元学习（二）：Learning How to Learn(Coursera)

[EthanLin-TWer]

本篇所有的笔记会在 #121 进行二次整理。

• http://www.brainfacts.org/
• recommended books: clicks here

Course Resources

• Forums/Discussions: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/discussions
• Resources: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/resources/BbyV4
• Objectives: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/resources/00u9I

Recommended reading on each chapter

• Chapter 1 further reading : https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/uWQyM/reading-focused-versus-diffuse-thinking
• Chapter 1 interviewing: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/lecture/L4yKh/optional-interview-with-benny-the-irish-polyglot-about-learning-languages
• Chapter 2 further reading: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/fWyi5/reading-chunking
• Chapter 2 interviewing: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/lecture/NoDez/optional-interview-with-dr-norman-fortenberry-learning-at-mit
• Chapter 3 further reading : https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/H7Pv0/reading-procrastination-and-memory
• Chapter 3 interviewing: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/lecture/hyLe9/optional-caroline-on-learning-something-difficult-that-others-think-isn-t-you
• Chapter 4 further reading: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/bJW5V/reading-renaissance-learning-and-unlocking-your-potential
• Chapter 4 interviewing: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/lecture/6093o/optional-part-1-how-not-to-take-a-test-interview-with-dr-richard-felder-and-dr

Course videos and books

• https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
• A Mind for Numbers

[EthanLin-TWer]

Two Modes of Thinking

two modes of learning, take the pinball game as an example.

• focused
• diffuse

metaphor and analogy helps when you trying to learn something new.

Some scientists found that you can only be in one mode at a time. In the focused mode, it helps you get deeper understanding of the subject, but we you trying to think around, there're always lots of bounces there blocking you from getting to another thinking pattern. Then how do you get to know other patterns that you don't even know it exists before? That's how diffuse mode helps.

Question: I still don't understand how to get to know thinking patterns that you don't know(even its' existance) before.

How do you use the two different modes?

In order to learn things more effectively, your brain needs to be able to switch back and forth between the two different modes.

Question 1: Is diffuse mode efficient for more scientific courses?
Question 2: When are you feeling more relaxed/in a diffuse mode?
Question 3: How do you train your brain to switch back and forth between two different modes?
Question 4: 也即是说，只要能让你的大脑在合适的时间使用正确的模式，即能提高效率？那么，如何让大脑进入、转换到想要的模式去呢？如何对此切换进行刻意练习呢？有没有数据统计显示，每个人大脑在各个时间段的默认活跃模式和刻意练习后的活跃模式呢？难道，记录时间是提供此一数据的最有效途径？

What is Learning

One interesting thing is that on those things that we practiced so much to master computers are way faster and better than us, but on those things that we are mastering naturally since we're born, like walking, seeing, hearing, feeling, are way complex for computers. We don't know how we walk/see/hear but we just good at it. There're millions of neurons underlying working together as patterns to help us finish these tasks .

Procrastination, memory, and sleep

拖延症概述

为何会产生？遇见不愉快的事情 cue -> 大脑（下意识地）转向更愉快的事情（比如刷网站等）reaction -> 获得愉快感 reward 。它有好有坏，也有中性，但有些拖延确实影响了你做更重要的事情。

如何克制：番茄工作法。但我突然顿悟：番茄工作法和 TDD 一样，都是理念看起来简单，实践看起来简单，但是实践好不简单。我实践番茄的时候还是原来怎么做就怎么做，除了物理上开启一个番茄钟，但是被打断了或者主动打断我都无所谓，按照原来的节奏做。做到25分钟也不停下，有时还要赖上一段。停下了也没好好休息，或者一休息就半个小时，又开始拖延起来。直到一切停止后，才发现原来番茄还没停下，然后才伸手把番茄钟关掉。

说没做番茄吧，我形式上也是做了。但其中的关节：专注、中断、休息，我是一个都没按照方式训练修行，还是依照原样。没意识、不愿意花时间学习、反省关键实践，还是依照大脑舒服的路径走，还自以为已经获得了精髓，不就是帮你专注嘛。然后就又得出结论：这东西你掌握思想就好了，实践照不照做一样的，感觉这技术也不过如此，没什么卵用，比我自然学习的时候还更不自在呢。

