When I try to read a textbook cover to cover, I find myself much more concerned with finishing rather than understanding. I want the satisfaction of being able to say I read the whole thing, every page. This means that I will sometimes cut corners in my understanding just to make it through a difficult part. This ends in disaster once the next chapter requires a solid understanding of the last.
When I read a textbook, I try to solve all exercises at the end of each chapter (at least those not marked “super hard”) before moving to the next. That stops me from cutting corners.
The only flaw I find with this is that if I get stuck on an exercise, I reach the following decision: should I look at the answer and move on, or should I keep at it.
If I choose the first option, this makes me feel like I’ve cheated. I’m not sure what it is about human psychology, but I think that if you’ve cheated once, you feel less guilty a second time because “I’ve already done it.” So, I start cheating more and more, until soon enough I’m just skipping things and cutting corners again.
If I choose the second option, then I might be stuck for several hours, and this causes me to just abandon the textbook develop an ugh field around it.
When I read a textbook, I try to solve all exercises at the end of each chapter (at least those not marked “super hard”) before moving to the next. That stops me from cutting corners.
The only flaw I find with this is that if I get stuck on an exercise, I reach the following decision: should I look at the answer and move on, or should I keep at it.
If I choose the first option, this makes me feel like I’ve cheated. I’m not sure what it is about human psychology, but I think that if you’ve cheated once, you feel less guilty a second time because “I’ve already done it.” So, I start cheating more and more, until soon enough I’m just skipping things and cutting corners again.
If I choose the second option, then I might be stuck for several hours, and this causes me to just abandon the textbook develop an ugh field around it.
Maybe commit to spending at least N minutes on any exercise before looking up the answer?
Perhaps it says something about the human brain (or just mine) that I did not immediately think of that as a solution.