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February 13 - February 26, 2023
We don’t engage in passive rereading because we are dumb or lazy. We do it because we fall prey to a cognitive illusion.
Focused-mode thinking is essential for studying math and science. It involves a direct approach to solving problems using rational, sequential, analytical approaches. The focused mode is associated with the concentrating abilities of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, located right behind your forehead.
Diffuse-mode thinking is also essential for learning math and science. It allows us to suddenly gain a new insight on a problem we’ve been struggling with and is associated with “big-picture” perspectives. Diffuse-mode thinking is what happens when you relax your attention and just let your mind wander.
(Metaphors are powerful tools for learning in math and science.)
Don’t worry about finishing the task—just worry about working on it.
One way to think of the diffuse mode is as a base station when you are mountain climbing. Base stations are essential resting spots in the long journey to difficult mountaintops. You use them to pause, reflect, check your gear, and make sure you’ve got the right route picked out.
Attempting to recall the material you are trying to learn—retrieval practice—is far more effective than simply rereading the material.
highlighting and underlining must be done carefully—otherwise they can be not only ineffective but also misleading.
the “slow hunch”—the gentle, years-long simmering of focused and diffuse processes that has resulted in creative breakthroughs
a key difference between creative scientists and technically competent but nonimaginative ones is their breadth of interest.22)
Law of Serendipity comes to play: Lady Luck favors the one who tries.23
getting the right answer can occasionally mislead you if you get it by using an incorrect procedure.
“The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.”6
Procrastination is a single, monumentally important “keystone” bad habit.
We all have a failure rate. You will fail. So control your failures. That is why we do homework—to exhaust our failure rate.
smart people can have more of a tendency to lose themselves in the weeds of complexity.
sadly mistaken valuing of abilities. Quickness was taken as cleverness, memory for ability, and submissiveness for rightness.
born in 1987 in Africa,
AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY
Good teachers and mentors are often very busy people, and you need to use their time wisely.
What is this, an etiquette class?
paradoxical nature of learning.
Learning is, of course, personally empirical.
