How Do You Personally Learn?

dani

Hey!

I'm curious about how yall are learning, and processing the knowledge you come across.

I'll go first:
What I do: I personally do pre-reading/watching, and then summarize the books I read or videos I watch. I use Notion for that, and I have my own little template for it. I keep an Ignorance Map of things I encounter and would like to know more about, also on Notion.
I find that writing things in my own words, particularly summaries (and SMALL summaries, at that) really helps with understanding what I'm learning.

What I would like to explore: doing a pre-reading or "pre-thinking" about each chapter that I read -- basically getting more granular and setting up a more frequent trigger to engage my mind, rather than just consuming the content. I'd also like to try talking more about the topics I'm studying and interested in!

And to finalize, I wanna share this method I found on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/dusvhd/sharing_how_i_remember_every_single_nonfiction_i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/dva756/method_how_i_summarize_books_to_remember/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Looking forward to your comments/resources you might want to share :D

unenlightened

Mostly, I fart around and make lots of mistakes. But sometimes I read the instructions or watch a video, when mistakes look like they might be expensive or painful.

bongo fury

↪dani

As those cats would no doubt advise: the best possible method of learning is play, but at the same time it's crucial that newly acquired knowledge be consolidated through sleep.

dani

@unenlightened @bongo fury keeping it casual around here I see :cool: thanks for your comments!

jgill

↪dani

Nice cats.

I am a retired mathematician and my learning style has always required examples. If I try to understand a math concept I need to see it in action.

(I had an acquaintance who did a PhD thesis on a particular set of functions, but when asked on an oral exam to produce even one of those functions discovered their set of functions was the empty set.) :worry:

dani

↪jgill

that's a great point, I think I may neglect bringing things into real life sometimes!
I know that story is stressful irl but I found it pretty funny btw

Bret Bernhoft

This is an interesting question, thank you for asking. If I want to genuinely learn, remember and master a subject, I need to "play with it". This includes the information, content and structure(s) that will lead me to (a) knowing.

Let's take computer programming as an example. I taught myself to build websites and software for the Web. Beyond the preexisting tutorials and other learning resources that I ingested in my learning process, I playfully put that information into practice with personal projects and late night coding sessions.

It could be said that I am a hands-on learner, regardless of how I am handling data.

LuckyR

Most, including myself, learn different things differently. If it is a physical thing like a tennis stroke, I learn best by viewing an expert demonstration. If it is a process like building shed, by knowing what the options are, then deriving the best process based on personal experience. If it is a set of factoids, by experiencing them in multiple senses, hearing them spoken, watching the lecturer, writing (not typing) them down in a paper notebook, reading my notes.

How Do You Personally Learn?

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Categories

More Discussions