Learn more study less 笔记
2013-12-30
读的是英文版，notes 如下。不过因为豆瓣忽略了所有的格式，可能没有办法看清楚书本的结构与重点
Part I The holistic learning strategy
Construct
When building constructs, your goal is to create as many possible interconnections as possible between ideas. Smart people tend to do this process naturally. As each concept comes up, it is automatically linked with other ideas.
Your constructs weren't built in a day. There is no magical technique to immediately “get” any subject. Having a powerful construct comes from linking concepts together, one idea at a time.
Models:
Models can take a variety of forms. The goal, however, is always the same: compressing information. By taking several core concepts and linking them together into one form, you create a model. Models are essential when you are just starting to build a construct or making large additions to current constructs.
Models do not need to have perfect accuracy, they only need to combine several ideas to make them more manageable.
A model doesn’t need to be an image. It only needs to be an existing understanding that compresses several key ideas into one.
Highway
linkages between isolated constructs. A highway is a reference that links two completely different ideas. If you were reading a biology textbook and made comparisons from evolution to business courses you are taking, that would be a highway.
highways help with creativity. Thinking “outside the box” might as well describe people who think outside of constructs. Highways allow them to do this by making connections between areas that they didn’t previously think were connected.
Familiar constructs:
Sensory constructs
Relationship constructs
Basic math constructs
The Sequence of Holistic Learning
1) Acquire
Simplicity, volume, speed
2) Understand
3) Explore
A holistic learner would take the formula I mentioned in the last phase, and explore it. Where does it come from? What do the different components of the formula represent? What elements of the formula can be altered and how does that change results? What other formulas are similar to this in function or form?
Answering these questions may take a bit of time if you aren’t used to them. But once you make these methods a habit, exploration will naturally take over. Understanding won’t be enough because curiosity will drive you to connect it to new material.
depth, lateral and vertical exploration
Depth exploration
Depth exploration requires that you create links into information. Instead of just understanding a formula, you understand its proof. You understand why the proof was developed and by whom. Now, through depth exploration, your formula becomes supported underneath a foundation of other linked ideas.
Lateral exploration
Lateral exploration requires that you create links around information. Usually this means that you take models and link information between them. Relating one event that occurred in Ancient Greece with another event that took place in Ancient China.
Lateral exploration requires less research than depth exploration, but more creativity. It requires that you see connections that might not be present initially.
Vertical exploration
Information follows patterns, those patterns can be found in other information.
4) Debug
5) Apply
Test
Acquire Test - Have I seen/listened to the idea before?
Understand Test - Do I get (at a surface level) what this idea means?
Explore Test - Do I understand where this idea comes from, what it is related to and what outside ideas can be connected with it?
Debug Test - Have I removed inappropriate links between this idea and others? Have I removed false conclusions based on connections that don’t actually exist?
Apply Test - Have I used this idea in my practical life?
Pinpointing weakness in the sequence
Acquiring
1) You have bad reading/study habits.
2) You have bad note taking habits.
3) You don’t understand the basic terminology or the English language.
Understanding
Exploration: inflexibility
Poor exploration is shown by inflexibility. It happens when you get the gist of an idea, but can’t relate it to other things you have learned. If you are asked to use the idea to solve a non-routine problem, you’re screwed.
Debugging
A sign you don’t do enough debugging is if you don’t regularly find yourself to be wrong on a major belief or issue. If you always think you are correct, chances are you aren’t doing enough critical examination of the connections you make.
Applying
Applying errors are caused when you can’t act on ideas in the real world.
Information structure
1. Arbitrary
Arbitrary information is a set of facts, dates, definitions or rules that have no logical grouping. This type of information is often encountered in schools and less frequently in the real world.
Technique: try to find the logical pattern in the information.
Linking, pegging, compression
2. Opinion
Opinion information is information you need to argue.
Technique: speed reading technique, diagraming
3. Process
Process information is information you need to act upon.
Technique: Visceralization/Metaphor /Diagramming/Model Debugging
4. Concrete
Concrete information deals with ideas you can interact with tangibly.
5. Abstract
Abstract information is like concrete information, but it lacks the obvious connection with the senses.
Technique: Visceralization/Metaphor
Goals for learning
Just passing tests and getting good grades isn’t enough. Why do you actually want to learn this material? What usefulness can it have in your life?
Finding ways to use a subject can give it new meaning
Part II Holistic Learning Techniques
A) Acquiring Ideas
1) Speed Reading
Using a pointer/practice reading/active reading
Active reading: note down the following:
1) What the major points are from the section.
2) How I can remember the major points from the section.
3) How I can extend or apply the major points from this section.
2) Flow-Based Notetaking
With flow-based note-taking you start by only writing out the major ideas. This means using a few words at most instead of entire sentences. This can reduce readability later, but it enhances learning during the lecture.
The key ability with flow-based notetaking is to know what is important. What is the core information taught here? If you write down everything said in a lecture with equal emphasis, then you’ll spend your entire class transcribing instead of thinking.
