On Learning

I’m frequently afflicted by this demoralizing and frustrating feeling of not being able to retain anything I learn.

Yes. It’s okay to not retain everything. But I feel like I don’t retain even 1/10th of all I learn.

Why the ridiculously poor retention rate?

Because I haven’t been learning effectively; I have been pseudo-learning. And that’s because I haven’t given thought to how I approach learning and even what it means to have learned something.

What does it mean to have learned something?

Looks like this doesn’t have one concrete answer.

For instance, this pretty detailed article concludes with these possible answers:

The classical definition is characterisation – the point at which the learning has become part of the individual, it is just part of who they are.

A secondary definition of having learned is change. Someone has learned something new when they have changed the intended behaviour, thinking or feelings in the way that was intended or is useful for the new context.

Finally however, more transitory definitions of learning revolve around the purpose the learning has. If the purpose is to remember something for 10 minutes and they do that then they have learned for that purpose.

Basically, it depends on the purpose.

But even without a clear answer for this question, we can still look at the process of learning, which leads to another question.

When are we learning?

This statement I stumbled upon made immediate sense: [1]

Learning is when you use something from your memory.

We don’t learn by reading or trying to read for tens of hours. We don’t learn by watching videos of lectures. We don’t learn by noting down the information we’re exposed to.

We learn by making the effort to pull all that’s in our sphere of knowledge and resources in order to do something—like solve a problem.

We learn by using what we’re learning.

It’s like: if you acquire/hoard a lot of watercolor and never use it, it’s… no use. Plus soon, it’ll probably go bad.

Okay, that analogy is sub-par and doesn’t make much sense but the point is that the adage “use it or lose it” is applicable to a lot of things we (try to) learn.

That is what happened with me and the Learning How to Learn Course on Coursera [2] (which is awesome BTW). I took that course nearly a year ago but didn’t use what I had learned there. So, I didn’t learn. As simple as that.

Using acquired knowledge

So, what activities can you do to make use of your acquired knowledge and thus learn? [3]

1. Teaching

To teach effectively, you need to have understood the material inside-out. It forces you to recall all that you know in order to form a coherent bundle of information you can pass on to others. It also forces you to actually think through the materials, formulate sensible thoughts because you have to answer questions, some of which seem silly but are actually enlightening and helpful to spot kinks in your understanding and your learning.

2. Writing

If you make the effort of writing what you’ve learned in your own words, then it is partially akin to teaching. You’re teaching through what you’ve written. At the very least, you’re teaching yourself because writing forces you to have clarity on the topic.

On that note, it’s okay to even write about things you are learning as opposed to just things you have “learned”. In fact, that can actually be better because:

Learning is a contact sport.

I am not sure where I heard this quote but it stuck with me. It’s okay to write what you learn as you learn it because you can then (hopefully) be exposed to people who can provide you valuable feedback.

You’ll learn quicker.

3. Testing oneself

Tests force you to recall the knowledge from your mind. And good tests force you to recall and engage with the knowledge in order to answer the questions. In case there are no good tests available, you can try to create one for yourself. Eg: Review questions in Cornell Notes, Anki Flashcards for spaced Repetition, etc.

4. Solving Problems

This could range from solving framed problems (eg: some math problems) to solving real world problems. In any case, you’re taking the knowledge and converting it into action and actually implementing it.

Final Words

Learning to learn is one of the best things one can do. It makes a huge difference in the long run as it makes learning everything else more effective. In that sense, it’s a keystone skill.

The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems not to learn this one key skill or at least put some thought into it. It’s like trying to travel with your legs tied up.

Okay, that’s probably also not a good analogy. But, I’m learning!

Happy Learning!

Notes

[1] How To Learn

I think this is the single best piece one can read on the topic. It provides a succinct overview and links to other amazing resources at the end as well.

[2] The course is mostly based on the book: A Mind For Numbers, whose author is the instructor for the course!

[3] Some good tips here on activities to do.

[4] Lots of good answers on this Quora Question.

Written on February 3rd , 2018 by Bijay Gurung