Book: 20220526 to 20220710, "Make It Stick" by Henry L. Roediger, Mark A. McDaniel, Peter C. Brown

20220526 - Preface

20220527 - 1. Learning Is Misunderstood

Mastery requires both the possession of ready knowledge and the conceptual understanding of how to use it. p18

Mastery contains two stage. Learn and memorize knowledge, and fully understand it, bit by bit.

Retrieval - testing - interrupts forgetting. p20

Learning is an interactive process that requires that we revisit what we have learned earlier and continually update it and connect it with new knowledge. p21

While studying, is our system 1 or system 2 working?

20220528 - 2. To Learn, Retrieve

Arrange more quizzes in the class remind the students to spend more time preparing for those quizzes Students would also pay more attention during the class time, because they know the incoming quizzes are waiting for them. I believe this is another reason that "test" helps students to learn.

So far, my impression is, the more attention we pay during study, the more connections we make with existing memory, the more we can memorize.

We're easily seduced into believing that learning is better when it's easier, but the research shows the opposite: when the mid has to work, learning sticks better. p43

This sounds like similar to strength exercise. Only the last few repetitions helps muscle grow, other repetitions are just warm up.

20220529 - 3. Mix Up Your Practice

Practice that's spaced out, interleaved with other learning, and varied produces (for long term) better masstery, longer retention, and more versatility. p47

Study has three phases.

1. Collect information and then extract out knowledge/pattern/connections from it (system 1 and system 2)

2. Get knowledge into system 2 (short term memory)

3. Transform the knowledge from system 2 into system 1 (long term memory)

Some type of practice can do phase 1 quickly, some type of practice are good at phase 2, but all 3 phases are critical.

Our intelligence is based on big data analysis. Study efficiently means train our big data based brain (system 1 and 2) effectively, although may need intervals between knowledge points.

When we learn easy stuff, we rely more on system 1. But system 1 is not good at learning, it only accept knowledge from system 2. So we may not memorize much if there is no challenge. Challenge force we to use system 2. It force us to extract knowledge from information, which helps us to memorize them.

How should we do the practice? Do it like it's in the final exam or in a championship match. Put high stake on it, so we would pay full attention in the practice. This helps to store the knowledge in long term memory instead of short term memory area.

The very techniques that build habit strength, like spacing, interleaving, and variation, slow visible acquisition and fail to deliver the improvement during practice that helps to motivate and reinforce our efforts. p63

20220616 - 4. Embrace Difficulties

Testing is not only a powerful learning strategy, it is a potent reality check on the accuracy of your own judgment of what you know how to do. p72

How to test the stage of meditation? How do I know which level I am at?

Bowline knot: new thing worth learn for a day. I should learn 6 major knots.

https://www.animatedknots.com/bowline-knot

Knowledge is more durable if it's deeply entrenched, meaning that you have firmly and thoroughly comprehended a concept, it has practical importance or keen emotional weight in your life, and it is connected with other knowledge that you hold in memory. p77

Our brains are big data analyzer, with very limited storage and slow processor. To memorize something, we need to find the "pattern" (comprehend it), and connect it to existing knowledge points. To retrieve it from memory, we need to make the cue hard to retrieve, to make the retrieval route wide and strong.

Spaced practice sacrifices the speed of learning (we forget some details between the sessions), to transfer knowledge and skill from short term memory to long term memory.

Making mistakes is a constructive part of learning: not a sign of failure but of effort. p93

This is the reason that Elon Musk said, "If no failures, then we are not trying hard enough."

The more books we read, the more difficulties become desirable. When we own more background information, it's easier to handle challenges.

Long-term memory capacity is virtually limitless: the more you know, the more possible connections you have for adding new knowledge. p100

20220621 - 5. Avoid Illusions of Knowing

We gravitate to the narratives that best explain our emotions. p110

The base of our perception is our emotion?

The better you know something, the more difficult it becomes to teach it. p119

What we mastered is partly stored in our subconscious, because we are too familar with it! To teach it to someone else, we need to recall all details consciously, and verify that our memory is correct through teaching it to other people. This is why people say, "You don't really know it unless you can teach it."

From Dunning and Kruger's experiments, we can get a conclusion: free speech doesn't help people to improve their conception, but study does. No effort, no gain.

Most important is to make frequent use of testing and retrieval practice to verify what you really do know versus what you think you know. p125

How to verify it after reading a book? Maybe I can talk about it in online community? Or check the book comments from other people? Or write down what I learned from the book?

Ease of retrieval after a delay, however, is a good indicator of learning. p126

Can I recall what I learned from each chapter of a book based on its table of contents? Should I do that from time to time?