TDD 的关节技术：任务分解、设计、测试、最简实现、重构；核心思想：快速反馈、刚好合适完成。需要对照，理解，实践。有人说，我感觉还是得看人，看情况，看项目，看团队。掌握了核心思想就可以了，实践还是因人而异。啥事都因人而异，都具体情况具体分析。

Practice makes permanent

• 数学、科学等学科之所以较难，可能是因为它们比较抽象，难以形成现实中对应的联系

Introduction to Memory

只介绍两种类型的记忆：长时记忆 long term memory 和 工作记忆 working memory。

• 工作记忆
  • 一般人平均只有4个工作单元。所以创建有效的 chunks 很重要
  • 一般用于专注模式下处理需要逻辑性的工作问题
• 长时记忆
  • 海量的记忆空间
  • 为把学习到的工作记忆存储到长时记忆中去，需要时间、练习 和 重复：如果你打算把5天的工作量压缩到1天来完成，那么可能存储一段极短的时间后该记忆即被洗去，因为尚未建立稳固的联结

Spaced repetition 方法可以帮助你将工作记忆存储到长时记忆中

睡眠对于学习活动的重要性

人清醒/活动时，会产生对大脑有害的物质 toxic， 而睡眠可以帮助你洗去这些毒素。除此以外，睡眠对于本课程中提到的很多过程也是有益的，比如：

• 睡眠时，大脑运行在 diffuse 模式下，帮你“无意”中打通一些白天想不通的难题或困境
• 睡眠时，大脑会清除无用的回路、巩固重要的 chunks，这也是长时记忆需要时间形成的原因

当然，过多或过少的睡眠都是不好的，可能会有焦虑，精神不振等副作用。那么如何判断睡眠够了没有？有没有普通标准？睡眠过多过少会有什么副作用？

采访

采访课程的另一位老师：你是如何高效学习的呢？你研究的结论是如何应用到自己学习中去的呢？

• 做中学 learning by doing。参与高质量的社团、实验活动、从领域专家高手处学习
• 需要休息。比如跑步、锻炼，放松等。许多创意和想法会出发，大脑会接受更多信息，从而更多元
• multitasking 。你需要做，但不可能同时做两件事。你可以自己一个人的时间不多，将其用于最重要的事情上，并专注于上
• 海马体附近的神经元会生长。如果你和别人一起学习，你可以被激发更多的参与感、创意和理解
• 保持激情、坚持不懈

[EthanLin-TWer]

Chunking

• What is chunking?
• How does it help when you are learning new things/subjects?
• How to form a chunk?
• How to know if a chunk is effective?
• Illusions of learning 学习的错觉/误区
• Overlearning 过度用脑

What is chunking?

A chunk means a network of neurous that are used to firing together. Chunking is the mental leap that helps you unite bits of information together through meaning.

My understanding: chunks are groups of information that you access and use. The idea is about:

• you form a chunk through meaning
• you connect chunks to fit into a larger picture
• easier and more effective to access and use
• don't ever need to remember the details/mechanisms underlying

How does it help?

• access information:
• use information:

How to form a chunk? - part 1 and part 2

• focused practice
• repetition

Forming a mental or physical chunk could be different in details but there're basic ideas:

1. focus on the thing you wanna form a chunk(distraction is not good at this stage, or say, at every stage)
2. understanding and see how it works(the concept and someone present to you, you can listen, see)
3. do it yourself(understanding it doesn't mean that you can do it)
4. get the context(not just understand why[2] and how[3], but also learning when to use this chunk and when not )
5. how to do steps 2 to 4? deliberated practice
6. little by little form them into larger chunks
7. top down building a chunk(step 2 to 4 is building a chunk bottom up, and you can do more effective top down when you know why/how and when to/not to use the chunk)

context[step 4] is where bottom up and top down meets - what does that mean?

