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

by Barbara Oakley

Sometimes you may also flicker for a rapid moment to diffuse-mode thinking.

Focused-mode thinking is essential for studying math and science.

penetrating

Diffuse-mode thinking

“big-picture” perspectives.

Diffuse-mode thinking is what

happens w...

relax your at...

let your mind...

This relaxation can allow different areas of the brain to hook up and ret...

less affiliat...

any one area of the ...

“diffused” throughout ...

preliminary

bumping around

This is the focused mode of thinking.

Basically, the focused mode is used to concentrate on something

that’s already tightly connected in your mind,

under...

“well-trodden”

fiddle

inadvertently

erroneous

The lower thought is a new thought—it doesn’t have that underlying broad pattern.

The diffuse approach on the right often involves a big-picture perspective.

This thinking mode ...

when you are learning som...

funnel

noodling

rattle

ingrained

In math and science, however, it often doesn’t take much of a change for a problem to become quite different. Problem ...

encrypted

conventional

abstractness?

cud

pa...

e...

to harden

This is why dealing with procrastination, while important in studying

idea you already have in mind,

your simple initial thought,

prevents a better idea o...

from being...

Einstellung as installing a roadblock

you are initially looking at something.)

your initial intuition about what’s happening is misleading.

You have to unlearn your

erro...

older ideas even while you’re learn...