Learning How to Learn

I recently completed the learning how to learn course from Coursera, and learned a lot from it. The course can be found here; this article is a summery of things I found most helpful. 

What is Learning? 

Our brain is a big neural network. Learning something new causes the brain to build connections between neurons, replacing some of those we lose over time. 

How to effectively learn? 

1. Chunking 

What is chunking? 
Chunking means group information in a more compact way, so that it conserves neurological resource when need to access them. It helps to form deeper understanding and helps to use information more creatively. For example, an economics major students could chunk individual economical facts and theories into various mental models, so they can start making economical or even life decisions with these mental models. 

How to chunk? 
There are 2 steps to form chunk: 1) spend focused time to gain conceptual understanding 2) practice repeatedly to build memorization for mental representation and know when to use it. Take my current field, machine learning as an example: when I learn the algorithm neural network, I need to first take a bottom-up way of learning to understand the technical details, and I also need to practice using it on different datasets for different problems, so I can have a top-down view of when and why to use neural network algorithm. Upon completing both steps, I’ll finally form a chunk of neural network. 

2. Spaced Practice & Habit 

To be able to establish neuron connections, consistent repetition is the key. It’s like running a marathon; there’s no way to complete a marathon by intense training one day before it, but consistent training for a long time is needed. “consistent repetition” in another word is “habit”. So to be able to learn effectively, it’s important to have good habit. 

Create good habit in 4 steps
There are 4 steps to any habit, good or bad: 1) cue, 2) routine, 3) reward 4) belief. 

Stop procrastination by focusing on process but not product 
We want to complete a project, finish a course, and eventually learned a skill. However focus too much on completion of a task may cause procrastination. Instead of that, it’s better to focus on establishing a good process that you know will ensure the completion, for example spend 1 hour focused studying time on the project everyday, and let the process leads to success naturally. 

3. Quality Rest (focused vs diffused mode)

Focused mode is when the mind is very focused on establishing some defined connections. Diffused mode is when the mind wanders around and make random connections between neurons. This is when the mind subconsciously continues the learning, and trying to understand the concept in a bigger context.

It’s easy to understand we need focused time to learn something new; it’s surprising though, to know that it’s as important to have relaxed time for newly learned skills to sink in. This is extremely obvious in learning instrument — if you had experience learning any instrument you may find though the new fingering is rough previous day, it comes much more naturally the next day.

There are a lot of ways to tap into the diffused mode: taking a bath, taking a walk, doing exercise or even just sleep. It’s different for different people, but n general things make you feel relaxed and allow your brain to not focus on any particular thing is good. It may take some time to discover the set of things that allow you to relax, but it definitely worth the effort.