illusions of competence

• illusions 1: just re-reading the book
• illusions 2: highlighting or mark the texts -> extracted from learning to noting, and misleading you that you are learning, which is not exactly
• good: recalling, mini-tests, making mistakes, help you learn
• recall in a different environment
• better: read - recalling - re-read - re-recalling
• how it works: recalling/mini-tests forces you to deep learning the material and help you build chunks when you retrieving
• tools: concept mapping, drawing diagrams

Having a book/google presenting in front of you doesn't mean that you HAVE those information/knowledge in you mind. You have to wire the information and even knowledge into your brain's circuity by recalling,

neuromodulators

• frontal cortex neuron systems carries information about what is happening around you and what you are doing.
• another system carries information not about what's happening, but what's valuable to your future
• neuromodulators are chemicals that influences how a neurons respond to other neurons, three of them are:
• acetylcholine: creates neuromodulators connections that good for focused learning, they activates circuits that control synaptic plasticity, leading to long term memory

neuromodulators also impacts your unconscious mind:

• dopamine: rewards learning, pleasure, controls motivation. they will be released when received unexpected rewards. it also predicts future rewarding
• serotonic: social life and risk taking behaviour
• emotion also important to learning, memory, cognitive,

---

• basal ganglia
• how to make yourself feel pleased?

The value of forming a library of chunks

• transfer: chunks can be similar with other chunks, even in other subjects or concepts
• creative flexibility: combine chunks and find brand new way of thinking or solving problems(when your chunks indicates simplified patterns)
  • sequential problem solving: step by step. this is how you'll start to build your chunks and verified their relations and interactions carefully
  • holistic intuition: this is how you find creative thoughts or insights, they might fill in the first difficult gap but the solution should be verified in focused mode very carefully
• how it works: forming chunks makes following chunk grasping easier

overlearning, choking, einstellung and interleaving

• what is over-learning? - when you've already perfectly mastered something, keeping practice it would:
  • helpful in terms of nervousness
  • but could be waste of your valuable learning time
  • you might have an illusion but you are always doing the easy part
  • sometimes your intuition or habits towards a particular problem could be misleading, you have to unlearn the erroneous concepts that you have
• what is the solution?
  • deliberate practice and repetition something a bit harder
  • learn new things - try to learn and solve problems that requires different techniques or strategies
  • challenge yourself - try out different problems to know why some problems call for one technique as opposed to another and how to choose between different chunks
  • interleaving - mixing your techniques to solve different problems

Summing up

what are chunks

• groups of information(ideas, concepts, solutions, etc...) that can easily access, often built through use and meaning
• chunks can become larger and complex, but still take up one slot in your workspace(memory) therefore allow you to process more information
• chunks help you understand materials in different areas better/quicker

how to form chunks and building your chunks library

• focused mode, forming chunks requires your focused attention
• understanding the key ideas, actions of the material
• practice
• interleaving with other concepts/sections in one area or even different areas

illusions of competence

• highlighting, you think you're weaving these highlightings into your mind, actually you are not
• overlearning, keep practicing something that you've already mastered or is too simple
• einstellung, your initial patterns/findings prevent you from learning better/neater/simple approaches or solutions

how to avoid illusions of competence

• value recall over reread: solves highlighting habits. recall is actually also testing yourself
• test yourself: deliberate practice something that's bit harder/ just over your comfort zone
• interleaving: solve problems that requires different techniques/ solutions, helps you know why and when to use which approach
• transfer: allow you to learn & absorb experiences/insights from other areas
• 跳跃性学习

[EthanLin-TWer]

introduction: this week we'll talk about two seemingly different topics: procrastination and memory, but are actually intimately related. why? because building good chunks that are easily accessed by your short term memory takes time. and we'll talk about how procrastination happens and simple ways that don't require much will power to tackle it.

