This week I learned: How to learn

I get distracted on Youtube. I watch one thing and end up watching 10 other things, because ADHD is cool that way. I’m an absolute sucker for click bait.

It almost never pays off, but a week ago I struck gold (“How To Remember Everything You Learn”).

I forget most videos almost straight away. Usually it’s gone forever. Sometimes I remember tiny bits and pieces.

Not anymore.

The video has three “tricks”.

• Recall
• Retell
• Revisit

Recall

This is simple. Whenever you read or watch something, take a break after each section and think about what you just learned for about 30 seconds.

Scientist have looked at it. They found that students who studied this way got 80% right answers on a test about what they read. Students who just read it everything two times got only 34% right answers.

That is a very big difference and it didn’t take much time.

Note: I did remember the conclusion of the study, but did not recall the percentages.

Retell

This is called “The Feynman Technique”. It is named for a scientist named Richard Feynman. This is how it works:

1. Pick something you want to learn. Let’s say it’s a book. Start reading.
2. Write down what you learn.
3. If you get stuck, look in the book to help you remember.
4. Keep doing this until you can explain it without using the book.
5. Make it easy to understand. Rewrite what you wrote so that a child would understand. Feynman recommended using analogies.

Revisit

If you really really want to remember it, you should read it again later.

What do you think is better?
a) Exercise a little bit every day for a long time, or
b) exercising A LOT for a week and sitting on your couch for the rest of the year?

It’s the same with learning stuff. Reading it again every month for 6 months is much better than reading it 6 times in the same day.

Conclusion

You guessed it by now. This story is my attempt to use the Feynman technique. Pretty meta, huh?

If I read something and don’t feel like using any of these techniques I should think about whether it’s worth reading/watching at all. Why spend time on something you’ll almost instantly forget?

Maybe this will turn into a recurring series. Probably not. But maybe.