Here’s a method for learning a complex subject that seems to accelerate acquiring instrumental skill and the ability to use the knowledge creatively. As a bonus, you make progress on projects you’ve deferred for want of technical skills you’re learning now.
Project Mapping:
a) Make a list of projects you’re working or intend to do sometime. The more the projects excite you, the more effective this technique.
b) Take a bite of your subject (a chapter or topic, smaller the better)
c) Go to your project journal. Pick one or more projects from the list to connect to the material you learned. If they can’t conceivably connect … then why are you learning this?
d) No matter how great the gap between the complexity and difficulty of your project and the simplicity of the elementary material you just learned, even if it’s just whole number addition, describe ways to apply the knowledge to some aspect or part of your project. This is the actual “secret sauce” of the technique.
e) Return to each bite to “rehearse” it by adding even more ideas, and feel free to connect in and use more advanced material you’ve learned, too.
f) If you can, set your rehearsal schedule for each bite to initially just half an hour apart, but space them out by double the previous time between rehearsals. Force even boundaries on days or weeks to help simplify the schedule. Something like: 30m, 60m, 2h, 4h, 8h, 16h, 24h, 2d, 4d, 7d, 2w, 1m, 2m, 4m, 8m, 1y
A note on the “secret sauce” (part d): You’ll often need to force your brain to believe, especially when learning the fundamentals of a subject, that you can apply it to your byzantine mega-idea. Try for five minutes. If it’s just too hard, maybe create an easier project to stand-in.
Here’s a method for learning a complex subject that seems to accelerate acquiring instrumental skill and the ability to use the knowledge creatively. As a bonus, you make progress on projects you’ve deferred for want of technical skills you’re learning now.
Project Mapping: a) Make a list of projects you’re working or intend to do sometime. The more the projects excite you, the more effective this technique. b) Take a bite of your subject (a chapter or topic, smaller the better) c) Go to your project journal. Pick one or more projects from the list to connect to the material you learned. If they can’t conceivably connect … then why are you learning this? d) No matter how great the gap between the complexity and difficulty of your project and the simplicity of the elementary material you just learned, even if it’s just whole number addition, describe ways to apply the knowledge to some aspect or part of your project. This is the actual “secret sauce” of the technique. e) Return to each bite to “rehearse” it by adding even more ideas, and feel free to connect in and use more advanced material you’ve learned, too. f) If you can, set your rehearsal schedule for each bite to initially just half an hour apart, but space them out by double the previous time between rehearsals. Force even boundaries on days or weeks to help simplify the schedule. Something like: 30m, 60m, 2h, 4h, 8h, 16h, 24h, 2d, 4d, 7d, 2w, 1m, 2m, 4m, 8m, 1y
A note on the “secret sauce” (part d): You’ll often need to force your brain to believe, especially when learning the fundamentals of a subject, that you can apply it to your byzantine mega-idea. Try for five minutes. If it’s just too hard, maybe create an easier project to stand-in.
I have unintentially been implementing something like this in anki.