1. Procrastination

Tackling procrastination

How procrastination works

• you face with something bad that makes you unpleasant
• you brain feel uncomfortable and searching for pleasing tasks
• you surf the internet and feel better

procrastination shares the similar feature with addition:

• it delights you in very short term periods by a little poison
• you get used to it, because it's enjoyable in short-term and you are adding it little by little gradually
• it hurts you accumulately, badly

Why learning how to fend off procrastination is important

• learning requires you put in time in a long period
• by better at it you can further prioritise your learning
• using will power consumes a lot energy of your brain, it should be avoid whenever it's not definitely necessary

How to deal with procrastination

• pomodoro
• some other ways that requires less/none will power

Zombies everywhere

Habits are developed to save energy. Habits can be good, harmless, or harmful. How habit works is in four key parts:

• the cue. this is the trigger that activates the zombie mode
• the routine. this is a series of steps that you brain will react underlying without keeping focus and being aware
• the reward. you get a reward right after you performing a routine, so that you will continue
• the belief. I don't understand this

Process versus product

How that happen and how they related to procrastination?

By focusing on product, your goal was the output and you could get nervous/anxiety about how far/close you are to the result. This makes your brain more likely to procrastinate.

By focusing on process rather than product, you allow yourself to back away from judging yourself, am I getting closer to finishing? And instead you allow yourself to relax into the flow of the work. The key is when a distraction arises, which it inevitably will, you want to train yourself to just let it flow by, and your brain would less likely to procrastinate, and thus productivity and positive moods coming.

Processes relate to simple habits, habits that coincidentally allow you to do the unpleasant tasks that need to be done.

Any examples?

• Pomodoro: Focusing on a single pomodoro in 25 minutes, regardless of what the result is
• Todolist: Focusing on handling a single todo, regardless of the big picture or the outcome of it

How do you focus more on process when you are not in learning? Any common practice?

Harnessing your zombies to help you

• key: avoid procrastination or minimise your will power of change
• how: change your reaction to the cue
• more analyse:
  • the cue: you have to retro what triggers you into your zombie mode. it often related to the following four catagories:
  • location: 明显有知乎在手总想刷刷，有了更多的 app 可能更甚
  • time
  • how you feel: 对自己而言是感觉没有动力、厌烦当前工作、与妹子吵架的时候 要进入 focus mode 的时候，关掉所有微信、邮箱、会弹出信息的东东会有帮助
  • the routine: how you react to the cue. this is the key part to change a habit: change your reaction to the cue. how? you need a plan ... 等于没讲
  • the reward: small rewards for small achievements, bigger rewards for bigger achievements. only when your brain begins to expect the reward makes it possible for the process of wiring your new habits into your circuits. 这个需要仔细想想，对于个人适用的奖励，比如对我而言，我最喜欢的是：
  • 独处的时间，放松没有任务的时间，可以自由阅读或神游
  • the belief. 还是不解。说是可以找 community 共勉。

Juggling life and learning

• plan in the evening: will take only one slot of your working memory
• plan quitting time: I don't see the value
• focusing on the most important and most disliked thing in the morning: 我赞同做最重要的事情，但极度不赞成做最不喜欢的事情。我看不到任何自残以外的价值，这甚至不利于早起习惯的养成：我为何要早早起来做一件痛苦的事？小波的做法是，早晨是最高效的时间，做最重要的事，通过做完它们（中的大部分），获得一种愉悦感：觉得很满足，今天就算什么都不干都可以了。这样感觉一天余下的时间都是自己的；而做一件最痛苦的事依据是，如果最惨的都做了，今天还有什么能更惨呢？从而获得愉悦感…这奖赏方式无法理解。

summing up

• why dealing with procrastination? -> focusing, effective chunking takes time -> so we have to learn regularly -> procrastination hurts that
• how procrastination works before we want to deal with it? -> procrastination is a habit, and here's how habit works:
  • the cue: time, location, feel, event
  • the reaction: react to the cue without thinking, can be good, harmless, or harmful. key is the change that
  • the reward: you get the reward after your reaction to the cue.
  • the belief
• how to deal with procrastination? -> change the reward, which should be something really expected by your brain. then you can enforce the feedback by replacing the reaction to the cue, and stick to it
• specific hint?
  • process over product -> less anxiety and more focused
  • keep planner journal
  • do the most important thing in the very morning

