Learning seems easy on words: “I’m studying”. But study is not the same as learning.

One could study 12 hours a day, but learn around 2 hours of it. Other could study for 30 minutes and learn 30 minutes. That’s mainly a Pareto’s Principle.

I usually see that people don’t learn in the same rate. I noticed it by the time I was on school and at the college. Hopefully, I never really struggle to learn something hard.

But what do to learn “fast”? No secrets here, I’ll list everything I do.

When I’m in a lecture I take my drawing notebook and make a Mind Map while the professor is talking. I write the most important topics and link everything together with arrows. I would say I’m a very amateur, but I’ve been doing it for a year.

In this Mind Map I do usually use a single pen with black color. I start the Mind Map quite close to the bottom-left edge and start putting basic details to the same direction, and everything that really needs to branch on the other directions. It’s roughly different that writing paragraphs, and it’s great, since I’m copy pasting the presentation or the professor explanation. I write what I understand in as few words as possible, and maybe with some drawings.

To prepare to an exam I take two approaches, though. If the topic is very hard I do fallback to a old strategy I’ve always used, including for my time using Obsidian. I would write in a very concise markdown file all of the content I need for the exam. Sometimes I add images, and also diagrams written with PlantUML. Once done, I just skim through the file until the exam. For this approach, what really makes a difference is to write the file, and not the act of keep reading over and over. This is very exhaustive, but I just do it to sharp my recognition. This is deadly useful for topics that are very extensive. For anything else, I do just remake my Mind Maps in a better organized with cleaner relation, well set big-picture and more legible handwriting.

To prepare to a presentation I do make a Mind Map as well, and if the topic is dense, I also take the markdown strategy and try hard to reproduce the whole presentation by head in speech.

That’s fairly it for technical details. Mind maps plus exam preparation.

But for the real learning, you may ask. What does happen in my head to learn? I can’t just be this technique, right?

Obviously! The think process is the key to learning, and in fact, writing is just a waste of time. So, the more engaged and the more challenging the topic you are studying is, the better you stimulate neuroplasticity. This makes all difference.

I usually just study what I need to. And don’t go too far to study things way beyond I’m currently required to know. This is relevant. Why? I bet you can study a book for the whole day, and remember at least 30% of it at the end of the day. You can’t! The forgetting curve is ridiculous. It happens to everyone, including me. So now you know I’m just saving time.

Particularly when I’m studying programming languages, I do study a topic and put my hands on practice straight away. That’s the only real way of learning something. You need to use the knowledge you get. If you don’t, you are going to forget it. For programming, specifically, the hands on is easier than other fields, that would require an internship. If it’s your case, you need an internship, or exercise your brain by making researches, writing articles and other similar activities.

Another thing that boosts learning is to know where you are at. As a beginner, this is not really a great deal, since you don’t really know. But as you get more knowledgeable this is a great thing. The more your learn, it just gets easier to learn. Suppose you are studying about Python. You already know Golang. As you learn about dictionaries, you could relate to a Go’s feature, take down the differences and even iterate over on how to use it with other things. It’s immediately easier to learn about a new pharmacological mechanism when you already know pharmacology. You know the core concepts and you were explained the new variables. And if you don’t know it? You need an overview, get the table of contents and get a quick summary of each topic. Another thing: it’s certainly harder, when something you already know changes itself to a completely different thing. Breaking changes are harder to deal with. Always remember this when teaching someone!

Another thing that helps a lot to learn is to teach. I usually teach my colleges, and I write these blog posts which always opens my view of things. When teaching, you get the information on the spot, and everything you don’t know just pops, so it’s easier to study your weak points about the topic, and they make a difference. I could even say, you as the teacher learn way more than your students. That’s because you have to teach, and actively research for the updated and correct information, understand it and apply.

When troubles happen, and puzzle-like concepts appear, a mnemonics is here to save you. You don’t need to make it smart and stylish, the dumbest mnemonic is great enough, and believe, you won’t easily forget it again.

What I don’t do? I like the idea of flashcards, but their nature is never to be easy to manage and their results are inconsistent. Also, I make few diagrams, since their purpose is for educational and to explain something to someone else. I make Mind Maps instead. I don’t study the topic of the lecture before-hand. I used to use the Zettelkasten approach, but it’s a waste of time.

What I don’t do, but I may try? I may divide my Mind Maps notes into a minimap which tells the flow of the Mind Map itself. I’m also considering making tiny details that are very relevant stand out from the Mind Map, so it makes easier to remember them. I’m considering reviewing things after a while, given the fact the first review has extreme benefits, accordingly to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.

For a summary of the think process. Do always give preference to activities that does take effort. You may be interested in knowing about the revised Blown’s Taxonomy.

Off-topic: remember when I said about writing is a waste of time? The only note that is not a waste is your very personal and original, opinionated and, maybe even biased, notes. These notes you should write more often and don’t throw then away. Everything else can be retrieved by somewhere else.

I didn’t came with all of this by myself. It’s just a handy sum of Justin Sung’s videos.

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.