20220625 - 6. Get Beyond Learning Styles

What you tell yourself about your ability plays a part in shaping the ways you learn and perform-how hard you apply yourself, for example, or your tolerance for risk-taking and your willingness to persevere in the face of difficulty. p140

The psychologist Robert J. Sternberg's model proposes three: analytical, creative, and practical intelligence. p148

Static measure tells us nothing about our potential in the realm the test measures. p149

What is our natural intelligence limit? This is a wrong question. For all of us, the challenge is that we cannot get close to that limit, no matter what it is.

Cultivating the habit of reflecting on one's experiences, of making them into a story, strengthens learning. p155

Knowledge is not knowhow until you understand the underlying principles at work and can fit them together into a structure larger than the sum of its parts. p158

This reminds me of the joke about how to draw a horse. Details could be the critical and hard part, not knowledge.

To succeed in career or investment, we need do almost every major things right. This reminds me of the US stock market: In the past 170 years, 99.9% of the companies in USA went bankrupcy. p66 ("The Psychology of Money" by Morgan Housel)

Entropy increase (failure) is the normal in background, life (success) is the odd. That's why investing in SP500 index fund is generally better than investing in individual stocks.

20220701 - 7. Increase Your Abilities

Brain training only benefits the specific skill, it doesn't improve one's general ability. However, if the traing teaches us how to focus attention or how to get good habit, it would help us to improve our other skills. So meditation is good.

The obstacle is more about temptation than distraction. To focus like laser, we need to resist temptations.

Boredom, temptation, distraction. They make concentration almost impossible.

Three things that can improve our intelligence: p179

1. Embracing a growth mindset

2. Practicing like an expert

3. Constructing memory cues

I feels that all those tips are the icing on the cake, but they are not timely assistance. We need some basic living condition, such as safety, eight hour of sleep everyday, enough food and cloth, public transportation, books or mentors, free expression, and a few hours spare time everyday. Without these basic life support, it's hard to do much self-improvement.

Expert performance is a product of the quantity and quality of practice, not of genetic predisposition. p185

Memory is critical. It's better to associate it with stories or explanations.

Roman numerals: I Value Xylophones Like Cows Dig Milk.

Colors of the rainbow: Roy G. Biv: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos

Mnemonics device helps us to memorize information, but I don't think it improves our creativity. It's better to memorize the relevant stories.

Information needs meaning. Without meaning, it's just data. What does "abilities" mean? Learning speed? The more we know, the more we understand this world, the eaiser to learn new skill. And, meditation is more helpful than mnemonics device.

20220710 - 8. Make It Stick

Interleaved practice is not better than blocked practice. This is what I learned from "The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin". Blocked practice is the foundation of study, but it cannot replace interleaved practice, as interleaved practice help strength the retrieval tunnel.

Sketching is very important. It provides another angle to memorize and to understand concepts. It's a way to elaborate ideas. I am going to learn it.

Learning tips:

1. Practice retrieving new learning from memory

2. Spacing out your retrieval practice

3. Interleave the study of different problem types

4. Elaboration

5. Generation

6. Reflection

7. Calibration

8. Mnemonic devices

I think that caliberation is the most important one. It verifies our perception about ourselves.

I believe that there are 4 levels of mastery of skill.

1. Learn theory

Then we can pass written or verbal test.

2. Apply theory to practice

Normal professionals and amateurs fall into this category. They know how to get things done, but not much more.

They can get things done well when they pay full attention.

3. Experts in some field

People have comprehensive understanding about the knowledge and practice in a field. They can get things done highly efficiently and creatively.

Excellent skill has become their instinct and habit.

4. Master

Masters doesn't do better than experts in a field, but they know how to teach this expertises to other people. Besides that, they can extend their knowledge and skill to other area. They can learn new skill quickly following the strategy what they already know.

Josh Waitzkin (the author of "The Art of Learning") is a model master.

I am an expert in software development. But not a master in any field. Sigh.

There are some traditional but wrong strategy of learning, such as rereading, massed practice and cramming. 

These are all passive study. What we need is positive study. We need to take in charge of the study procedure.

What does this mean? It's all about questions. If there is no question, then we are doing passive study.

Clear learning objectives prior to each class, coupled with daily quizzing and active problem solving with feedback, keep students focused, awake, and working hard. p235

I should ask questions before the reading of each chapter.

Here is the catch: where do the questions come from? In school, teachers and professors can give students good questions. But as lifelong learner, it's not easy to get good questions. Maybe, we just read initially. After accumulating some knowledge, our perception of the world is formed, then we expect some questions get answered before reading it.

Conversation icebreaker: FORE. Family, occupation, recreation, entertainment. p243