2. Memory

Diving deeper into memory

Visualise system helps you memorise things, like where it's located, how does it looks like, etc. Images can pack lots of information to help you remember and retrieve the image and information compacted. There're some steps/guidelines to build and strengthen your memory from short-term memory to long-term memory:

• Use image, feeling, hearing, reading out loud or even tasting the material to encode it as part of memory chunks
• Regular repetition helps you strengthening the hooks/links of the material and turn it into your long term memory
• then you can retrieve it to your working memory from your long term memory, which we'll cover later

What is long term memory

• Hippocampus 海马体
• visualisation, repetition are two of the keys to develop long term memory
• reconsolidation happens when your brain is inactive, therefore studying things for a long time shortly and repetitively is more effective memorised by your brain
• How do you retrieve/load memories from LTM to STM(working memory)?

Create Meaningful Groups and the Mind Palace Technique

• create meaningful groups -> pack information. question is how you retrieve the group then?
• mind palace -> needs practice.

Summing up memory

There're two essential parts of your memories system:

Long term memory

• you need to practice and repeat in order to store informations in your LTM
• you need to practice regularly to store into your LTM as consolidation/reconsolidation takes time
• therefore you need to fend off procrastination

Working memory

• working memory has a limit of 4 slots for chunks of information, you should make the most of it
• visual memory system is active and strong and effective
• grouping information into meaningful chunks helps you memory, according to bullet 1
• mind palace also helps

[EthanLin-TWer]

How to become a better learner

how to become a better learner

• exercise: in few places new neurons are born every day(hippocampus is one of this places), but only exercise makes them survive
• practice makes perfect: not true only when your brain is ready. 讲了大脑的三个成熟阶段，觉得价值不大

Introduction to renaissance learning and unlock your potential

这周课程是为了让你获得以下能力。不过开播前要知道一个前置理念：即学习不是知识线性增长的过程。有时你会遇到瓶颈，有时会觉得以前会的好像现在都不会了，觉得一片浆糊、知识体系崩塌，不知所以。这是因为你的大脑在努力消化知识，跨过了一般就有逆天提升：更坚固的基础，更完备的体系。所以遇到瓶颈了别虚。

• metaphor and analogy
• working with your teammates
• perform well on exams

Create a lively visual metaphor or analogy

• the more visual of the metaphor the better
• how to create: imagine you are the concept that you are learning
• metaphors and models are never perfect, but you can always toss them always and create a better one when you grow better understanding
• metaphors also help to strength your memory
• metaphors also make it easier to understand new concepts because you are fetching chunks/patterns from existing neurons
• stories/metaphor, can help you grow the sense of what's going on

No need for genius envy

• well chunked groups of information allow faster decision and intuitive insight without having to know why and how, you just do it. thinking why you do may slow you down and impact decision making. in order to achieve this(well chunked information and intuitive insight), you need deliberated practice and continuously learning and chunking
• is high performance people naturally gifted?
  • yes -> intelligence matters, sometimes someone's working memory system is just bigger(e.g. 9 memory slots instead of 4) or he/she can just grab things so firmly that he/she can't hardly forget
  • and no -> compacter working memory also leads to less creativity because your working memory is taking control of your brain so firmly that no fresh airs can come in
• sometimes you just need time to form the fundamentals
• imposter syndrome
• as the old saying goes: when one door closes, another open

Change you thoughts, change your life

• taking responsibility of your learning is one of the most important things that you can do n
• We're often told that empathy is universally beneficial. But it's not. It's important to learn to switch on an occasional cool dispassion that helps you to not only focus on what you're trying to learn, but also to tune people out if you discover that their interests lie in undercutting you
• take pride in who you are, especially those qualities that make you different

The value of teamwork

• 右脑倾向于全局思考，分析错误，不断校正，更像 diffuse mode 的运行方式
• 左脑倾向于保留现状，更像 focused mode 的运行方式

建议：

• 左右脑并用，先用右脑 xmind 出一个学习路线图，再用左脑的分析模式进行深入分析，然后使用右脑来检查工作成果，以此循环
• 可以加入学习小组，他们可以发现你思考的不足之处，从不同的全局角度质疑你，充当你的右脑及发散模式
• 我发现不要用英文做笔记。因为你的思路需要一个表达方式，这个表达方式一定要畅通无阻，不能在这上面分散精力，否则就会被迫同时进行“recall - 组织语言”两件事，降低效率。要是想练英文，那有其他更好的方式，用英文来组织 recall 简直就是作死。