B) Linking Ideas
1) Metaphor
Tips to improve metaphors:
1) Start by asking for a metaphor.
2) Pick the first thing that comes to mind.
3) Refine and test your metaphors.
2) Visceralization
describe imagining not only a mental picture, but sounds, sensations and emotions.
How to visceralize:
1) Identify the concept you want to visceralize.
2) 2) Start by picking a mental image to base the idea from.
3) Does the process move through time, or is it a static image?
4) Now add another sensation to your image.
5) Add other sensations or emotional impacts t o the image.
6) Refine and repeat the image until you can bring it up in just a few seconds of thinking of it.
4) Diagramming
Flow-based diagrams: charting a sequence of steps; charting historical events, creating branches linking events together not only through causation but through the time period they rest; mapping out a system
Concept-Based Diagrams: A concept based diagram links together ideas and is closely related to flow-based notetaking.
Image Diagrams: any rough sketch or doodle used to represent an idea or the association of ideas.
C) Handling the Arbitrary
1) You should use them infrequently.
2) They are more complex than linking methods.
Weak – Learning through repetition.
Better – Learning with linking, pegging or information compression.
Best – Learning with metaphor, visceralization or diagrams.
1) Linking
Step 1: create your sequence
Step 2: symbolize each object in the list
Step 3: create your links
Difficulties: repetition of symbols, broken links, indecipherable symbols, lost triggers
2) Pegging
With the peg system you aren’t linking a series of ideas with each other but with a specific numbered slot.
3) Information Compression
mnemonics, picture linking and notes reduction
Mnemonics: Devices that store several ideas together by using a phrase or word that can organize the information.
picture linking: link several ideas together by representing them in a single image, theme or concept.
Notes comparison:
1) Give yourself several blank sheets of white paper.
2) Starting with the smallest writing you can use, write down a major idea from your notes.
3) Next to that idea, write a related idea, formula, concept or definition.
4) Continue this process of writing ideas in a loose format, until you have written down, in reduced form, every major idea from your notes.
D) Extending Ideas
1) Practical Usage
Apply the material in your practical life
2) Model Debugging
Tips for improving the model-debugging process
Separate Typos From Concept Errors
The shotgun approach: tackles a few questions of each type, but doesn’t become repetitive.
Spread practice times out
3) Project-Based Learning
Eg:
1) Computer Programming- Design a project that will take you 1-3 months of
work to complete. This could be a small application, a website or game.
2) History-Write a short e-book about the historical subject you want to study. Write one that will get you to do research as well as create your own thesis.
3) Financial Accounting - Pick several companies and do a complete analysis of their financial statements before deciding who you would invest money in
Some tips
Keep it small
Write it down
Create an objective outcome
Part II Beyond holistic learning
The productive student
Manage your energy
1. Exercise 3-5 times per week
2. Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
3. Eat a diet that emphasize whole grains and unprocessed foods
4. Drink much water
5. Eat 4-5 smaller meals throughout the day to ensure a more constant supply of nutrients.
Circular scheduling
1) Seta day off each week. I take one day off every week where I don’t do any schoolwork. Compressing seven days of work into six might seem difficult at first, but taking a day off prevents burnout.
2) Evenings off. Compress all your work into the morning. Instead of taking
breaks throughout the day, get your work done early so you can have a few hours off each night.
3) 90 minute time boxes. Set aside 90 minutes towards a project or studying. After the ninety minutes is complete, you stop working. Time boxing can help you keep your studying time focused.
Do not study
Instead of studying, define the activities you need to perform in order to learn the material. For myself these are the activities I need to do in order to get an A or A+ in most classes:
1) Read the chapters covered
2) Complete assignments and take notes in class
3) Use some of the holistic learning methods to tackle trouble spots.
4) Optionally take a set of flow-based notes for the material covered before tests.
Nuke Procrastination
(A) As soon as it is assigned.
(B) All in one session, some time between today and the due date.
(C) Tuesday night.
(D) Wednesday morning, ten minutes before class!
Weekly/Daily Goals System
1) At the end of each week, compile a list of all t he assignments, homework, reading and studying activities you want to do in the following week.
2) At the end of each day, check your weekly to-do and create a daily goals list.
Batching
Batching involves taking a group of similar, small sections of work and doing them at one time.
Be Organized
1) Everything has a home.
2) Carry a notepad with you at all times
3) Maintain a calendar and a to-do list .
Structuring learning habits
Daily Reading
Daily Practice
Daily goal setting
How to build daily habits
1) Set a trial t o condition a habit for 30 days.
2) Be consistent.
3) Enjoy the habit.
4) Pick a time
Overcoming the frustration barrier
1) Write Down any Obstacles.
2) Use Forums.
3) Get How-To Manuals .
4) Attack From a New Angle.
Setting learning goals
1) All Goals Need to Be Written.
2) Make it Objective.
3) Set Difficult, But Achievable Deadlines.
4) Break it Into Daily and Weekly Actions.
5) Review Your Goals Regularly.
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