A Mind for Numbers Quotes

“One important key to learning swiftly in math and science is to realize that virtually every concept you learn has an analogy—a comparison—with something you already know.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Once you understand why you do something in math and science, you shouldn’t keep reexplaining the how. Such overthinking can lead to choking.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“ADVICE ON SLEEPING “Many people will tell you that they can’t nap. The one thing I learned from a single yoga class I took many years ago was to slow down my breathing. I just keep breathing slowly in and out and don’t think I must fall asleep. Instead, I think things like, Sleepytime! and just focus on my breathing. I also make sure it’s dark in the room, or I cover my eyes with one of those airplane sleep masks. Also, I set my phone alarm for twenty-one minutes because turning a short power nap into a longer sleep can leave you groggy. This amount of time gives me what’s basically a cognitive reboot.” —Amy Alkon, syndicated columnist and catnap queen”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“A synthesis—an abstraction, chunk, or gist idea—is a neural pattern. Good chunks form neural patterns that resonate, not only within the subject we’re working in, but with other subjects and areas of our lives. The abstraction helps you transfer ideas from one area to another. That’s why great art, poetry, music, and literature can be so compelling. When we grasp the chunk, it takes on a new life in our own minds—we form ideas that enhance and enlighten the neural patterns we already possess, allowing us to more readily see and develop other related patterns.

Once we have created a chunk as a neural pattern, we can more easily pass that chunked pattern to others, as Cajal and other great artists, poets, scientists, and writers have done for millennia, Once other people grasp that chunk, not only can they use it, but also they can more easily create similar chunks that apply to other areas in their lives—an important part of the creative process.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“reading—simply reading through books or”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Homework _Yes _No 1. Did you make a serious effort to understand the text? (Just hunting for relevant worked-out examples doesn’t count.) _Yes _No 2. Did you work with classmates on homework problems, or at least check your solutions with others? _Yes _No 3. Did you attempt to outline every homework problem solution before working with classmates? Test Preparation The more “Yes” responses you recorded, the better your preparation for the test. If you recorded two or more “No” responses, think seriously about making some changes in how you prepare for the next test. _Yes _No 4. Did you participate actively in homework group discussions (contributing ideas, asking questions)? _Yes _No 5. Did you consult with the instructor or teaching assistants when you were having trouble with something? _Yes _No 6. Did you understand ALL of your homework problem solutions when they were handed in? _Yes _No 7. Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problem solutions that weren’t clear to you? _Yes _No 8. If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself that you could do everything on it? _Yes _No 9. Did you attempt to outline lots of problem solutions quickly, without spending time on the algebra and calculations? _Yes _No 10. Did you go over the study guide and problems with classmates and quiz one another? _Yes _No 11. If there was a review session before the test, did you attend it and ask questions about anything you weren’t sure about? _Yes _No 12. Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test? (If your answer is no, your answers to 1–11 may not matter.) _Yes _No TOTAL”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Testing is itself an extraordinarily powerful learning experience.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Learning is often paradoxical. The very thing we need in order to learn impedes our ability to learn.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“one significant mistake students sometimes make in learning math and science is jumping into the water before they learn to swim.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“particularly interesting about Cajal is that he achieved his greatness even though he wasn’t a genius—at least, not in the conventional sense of the term. Cajal deeply regretted that he never had a “quickness, certainty, and clearness in the use of words.”10 What’s worse is that when Cajal got emotional, he lost his way with words almost entirely. He couldn’t remember things by rote, which made school, where parroting back information was prized, agony for him. The best Cajal could do was to grasp and remember key ideas; he frequently despaired his modest powers of understanding.11 Yet some of the most exciting areas of neuroscientific research today are rooted in Cajal’s original findings.12”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“If you’d like to see how to apply these ideas directly to memorizing formulas, try out the SkillsToolbox .com website for a list of easy-to-remember visuals for mathematical symbols.7”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“If you are trying to understand or figure out something new, your best bet is to turn off your precision-focused thinking and turn on your “big picture” diffuse mode,”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Why Trying Too Hard Can Sometimes Be Part of the Problem”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“We procrastinate about things that make us feel uncomfortable.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Figuring out a difficult problem or learning a new concept almost always requires one or more periods when you aren’t consciously working on the problem. Each interlude in which you are not directly focused on the problem allows your diffuse mode to look at it in a fresh way. When you turn your focused attention back to the problem, you consolidate new ideas and patterns that the diffuse mode has delivered”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“part of the magic behind Edison’s extraordinary creativity. When faced with a difficult problem, instead of focusing intently on it, Edison, according to legend, took a nap.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Enlisting the focused mode, which is often what you need to do to first get a problem into your brain, requires your full attention. Studies have shown that we have only so much mental energy—willpower—for this type of thinking.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Habit is an energy saver for us, it allows us to free our mind for other types of activities.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“When you take breaks, your diffuse mode is still working away in the background.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Diffuse-mode thinking is what happens when you relax your attention and just let your mind wander. This relaxation can allow different areas of the brain to hook up and return valuable insights. Unlike the focused mode, the diffuse mode seems less affiliated with any one area of the brain—you can think of it as being “diffused” throughout the brain.5 Diffuse-mode insights often flow from preliminary thinking that’s been done in the focused mode. (The diffuse mode must have clay to make bricks”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Rising frustration is usually a good time-out signal for you, signaling that you need to shift to diffuse mode.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“It's easy to feel distaste for something you're not good at, but the better you get at something, the more you'll find you enjoy it”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“It's easy to feel distasted for something you're not good at.
But the better you get at something the more you find you enjoy it”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“FAILURE CAN BE A GREAT TEACHER “When I was in tenth grade I decided to take an AP computer science class. I ended up failing the AP exam. But I would not accept the failure, so I took the class and the test again the following year. Somehow, staying away from programming for nearly a year and then coming back to it made me realize how much I truly enjoyed it. I passed the test easily on the second try. If I had been too afraid of failure to take the computer science class the first time, and then a second time, I would certainly not be what I am today, a passionate and happy computer scientist.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“A Mind for Numbers is”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Einstellung”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“Multitasking is like constantly pulling up a plant. This kind of constant shifting of your attention means that new ideas and concepts have no chance to take root and flourish. When you multitask while doing schoolwork, you get tired more quickly. Each tiny shift back and forth of attention siphons off energy. Although each attention switch itself seems tiny, the cumulative result is that you accomplish far less for your effort.”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“pretend you’re an electron and orbit a nearby table. As”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“_Yes _No 12. Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test? (If your answer is no, your answers to 1–11 may not matter.)”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

“The Diffuse Mode—A Spread-Out Pinball Machine”
― Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science