
Research-backed strategies for better learning - sagefy
https://stories.sagefy.org/eight-big-ideas-of-learning-tl-dr-edition-95302c848d87
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halayli
From my personal experience, the #1 factor for better learning is to learn
with an objective.

Learning is hard and can be demotivating by itself but when I have an
objective that requires learning it becomes the driving force/motivation
behind it and improves my focus and concentration by a large margins. It also
allows me to connect the dots and provides me context.

~~~
zukzuk
This! I learned more trigonometry in 2 weeks when I was tasked with a digital
signal processing project than I did in years and years of (objective-less)
schooling.

An important addendum to this is that the objective has to be closely tied to
the work — the feedback loop for learning and then seeing some results from
that learning has to be tight.

I think this may be why in school grades were not a good objective, for me
anyway. They were just too distant a reward from the work.

~~~
jonhendry18
Someone should make a big diagram, showing a variety of "cool things" that
require math or which knowing the math helps to use, and the chain of math
techniques and areas that lead to it - with granularity finer than "calc III".

Sort of like a Civilization tech tree, but for applications of mathematics.
"If you want to do 3D graphics, learn this but also this which leads to this
which leads to this."

That way students can say "I'm hating Taylor series but if I learn that I can
use it in X" or "This is hard but if I get through it I can learn quaternions
and do Y" or whatever.

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schuetze
For my undergraduate thesis, I researched the science of learning. Many of the
ideas put forth by this article have merit, but I would also recommend
searching the keywords of "desirable difficulties" and "retrieval practice"
(self testing) in Google Scholar as potential avenues for examples of more
concrete study strategies.

Research shows that the best way to learn is to challenge oneself. Self-
testing, in particular, is a highly effective way of avoiding the illusion of
fluency (Long-term Learning != Current Performance) and creating durable
memories.

Further reading:

1\. _Make it Stick_

2\. "Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way: Creating Desirable
Difficulties to Enhance Learning" by Bjork & Bjork [[https://teaching.yale-
nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/25...](https://teaching.yale-
nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2016/02/Making-Things-Hard-on-Yourself-
but-in-a-Good-Way-2011.pdf)]

3\. For a survey of student misconceptions about learning: "Instructor and
student knowledge of study strategies" by Morehead et al.

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acconrad
He links to this in the previous, larger post, but here is the full Coursera
course which is pretty great. I took it and I got a lot out of it:

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

~~~
sagefy
Barbara Oakley's course is so amazing! I think it's still to this day the most
popular MOOC. Her books and articles are great too, like "A Mind for Numbers"
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R5081JU](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R5081JU)

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swsieber
My book recommendations in this regard:

 _Make it stick_

 _Peak_

Both heavily cite research.

I want to get to "a mind for numbers", but haven't actually read it yet. I've
heard great things though.

~~~
sagefy
Ericsson (author of Peak) is one of the best. His stories of his own research
are so good!

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sedeki
I enjoyed reading the article; overall good advice and a powerful change of
perspective regarding one’s own learning... But I have always wondered how one
can find a powerful _why_ to more abstract subjects e.g. topics in
mathematics.

I’m having a hard time finding intrinsic motivation to study at this
(Master’s) level, even if I absolutely know how good it feels when you have
internalized a couple of famous results...

~~~
mockingbirdy
This is the most difficult part IMHO.

> Adhere to Goals

They talk about it like it's easy af. This is the hardest thing. Motivation is
the hardest part. I for one use operant conditioning and waterboard myself
when I don't adhere to my goals. Just kidding. But I guess I would be much
more motivated. Or develop a fetish for waterboarding, the human mind is
complex.

~~~
forapurpose
I realize you're joking, but from what I understand is that you would be
motivated to avoid waterboarding, not to learn math, and your retention and
knowledge would suffer (beyond doing exactly what is necessary to avoid
punishment). When people abuse kids [EDIT: as punishment/motivation], what
they learn is how to avoid the abuse, by hook or crook.

~~~
mockingbirdy
I don't really know how intrinsic motivation could be controlled in the same
fashion. A motivated and euphoric teacher maybe can achieve the same in the
other direction, but I guess there will always be a certain kind of
predisposition and "talent" to be motivated for a specific field.

Would love to know how I can design those predispositions to change my own
behavior. I guess behavioral therapy could work, but that's hellofa lot effort
to learn some math.

~~~
sudouser
‘thinking fast and slow ‘ talks about this

~~~
mockingbirdy
Yes, I've read this book and liked it, although it has a big mistake: Many
cited studies can't be replicated. Kahneman even apologized because of that
[1].

It's a bummer, but I still believe in many of the listed cognitive biases.

[1]: [https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-
und...](https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-underpowered-
studies-nobel-prize-winner-admits-mistakes/)

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tsumnia
"Research-backed" and not a single citation...

EDIT: Redacted, but kept up to link to the version WITH citations -
[https://stories.sagefy.org/eight-big-ideas-of-
learning-c17a1...](https://stories.sagefy.org/eight-big-ideas-of-
learning-c17a12da127a)

~~~
sagefy
Thanks for picking up on it :) I wrote the long version first actually. I had
a few people review before publishing. There were some concerns about the
length (25 minutes). So I made the linked summary version as well. I posted
both to Hacker News today. But the summary seems to be getting much more
interest :)

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abcdcba
Before clicking these articles I never know if it's referring to deep learning
or human learning

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sagefy
Author here, happy to answer any questions :)

~~~
loarabia
Can you shed more light on doing one thing at a time? Is this about removing
distractions while you're trying to learn or is this as much about picking one
topic to learn at a time? IE don't try to learn to play the piano and learn to
speak Chinese in parallel? My assumption is that section 1 is about the small
distractions but I was also wondering if the research indicates anything for
multiple courses of study in parallel.

~~~
sagefy
Thanks for reading and for the question :)

You definitely can, and probably already are, learning multiple things in
parallel in the scope of weeks or months. You want to make sure you have time
to commit to each of those things. You probably only have about 3-5 hours a
day of full effort to expend. So I wouldn't go beyond three or so different
subjects in the same overall interval.

In the moment, you want focus. If you tried to learn to play piano using
scores written in Chinese as an attempt to learn both at the same time, you'd
probably overwhelm yourself. In the moment, the more specific and focused you
can get the better. So maybe its a specific piano technique, like arpeggios in
major scales. Or the Chinese characters for colors. The more you can remove
distractions and break down what you're learning into smaller parts, the
faster you're going to learn both in the short term and long term.

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victor106
The thing that worked for me is repeat...repeat...repeat

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santoshmaharshi
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