Hey,<\/p>\n
One of my biggest joys is writing about a technique for learning and
\nthen finding out that some of the smartest people on earth already
\nuse it to learn better.<\/p>\n
I was reading the book I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
\nafter publishing yesterday’s bootcamp lesson.<\/p>\n
For those of you who don’t know, Hofstadter won the Pulitzer Prize
\nfor nonfiction (the Academy Award of writing) for his first book on
\nconsciousness and self-referential systems, G\u00f6del, Escher, Bach.<\/p>\n
In the book, Hofstadter writes about metaphors:<\/p>\n
[One] of my firmest conclusions is that we always think by seeking
\nand drawing parallels to things we know from our past, and that
\nwe therefore communicate best when we exploit examples, analogies
\nand metaphors galore.<\/p>\n
Even in teaching a topic as abstract as the philosophy of
\nconsciousness, Hofstadter avoids abstractions and sticks with
\ndown-to-earth metaphors.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Training Metaphor-Based Thinking<\/p>\n
There are two main criticisms whenever I suggest people use holistic
\ntactics to learn faster:<\/p>\n
1. That’s just fluff. Metaphors may work for easy topics, but in
\n[some “hard” subject] that method won’t work.<\/p>\n
2. I can’t learn with metaphors. Maybe holistic learning is just
\nsomething you’re born with.<\/p>\n
The first criticism is empirically false. I’ve worked with hundreds
\nof students over the last few years, and people have successfully
\nused the rapid learning tactics on math to law, languages to music.<\/p>\n
I bring up Hofstadter’s example because in his fields, philosophy
\nof mind and cognitive science are overrun with either esoteric
\nabstractions or unimaginative explanations. By using metaphor and
\nanalogy, he writes award-winning, best-selling books on topics that
\nnormally never leave a university library.<\/p>\n
The second criticism is also false. Anyone can become a more
\nholistic learner, using metaphors and other tactics to learn better.
\nI have dozens of cases of students who practiced the tactics and
\ngot better grades, studied less or both.<\/p>\n
How can you do it?<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Quantity over Quality<\/p>\n
The first step is to focus on quantity over quality. I got a lot of
\nresponses back from people for the contest where they claimed, “I
\nhaven’t come up with a metaphor yet.”<\/p>\n
My guess is that these people are searching for perfect, witty
\nmetaphors that are beautiful explanations. The problem is that in
\nexpecting perfection, they reduce their output to zero.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons I created Learning on Steroids was to give people
\nan environment where they could practice regularly, share advice and
\nget feedback. Going alone makes it harder to create.<\/p>\n
Consistency over Inspiration<\/p>\n
The second step is to develop a practice schedule and follow it
\nconsistently.<\/p>\n
I know what you’re saying, “I thought this was supposed to SAVE me
\ntime! Now you’re telling me I need to practice MORE!?”<\/p>\n
Yes, you need to practice. But unlike going to the gym, you can use
\nyour practice when you’re already learning. Taking Nayamot’s example
\nfrom the last case, he implemented a 30-Day training regimen, but
\nsaved enough time that he was able to go from struggling to
\nfinishing early.<\/p>\n
This is also where Learning on Steroids can help. Since we run group
\n30-Day Trials in the forums, you can have an audience to keep you
\nfocused so you’ll get over the initial weirdness of using the ideas
\nand start learning faster.<\/p>\n
Breaking Old Habits<\/p>\n
Once you get past those first few attempts, it becomes easier and
\neasier to apply the methods.<\/p>\n
When I first started training image association for vocabulary (one
\nof the tactics we teach) it took several minutes to remember each
\nvocabulary word. After I got through the first few, I could
\nremember lists of dozens in just a few minutes.<\/p>\n
It’s not just about KNOWING what to do. It’s about breaking your
\nhabits so that you do it automatically.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Practice Time!<\/p>\n
Since I know some of you are still struggling to find that “perfect”
\nexample to win the contest, I’m going to give you guys a helping
\nhand.<\/p>\n
Pick one of these three ideas, create a metaphor for it and hit
\nREPLY. If you later come up with a better one for the contest before
\nSaturday, you can use that one too. If you don’t, then you’ll still
\nhave a chance to win a free copy of Learn More, Study Less.<\/p>\n
Pick ONE of these ideas and create a metaphor, using either
\nSIMILARITY, HISTORY or STORIES (or any other method you want!):<\/p>\n
1. IDEA: Seasons occur because the earth has a tilt on its axis.
\n2. IDEA: Pythagoras’s Theorem: a^2 + b^2 = c^2
\n3. IDEA: English-speaking countries use the common law system while
\nmost romance-language countries use the civil law system.<\/p>\n
You don’t have to use these three, they are just starting points if
\nyou’re not sure what to do–just pick ONE of them and hit REPLY.<\/p>\n
The goal here isn’t to come up with a perfect metaphor, just to get
\nyourself used to the idea of THINKING IN METAPHORS. Once you cross
\nthat hurdle, you can start becoming more creative and vivid in your
\nattempts.<\/p>\n
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please check out the
\nfirst day of the bootcamp.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
If you haven’t already, hit REPLY. If you don’t take action now,
\nyou almost certainly won’t be able to make use of it in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey, One of my biggest joys is writing about a technique for learning and then finding out that some of the smartest people on earth already use it to learn better. I was reading the book I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter after publishing yesterday’s bootcamp lesson. For those of you who don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}