P: Learning is like working out

Keywords:: PermanentNote

Reference:: [[R: [Blink] Limitless by Jim Kwik]] [[R: [Blink] Learn Like a Pro by Barbara Oakley and Olav Schewe]] [[R: [Blink] Learn Better by Ulrich Boser]] PC: Huberman Lab | X | Episode 6

You can for sure remember when after a good night's sleep you could more easily recall the words in a foreign language you were struggling to learn the day before, or you could play the music piece with much more ease than the day before when you were trying to drill it. In other words, after a session of learning and a good night's sleep, you knew more than the day before—you've learned.

It's magical, isn't it? But how does it happen?

Effective learning moves the new information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory.

Learning is similar to working out. You combine periods of work (like doing push ups or reading a book) with periods of rest (like sleeping). The difference is that learning takes part in the abstract realm of concepts, while building muscles happens in the physical world. During workouts you push and lift things; during learning you engage and incorporate ideas. In both situations, however, your goal is to apply enough stimuli to change the current structure of either muscle or neurons.

During learning, these stimuli—in a form of new information—creates novel connections between your neurons. In the beginning, they're very small, weak, and fragile. However, every time you use this new knowledge (and follow it with rest), they strengthen (being moved from working memory to the long-term memory). If you don’t work upon that new knowledge, however, it slowly but surely withers away, like a path in the forest that disappears when people stop traveling on it. Repeat those cycles multiple times and you end up with bigger muscle or a "bigger brain."

Knowing that in order to learn you have to alternate between sessions of work and rest. But how can you make learning most effective?

For the work session, in short, to learn smartly, you need to use methods that work in accordance with how your brain naturally learns, not against it. More info here: P: Learning facts; learning concepts

In terms of rest, you need quality rest because this is when the consolidation happens. This is when those newly induced changes get fixed in you brain. You need short-term rest and quality long-term rest. More info here: TK P: High quality rest is imperative to learning .

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