A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)

by Barbara Oakley

first learning

entire working memory is involved

encapsulated

The chunking, which enlists long-term memory,

neurocircuitry.

Merely glancing at the solution to a problem and thinking you truly know it yourself is one of the most common illusions of competence in learning.

erroneously

Pick a mathematical or scientific concept

Read it over,

look away and see what you can re...

reread the c...

try it ...

persisting

material well enough to do

think creatively ...

“slow hunch”—the

long simmering of focused and diffuse processes

creative break...

rangin...

tentatively

novelty

set aside

weeklong

fo...

Law of Serendipity

There are two ways to solve problems—first, through sequential, step-by-step reasoning, and second, through more holistic intuition.

Sequential thinking,

involves the focu...

diffuse mode ...

several seemingly different focused m...

Most difficult problems are solved thro...

a lea...

solutions it provides with should be carefully verified using the focused mode. Intuitive insights aren’t always correct!

In building a chunked library,

lurking

brush up

If you don’t understand a method presented in a course you are taking,

stop and work backward.

Go to the Internet and discover who first figured out the method or some of the e...

Practice Makes Permanent

A chunk, in other words, is simply a more complex memory trace.

That chunk is what begins to form after you’ve understood a concept or problem and practiced just a time

or...

Incidentally,

strengthening an initial learning pattern

within...

after you fir...

forming it is im...

Witho...

strength...