A test checklist

一小时测试能学到的东西可能比一小时学习来得多，要享受测试这种方式。如何保证测试取得好的结果呢？有人做了一个清单，只要你做到了上面提到的所有条目，那就可以认为测试一定会成功：

• [ ] Did you make a serious effort to understand the text?
• [ ] Did you work with classmates on homework problems?
• [ ] Did you attempt to outline each homework question before discussing it with classmates?
• [ ] Did you participate actively in homework group discussions?
• [ ] Did you consult with the instructor/teach assistants when you were having trouble?
• [ ] Did you understand all of your homework problem solutions before the assignment was handed in?
• [ ] Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problems that were unclear to you?
• [ ] If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself you understood all of the material?
• [ ] Did you attempt to outline lots of problem solutions quickly without spending time doing the algebra?
• [ ] Did you go over the study guide and problems with classmates and quiz one another?
• [ ] If there was a review session, did you attend and ask questions about any concepts or ideas that you were unsure of?
• [ ] Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test?

Hard start - jump to easy technique

厉害了。比如一个测试，或者拿到一份前端技术路线图，你会先挑容易的学，还是困难的学？理由？

• 先挑容易的。理由：基于这样一个假设，困难问题是由简单问题叠加而成，先解决容易的，有助于线性解决困难问题
• Barbara：先挑最困难的，但一旦遇到障碍，马上抽离去从容易的做。做得舒服了，再回来做困难的，依此循环。背后科学原理：
  1. 从困难开始，你会进入 focused mode
  2. 遇到障碍马上撤离，你会开启 diffuse mode
  3. 解决容易问题时，不需耗费太多的 focused mode 的能量
  4. 同时，后台开启的 diffuse mode 进程会发散思维，让你更有可能在困难问题上想到更多线索、层面和可能性
  5. 回到困难问题时，相当于你用右脑对之前的解答又进行了一次回顾，尽早发现方向是否正确，同时利用 diffuse mode 产生的灵感，进一步推进难题解决

此法关键在于，具备一遇到障碍马上抽离的意识和自制力。没有的话就要培养。

Final helpful hints for tests

首先是给考试焦虑的同学的一些小建议。说这个焦虑的时候，身体会产生一些化学物质，这个不重要，重要的是你怎么解释这种现象。只要正能量，就可以改变身体的感知方式。

• how you interpret, stress is making me afraid, or making you excited to do your best
• breathing helps to calm you down

然后是一些来自其他领域有名学习人士的建议：

• 答多选题前先遮住答案，凭自己已知的知识答一遍，再对比。做的时候，要模拟真实考试的场景：正襟危坐、限制用时、没收任何参考资料
• 直面恐惧。如何做到？B 计划。尽力而为，考完可以对自己说，考不上大不了就启用另一份职业计划。往往恐惧就会消失许多，离你的原始目标反而更近了，互为因果（plan b, plan for the worst case and have an alternative plan）
• bad worry and good worry，没什么卵用

Summing up

• 恰当的比喻和类比。自己想不出来，就看看别人是怎么构造比喻的
• 做自己的事，让别人哭去吧
• 用好左右脑两种模式，比如：
  • hard start - jump to easy 技术
  • 检查作业
• 改变思维，比如
  • 改变你解释压力的方式
  • 改变思想。这个诺贝尔学家讲的我没太听明白

[EthanLin-TWer]

@JimmyLv 插楼删~

[EthanLin-TWer]

可喜可贺。

[JimmyLv]

恭喜恭喜！

Linesh notifications@github.com于2017年3月3日周五 下午11:57写道：

Closed #99 https://github.com/linesh-simplicity/linesh-simplicity.github.io/issues/99 .

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