Learning to Learn Smarter
These 5 myths kill your ability to develop yourself
“Once you stop learning, you start dying” — Albert Einstein
Learning is the cornerstone of our evolutionary process. For millions of years, we’ve been learning from the world around us. The ones who’ve been able to learn and adapt to change have thrived. Those who haven’t evolved have perished.
Learning is not an option, your life depends on it. In fact, persistent learning makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary existence:
“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” ― Carol Dweck
It is important to build your knowledge base.
But how?
By building a learning lifestyle. But first, we need to debunk some of the biggest myths about learning. This way you will work smarter and make the most out of your life.
Education relies on foundations which strongly influence beliefs. Some of these presumptions are flawed or not well defined, which can alter your ability to grow yourself.
The aim of this article is to discuss 5 of these myths and how you can learn to learn smarter.
1. It takes 10 000 hours of practice to master anything
If you have any interest in learning, I’m confident you’ve heard this one.
The 10,000 Hour Rule is everywhere. If you want to be an expert at anything, it goes, the key to success is practicing the task repeatedly for 10,000 hours-roughly 20 hours per week for 10 years.
The good news?
This is wrong.
Back in December, I enjoyed a short family break for Christmas. It gave me some time to put my life in perspective. I was drawing a mental map of the new year when I came across this Ted talk from Josh Kaufman:
This video is inspiring. I’ve always been a huge fan of self-improvement efforts. But Josh Kaufman makes a reasoning point: It takes only 20 hours of deliberate practice to learn something unfamiliar to the point where you can enjoy a new addition to your skill set:
Think about it, you don’t need to be exceptional in one domain. Rather, you can establish a unique talent stack by combining several skills singularly. This can make you extremely valuable and certainly takes less than 10 years of deliberate practice.
This also means that learning new skills is mandatory.
If you’ve been on the same jobs for years, the chart above highlights a simple truth: there is not much of a contrast between you and someone who’ve been on the job for a year or two.
Building your talent stack is a keystone to thrive.
2. Forgetting is the enemy of learning
While thinking about learning something new, one of the big difficulties that come to mind is forgetting.
Our brain naturally forgets. Thus, we tend to think learning is about fighting the forgetting curve. Yet it’s not that simple.
Forgetting is a desirable difficulty. It is critical to the learning of new skills and to the preservation and reacquisition of old ones.
In fact, knowledge collapse happens when the brain is re-engineering what you are learning. Your knowledge base will take a leap forward after that period.
In his remarkable book, How We learn, Benedict Carey describes how forgetting aids learning:
- In our memory, storage and retrieval are two different things. When you try to retrieve some information, the retrieval process deepens the neural networks while your brain makes new connections. The harder the retrieval process, the largest memory benefits.
- Using memory changes memory. Forgetting deepens learning by filtering out distracting information and by allowing some breakdown that drives retrieval and storage strength higher.
This phenomenon is called memory reconsolidation.
The learning process involves synthesizing a new idea by gathering pieces of information through meaning or use. Making logical links enable to consolidate new material and to transfer information from short-term memory (or working memory) to long-term memory.
The reactivation of souvenirs stabilized in long-term memory makes them fashionable:
3. Good learning habits involve a steady routine
As college students, we’ve been told to create a study routine. Best practice was supposed to be comprised of finding a quiet and comfortable place to study, make a study plan and work every day in the same environment.
Supposedly, this helps the acquisition of knowledge by forming a learning habit.
Except, this approach makes little sense.
True, the brain recalls best while in the same state of mine. Contextual cues can empower your brain to link new information and increase the storage and retrieval strength of what you already remembered.
Yet, this is precisely why you need to vary the environment in which you study.
Think about it, whether you are a student or an experienced professional, you cannot predict the environment in which you will need to recall a fact, technique or process.
You need to vary the environment in which you learn about a subject. And this comes with a huge benefit. Each alteration of the routine furthers the skill, making it deeper into your mind.
You need to mix up study locations and routines to boost retention and skill acquisition. It makes what you know increasingly independent of your surroundings.
4. Learning requires blocking distraction
When facing a problem, the usual advice to concentrate, block distraction and think hard is not accurate.
In one of his publications, Norman Maier, the American experimental psychologist puts it this way:
“The perception of the solution of a problem is like the perceiving of a hidden figure in a puzzle -picture.”
When we focus on something, the brain makes assumptions to reconstruct a story. These mental representations can block us from perceiving the solution to a problem.
After focusing on a task, stepping back to see the bigger picture is essential. When you put aside the problem, an internal process associates new information with past information. In short, your mind keeps working on the problem behind the surface.
Letting go empowers your brain to escape path dependency.
It’s a way to tune the mind so that it collects a mix of external perceptions and internal reflections relevant to the project at hand.
And the benefits of interrupting yourself doesn’t stop there.
Social psychology explains the dynamics of motivation and goal formation. One of its principle, the Zeigarnik effect, states that unfinished goals or interrupted activities stay in memory longer. In fact, being interrupted at the worst time increases recollection.
Once a goal becomes activated, it drives our perceptions, thoughts, and attitudes. Interrupting yourself extends its life in memory.
In his book, Originals, Adam Grant puts it this way:
“When you’re generating new ideas, deliberately stop when your progress is incomplete. By taking a break in the middle of the [] process, you’re more likely to engage in divergent thinking and give ideas time to incubate.”
Procrastination can be used to your advantage.
5. Learning is all about repetition
Repetition is part of our culture.
Generally, we think the more we practice, the better. You know what they say: “Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong”.
The reasoning is straightforward: practice makes permanent. The more you practice, the more you deepen the neural structures and the thought pattern associated with memorization.
Take expert public speakers for example, did you know they practice 70 hours for a 20-minute TED talk on average?
Yet, this belief creates a powerful illusion called the fluency illusion: we forget that we forget.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge. — Stephen Hawking
We all need a certain amount of repetitive practice, but repetition also creates confusion: skills improve quickly and then plateau.
By contrast, varied practice produces a slower apparent rate of improvement in each session but a greater accumulation of skill over time.
Remember the retrieval process: the easier it is to retrieve something, the lowest benefits in terms of memory improvement.
Repeating what you already know is of little value.
The trick is to practice interleaving. Studies show that mixing up distinct subjects gives better results than focusing on one topic only.
Think about it, tests themselves are mixed type of exams. You need to pair a problem with the appropriate technique. You don’t need only to learn the skill but also when to use it.
It’s about learning context. Surround the new material with older stuff and prepare your brain for the unexpected. It brings an element of surprise and supplements your learning.
Also, practicing basic mini test in the form of recall session has been shown to be more effective than repetition. So, next time you are trying to gain a new skill, make sure you spend time testing yourself instead of focusing on repetition only.
In conclusion, apply these 5 tips to boost your learning skills:
- Build your talent stack. The skills acquisition process is not linear, use this to your advantage
- Enjoy forgetting as a step towards better learning
- Vary your environment and alter your routine to boost the skill acquisition process
- Procrastinate strategically: practice deliberate self-interruption
- Test yourself and practice interleaving
Apply these 5 tips while developing a learning lifestyle and overcoming procrastination to unlock your full potential.
Thanks for reading 😊
