The era of memorizing information is now completely dead.
The future belongs to the people who can critically think, learn fast, apply, and correct their actions based on the feedback they receive from their actions.
Perhaps at some point in time, memorization would be enough.
But not anymore.
If you remember, when we were in school, the best students were the ones who could memorize the most information.
Do you remember when sellers would go from door to door selling encyclopedias?
Access to knowledge and memorizing was the most important skill, because information was not easy to find.
But with the evolution and spread of internet, all this has changed.
Now information has become accessible to everyone from the palm of our hand (mobile phones).
So, another skill has risen in importance:
“who can find the right information, amongst all the misinformation, and learn it fast”.
And in case someone thinks “Oh, all I have to do is keep memorizing”, I have to tell you that this is impossible.
The human mind has limitation.
It is impossible to keep memorizing new information, because the speed that things change nowadays has accelerated so much that it has, by far, surpassed the speed of our memorization.
But you will ask, why did I say that specifically now memorization is completely dead.
After all, internet has been around for 20 years.
Here comes Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Even in complex professions like lawyers or doctors, AI has showcased the ability to surpass highly experienced professionals.
AI has access to a vast body of knowledge, combine the information and spit out the results in seconds, something that perhaps not even the best doctors and lawyers can do.
And of course, I know that AI is not there yet, but it will be very soon.
It is only a matter of time.
It is inevitable, and AI will disrupt many jobs.
If we want to win in the game of life, we must deeply understand what we are learning, and not just memorize, which is surface level understanding at best.
Sometimes, opportunity lurks in the intersection of 2 disciplines or knowledge areas.
But for us to be able to see the opportunity, we must be able to know how each discipline interrelates to the other, and for that we need deep understanding.
It seems strange that although all our lives revolve around learning new skills and acquiring new knowledge, no one has ever taught us how to do it optimally.
How many hours have been wasted trying to learn something, when the same result could have been achieved in so much less time and with so much less effort?
How many sleepless nights before exams could have been avoided?
How amazing would it be to achieve our learning goals with half the effort and time?
We could use that extra time and free up mental capacity to focus on the next skill to learn, run a side project or do something creative.
And this is exactly what you will be reading in this article.
I will be showing you the framework of “learning how to learn” which will also help you remember what you learn.
This is the article I wish I had when I was starting school.
This article is broken down into 2 parts, the 1st one shows you the methodology that I use to learn any new subject and the 2nd part provides the scientific evidence on how the brain works when it comes to learning and techniques that take advantage of this.
STEP 1 – FIND YOUR WHY
The 1st thing that you need to make clear is “Why” you are learning.
If there is no clear reason why you are learning this subject or how it is going to benefit you, you will struggle to learn.
There have been times when I noticed that my brain was refusing to learn something, because I deemed that thing was either unnecessary or a waste of my time.
This can be (and of course it was) a very problematic situation, especially when you know that the game is crooked, but you still have to play it.
And of course I am sure that many university students reading this right now, know exactly what I am talking about, as there are some courses in their curriculum they consider to be completely obsolete (and indeed may be), which they still have to pass, in order for them to get their degree.
1st of all, let’s start by saying that there are 2 types of learning:
1) Learning that we choose to do although no one is forcing us.
2) Learning that we have to do, in order to achieve something.
In the 1st case, where you choose to study something on your own, you must have your WHY known to you before you begin.
Otherwise, there is no reason for you to start studying in the 1st place.
That primary motivator, which could be “to make more money”, or “to become a professional at my job” whatever that may be, that is your why.
In the 2nd case, “learning that we have to do” involves all those cases that we have to learn, despite us necessarily not wanting to.
I am talking for all those courses, taught by university professors that you are not sure if they are dead or alive, the ones that should have retired 50 years ago….
We all had people like this in our lives and if not,….I Envy you!
So, how do we find the “WHY” to learn these courses.
STEP 2 – CREATE AN OVERVIEW OF THE MAIN AREAS
The trick here is to create an overview of the course you are trying to learn and then connect it to your overall degree, because your overall degree is your “WHY”.
Let’s take for example, that we are studying for supply chain management (SC) and we are trying to learn Machine Learning.
By creating the overview you will say: “Oh I am learning Machine learning, as this is used in the SC Analytics, which will help me make better decisions in SC”
“Without association there is no connection. If there is no connection then there is no memory.” (Tansel Ali)
At the same time, creating an overview serves another purpose:
It creates the structure, where you will start placing the new information you learn on, making it easier for you to retain and recall the information.
Picture it like this:
Lets say that you are a medical student trying to learn about the human body, and you start learning about the heart and you go into all this depth and you learn all those little details, but you have no idea how the heart connects to the other organs and what part it plays in the overall function of the body.
Creating the overview, serves exactly that purpose.
It shows you what the heart actually does compared to the overall function of the body and every time you have to recall information about the heart after you have moved on to other organs, you know where to look.
It’s like creating a mental map, let’s say.
Remember that after some session of deep focus, take a step back and look at your overview, because chances are you have already forgotten why you are learning this and how it connects to the overall issue.
So how do we create the Overview:
There are a few ways to do that and it’s not 1 of them, it’s all of them at the same time:
- Check the contents of a few books around what you are trying to learn.
The contents provide the skeleton/overview of the subject you are trying to learn
And you don’t have to buy the books.
I have a video on my channel, on how to read the contents of a book online, without buying it.
- You can go ahead and purchase the book if you want to, but the problem with books is that it takes so long to read.
- Curriculum of the best universities (go for Masters as they are more condensed in information) and see what top universities are teaching. Check the courses they are teaching.
- Buy a course on the subject: The problem with courses, is that depending on the instructor, they may omit or may be for beginners and they neglect certain areas. Also, sometimes instructors don’t connect what they are teaching with the “Why” you are learning it and “How” it will help you.
- ChatGpt. This is my preferred choice as it is much faster and it provides all info as long as you ask the right questions.
After we create the overview, it time for the last step:
STEP 3 – ADD ONE LAYER OF KNOWLEDGE ON ALL KNOWLEDGE AREAS
Just add a little bit of knowledge on each area to help you understand better how each area connects to the overall subject, like in below diagram:
As for the scientific evidence on how the brain learns, my information is coming from Andrew Huberman, who is a neuroscientist at Stanford university.
Links to the video, if anyone is interested below, but I will also mention them here for speed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW0iNSrmcDQ
Technique 1: During your intense learning and focus, you pause and just sit idle (eyes open/close doesn’t matter) and sit like this for 10 secs.
What is actually happening in these 10 secs is that the brain plays the information you are trying to learn, much faster and also plays them backwards, allowing you to retain them faster
Technique 2: Take 90 minutes focus breaks.
Do something fun. Do not look at your phone. Your brain needs to relax.
Technique 3: Taking 20 minute naps after 1-4 hours of study can be helpful.
If this is not something you like (like myself) at least sleep well at night, because this is when you actually learn.
Remember that new connections in the brain (because that is what formation of new memories actually is) takes place during sleep.
So no more sleepless nights before an exam!
Now you know!