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A Mind for Numbers is a splendid resource for how to approach mathematics learning and in fact learning in any area. Barbara Oakley’s authoritative guide is based on the latest research in the cognitive sciences, and provides a clear, concise, and entertaining roadmap for how to get the most out of learning. This is a must-read for anyone who has struggled with mathematics and anyone interested in enhancing their learning experience.”
Extremely smart people are more likely to procrastinate than people of normal intelligence. Because procrastinating always worked when they were growing up. This means they are less likely to learn critical life skills early on. Procrastination can be like taking tiny amounts of poison. It may not seem harmful at the time. But the long-term effects can be very damaging.” Memorization as critical to creativity and effective problem-solving. This is a big one for two reasons: Learning to use your memory in a more disciplined yet creative manner helps you learn to focus your attention. By memorizing material you understand, you can internalize the material in a profound way. The left side of the brain is more associated with careful, focused attention. It also seems better at handling analytical, sequential and logical thinking. But the left hemisphere tends to be more dogmatic and cling to views it’s already formed.
That's a shame because there is a lot in this book that I hope to pass on to language learners and students of International Relations. To learn effectively, improve your memory and how you transfer information from the short-term to long-term memory. Learning Strategies, Concepts and Ingredients Pace yourself. Break up a large task into daily tasks. Review your “to do” list the evening before each day. Vari capitoli dedicati ad un'analisi approfondita delle abitudini (l'autrice chiama affettuosamente gli «zombie» le abitudini nel nostro cervello, specie quelle non proficue) e alla gestione della procrastinazione (molto pratica ed efficace), attraverso l'utilizzo di liste delle cose-da-fare e scalette (to-do lists e schedule) e la celebre tecnica del Pomodoro di Francesco Cirillo;
Simplification is important. Simple explanations are possible for almost any concept, no matter how complex. When you cultivate simple explanations by breaking down complicated material to its key elements, the result is that you have a deeper understanding of the material. Use explanatory questioning and simple analogies. Try explaining what you are learning in a simple way – preferably to someone else. Tell them what it is “like” (an example she gives if that the flow of electricity is like the flow of water). This more deeply engrains the knowledge in your brain and may get you some clarifying questions. The number of acquaintances you have, not the number of good friends, predicts your access to the latest ideas as well as your success in the job market. The comes from a sociology paper, The Strength of Weak Ties by Mark S. Granovetter. In the first two years of medicine at Oxford, there are a lot of new words and concepts to understand and cement in memory as a base for further clinical work. I struggled to remember everything and to work efficiently without procrastinating. Before starting my third year in medicine, I decided to learn how to learn. Our desire to figure things out right now is what prevents us from being able to figure things out. Reshaping your brain is under your control. The key is patient persistence: working knowledgeably with your brain's strengths and weaknesses. We can achieve startling insights into how to understand more simply, easily, and with less frustration: By understanding your brain's default settings- the natural way it learns and thinks, and taking advantage of this knowledge one can become an expert.Interleaving material (accidental: it just felt right. I never thought of myself as "studying" because "studying" was something that was supposed to feel miserable. I did my homework and I reviewed the syllabus before tests.) Why and how you should simplify and personalize abstract math/science ideas to understand and internalize them. If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself that you could do everything on it? You don’t want to wait too long for the retrieval practice. Try to recall the material you’ve learned within a day. When our brains first put something in long-term memory, we need to revisit it a few times to increase the chances we’ll be able to find it later. The more we revisit something, the stronger its neural patterns. This is why spaced-repetition is so helpful. Try to touch again on something you’re learning within a day, then gradually increase the time between “upkeep” repetitions to weeks or months. Spaced-repetition flashcard software like Anki can be very useful. [I’ve used Anki and other spaced-repetition software before for learning languages, and agree that it’s an incredibly effective way of learning new vocab.]
Some nonsense started getting popular around the turn of the 21st century that knowing facts is inconsequential so long as you know where to find them.The main theme of the book is that there are two modes of thinking; focused and diffuse. Focused thinking is what you do when you concentrate very hard to solve some problem. You need to remove yourself from distractions during focused thinking, and you probably should only perform focused thinking for a short amount of time; 25 minutes is recommended. Diffuse thinking, however, is somewhat more relaxed and actually creative. This kind of thinking allows your mind to wander in search of "out of the box" solutions to problems. This part about equations is not written by Oakley herself but is taken from an excerpt from Brad Roth of the American Physical Society at the end of one of the chapters. I thought it was the most useful excerpt in the book – the rest largely repeated what Oakley said in some other way.] Don’t multitask
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