wiki/2021-04-04-11-24-56.org

#+title: Learning how to learn
#+date: "2021-04-04 11:24:56 +08:00"
#+date_modified: "2021-04-19 14:42:32 +08:00"
#+language: en
#+source: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
#+tags: @fleeting courses personal-info-management


This course is one of the more popular metalearning courses especially on those who look for more ways to be more productive such as students.
I studied with this course for the exact title: learn the mechanics of learning and how to apply it for me to learn more effectively.

Not all of the details are listed here, just what I think I need for review.




* How the brain works

In order to understand the inner mechanics of metalearning, we have to familiarize with the brain (at least a little).
The brain, while physically small, relates to a lot of things: our thought processes, motivations, emotions, tendencies, and memory.
Thus, it is one of the more expensive organ in our body requiring more oxygen relative to its mass.

Inside our brain houses a lot of smaller things called *neurons* where they store information.
Each neuron may then form connections to other neurons called *synapses* where they form neural pattern representing a web of thoughts.

There has been a staying belief from studies that the brain is in development from birth up to 25 years of age.
After the maturation is complete, no further developments will occur and slowly degrade with the neurons will slowly decrease in number with age.
With recent developments in brain imaging technology, it is shown that neurons can still develop in the adult stage.
Furthermore, it form new synapses with only changes in activity including resting.




* Focused and diffused mode

The brain goes into two modes: *focused* and *diffused*.

- Focused mode is when we actively remember familiar information.
  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.

- Diffused mode is when there is state of clarity in the mind.
  This is when we relax: taking a break, walking in the trails, doing a power nap, sleeping for hours, hanging out with friends, etc.
  Usually, it comes in the form of random thoughts or Eureka moments passing through our brain.

In other words, our brain is working 24/7.
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.




* Procrastination

Procastination is a problem all of us faces.
When we procastinate, the things we avert are associated with pain thus we turn our attention away from them.
To mitigate against this:

- Just start working.
  The discomfort of facing it goes away after a while.

- Use the Pomodoro technique to create interleaving segments of focus and relaxation.




* Memory and sleep

Similar to working out to build up muscles, a neural formation is stronger if you use it more often while it decays if you neglect for some time.
This is the basis of memory.

The memory can be separated into two parts:

- The *working memory* contains information that are required immediately.
  It is like the working desk where you place all of the required materials and tools to do your current task.

- The *long-term memory* contains all of the information that you've stored and it is where your working memory gets its on-hand information from.
  It's like the storages of all of the materials and tools you may need in the future.

The following practices are recommended to strengthen your memory:

- Use [[file:2021-04-07-18-19-11.org][Spaced repetition]].
  That is, repeating what you've practice over a period of time whether by days, weeks, or even months.
  Similar to the previous point, cramming and repeating over a few times in one evening will dissipate the neural formation faster.

- Just sleep.
  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.




* 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.




* Chunking

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.
It can even work vice-versa.


** Forming new chunks

To form new chunks, one of the guidelines is to focus, understand, and practice.

- Focus your undivided attention into learning.
  If you're having trouble with it, see [[Procrastination]].

- Understand the basic idea of the concept.
  For related information, see [[Memory and Sleep]].

- 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.

One of the more useful tips on forming new chunks is to learn the key ideas.
While learning, you can then fill in the details yourself.
For specific practices, you can gain an overview of what you're trying to learn by skimming the text or a chapter, heading into an example exercise, and watching others how it is done (see [[file:2020-07-06-03-47-52.org][Refer to advanced resources when skill-building for a solid short-term goal]]).
Simply understanding and seeing does not make an expert.
One of the pitfalls when learning through examples is only focusing on how to solve the specific problem and not why it is necessary.
Examples like those should be treated like a road map, giving you directions on reaching a conclusion.
With a roadmap, you can also find other ways how to reach the same conclusions.

To check whether you have gained a chunk, one of the indicators is doing it yourself.
Recalling is one of the best way to learn a new concept in-depth compared to other practices such as concept mapping.
The value of recalling is creating mini-tests while on the process of retrieving key information.
It turns out when we retrieve information, we're also learning in some form.
Recalling and mini-testing only strengthen the process further.

A new chunk can also form when you're under stress impeding your understanding or when you're in diffused mode.
That said, having a chunk does not often mean useful.
A chunk is useless if it's isolated among the rest for some time or if it's not made to connect with other chunks.
Furthermore, due to the semi-random way of thinking when diffused, it should be verified with a focused way of thinking.




* Illusions of competence

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.

One of the reasons of illusion of competence is the presence of the material itself.
Once seen by the student, they tend to think they have absorbed the material.

Highlighting, rereading, concept mapping = not effective than what you thought

- Highlighting can be done to a minimum, the key idea should be the focus of the highlight.
- Rereading can be effective if done in spaced repetition and if recalling was applied.
- Concept mapping can be effective but only if the basic chunk was formed.

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.




* Motivations

Your brain is composed of neuromodulators and chemicals that affects your learning.

- Acetylcholine affects your focused attention.
  It can affect your long-term memory and neuroplasticity.

- Dopamine affects your ability to predict better rewards for the uncertain future.
  This involves doing things that are not immediately rewarding but predicts it will bear a better reward in the future.
  Lack of dopamine means lack of motivation.
  While drugs exist in controlling the dopamine levels, it can be dangerous by craving for more and becoming dependent on it.

- Seratonin affects risk-taking behavior.
  Lower seratonin levels means more of behaving more of a risk-taker.

Emotions and cognition are related to one another and no less important to learning.
If you want to be an effective learner, you have to be happy or in the mood.




* Habits

The brain is responsive to various stimulus with a variety of effects of various levels.
Examples include changing temperature, surrounding sounds, reaching smell, and the location.
Our brain might associate certain rooms to be predominantly relaxing so we tend to relax and get lazy such as your own room and hangout places.
Other environments such as your workplace, gyms, and schools may be associated with active work so we tend to get moving.

# TODO:
Explain 'Action, Response, and Intervene'