as you react to something.
When a certain word is heard, it may invoke an imagery.
That process comes from your neurons storing bits on information combining into the resulting imagery.
A new chunk can form from the diffused mode of thinking where random bits on information are gathered while in this mode.
The chunk may grow bigger as you use more of them or decay as you use less.
The bigger the chunk is, the more information is condensed and this is when we start to form expertise over various skills.
Having a group of chunks can be helpful in learning new ideas as you'll find relations between different fields/skills/ideas.
This transfer of ideas will come in handy once you explore more.
If you're a mathematician, for example, you'll find similarities on computer programming with the concepts of variables, looping, functions, conditionals, and so forth.
- Practice to strengthen the chunk and know the big picture.
Learning can go bottom-up — knowing the details of a specific problem — and top-down learning — gaining a 30,000 foot view of what you're learning and where it fits in.
For specific details, you can do the following practices for hammering down the lesson.
- Learn the key ideas.
You can skim the chapter you're supposed to study, minding all of the key words and concepts, then fill the details yourself.
For a related example of the practice, see [[file:../2020-07-06-03-47-52.org][Refer to advanced resources when skill-building for a solid short-term goal]].
Though, do focus on the bigger picture with the example (e.g., why this solution is valid, why this step is necessary) and not only how to reach that conclusion.
In other words, treat examples/exercises as a road map that when mastered can lead you to reach the same conclusion with a different perspective/solution.
- Testing it yourself is one of the most effective indicator if you've mastered the lesson.
Simply recalling can be more effective than rereading.
- Keep in mind about "Law of Serendipity": Lady Luck prefers the one who tries.
For a start, you can do something small and another until you're surprised at the results.
Illusions of competence is one of the pitfalls when trying to learn.
One of lesser forms of it is practicing what is proved to be ineffective — while plausible to learn with those, can entrap the learner into thinking they're making progress.
The discomfort of facing it goes away after a while.
- Use the Pomodoro technique to create interleaving segments of focus and relaxation.
** Trying to solve head-first
One of the common mistakes of students is doing homeworks ahead without looking for the solution applying the sink-or-swim approach.
While useful in training your intuition, it is not progress as you'll enforce bad habits when established solutions are more helpful.
Looking over solutions is a helpful learning skill.
Although there are also pitfalls for that (see [[Learning with solutions]]).
** Overlearning
Once you have understood the lesson, you may continually study away in one concept.
This is a dangerous practice as you're wasting valuable time that could've spent on learning and practicing new concepts.
Once you understood the key idea of a concept, you should move on to the next (preferably more difficult) concept (see [[file:../2020-07-06-23-55-47.org][Deliberate practice]]).
Interleaving self-testing and study (see [[Practices in forming new chunks]]) is more than enough for your learning.
Another example of it is learning with solutions — while helpful into learning the big picture, it can also fool students thinking the problem is easier than they thought.
The shown solution is given and solved by others so it is easy to think that we have solved the problem as well.
One of the key takeaways from this is doing the problem solving ourselves is the one of the most important step in mastering a subject.
The saying "Science progresses one funeral at a time." relates to the fact that most breakthroughs are done by young people and those who are not originally trained in that discipline.
This concept is known as einstellung.
To be less vulnerable to this mindset, you have to practice interleaving and unlearning.
Our brain has a preference for routines or habits.
These routines *start from small doses with each repeat becoming larger* to the point it can affect your life for better or worse.
It is very similar to addiction.
Habits are great energy-savers as they free up our mental space to put it somewhere else.
When we mindless do a task, it is our habits in motion.
This is how procrastination (see [[Procrastination]]) also forms.
To combat against this, we need to know the internals of habits.
A habit can be sliced into several parts:
- The cue which is the starter of the habit.
This could be something simple as seeing your todo list or your looking at the clock.
- The cues are harmless but the routine, our response, is a matter of benefits or harm.
When we see the todo list, we either be afraid or motivated to empty it.
When we see the clock, the typical response will either by inaction or action to sleep.
- The reward which can enforce a habit to grow into something larger.
This could be something like the feeling of satisfaction of doing your todo list and rewarding yourself by relaxing at the end of the day.
Or in the case when we see the clock, we either get rewarded by worsening our sleep cycle but more awake time or improving our sleep cycle thus reducing the chance of encountering sleep disorders.
For the habit to improve, worsen, or even entirely replaced, we need to change our belief.
* Takeaways from "Interview with Dr. Terrence Sejnowski"
- Learn headfirst in a new topic by getting involved with peers and experts who are already invested in similar topics.
- Active engagement > passive listening.
- A method to capture your ideas before it evaporates — e.g., a portable pen and notebook, org-capture, the PARA system.
- While multitasking is possible, it's not efficient.
However, being unable to multitask can make day-to-day basis difficult.
The more important skill is efficient context switching — i.e., being able to return to the original task after being interrupted mid-task and continue smoothly.
- Being in a more reflective mode creates the best work.
- Being in an enriched environment with creative people makes generating and processing ideas easier.
If being in enriched environment is not possible, exercise can be a good substitute.
The point is making a creative workspace for those ideas to roam and bounce off other ideas either with other people or idle time.
- Passion and persistence > smarts.
- Being able to see things at a different perspective.
* Takeaways from "Interview with Dr. Robert Bilder on creativity and problem solving"
- The criteria of creativity mostly applies to what is unique to you.
It doesn't mean that others solve it that you're not creative as long as you've solved it yourself.
- A level of discomfort is always involved when trying to learn something new.
As they say, "no pain, no gain."
- Personalities can relate to the creative achievement of a person.
It boils down to mainly five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
A more open person to new experiences can be more creative achiever.
Counterintuitively, a less agreeable or more disagreeable can find more creative success since they are the type to challenge the status quo.
- Creativity walks a fine line of being novel and valuable to other people.
You can create pieces that are too strange but you may find less people finding it valuable.
It can impose a [[file:../2020-07-06-23-55-47.org][Deliberate practice]] of trying to find balance.
- While our subconscious can be more right, it doesn't mean that it is never wrong.
Examples include people feeling more creative while under the influence of LSD but after the session they find the product is not as close as they visioned.
