- Trying to remember everything we read should not be the goal in the first place
- The reason you want to read is because you want to apply and problem solve in the first place
- Remember all the knowledge we need to remember (and not all knowledge)
- Not all information is equal
- What stays in your brain >> What goes in your brain
- Reading
- 2 Stages
- Consumption
- Identify which category the info is in
- Digestion
- Use the targeted process per category
- Consumption & Digestion
- It’s a balance - everything you consume must be digested
- You have to do both for learning to actually occur
- Categories
- Each category has processes to help you remember, and each information belongs to each category
- If you categorize it wrong, you fall into passive reading and higher chance of not remembering correctly
- Don’t waste time just re-reading notes and trying to blindly memorize information
PACER
- PAC forms the bulk of your knowledge
- Procedural
- Any information that tells you how something should be executed
- Ex) Coding, languages
- Key: Practice
- Apply the info in real life AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE
- As soon as you read the info, practice it
- But what if we don’t have time to practice it now?
- Move on to smth else
- Stop reading until you have time to practice
- But don’t waste your time to try to memorize it
- Analogous
- Info that is related to smth you alr have prior knowledge about
- Analogies can form with ANY prior knowledge, including knowledge within a topic itself
- Key: Critique
- Examine how good that analogy is
- How are they related / different?
- In what situation does this analogy not make sense anymore?
- Is there a better analogy?
- Conceptual
- Info of the “what” - Facts, explanations, relationships, theory/principles, application
- Many cases we need: procedural + conceptual = problem solving
- Key: Mapping
- Mind mapping, should be non-linear
- We want to recreate that network of knowledge that the expert had
- Beginners only understand each concepts separately & doesn’t know how to connect them together
- Forces us to think about each fact/concept & how they connect
- Evidence
- Info that helps conceptual information to be more concrete (like proofs)
- Key: Store & rehearse
- Store
- Collect that information and store it somewhere (mind map, 2nd brain system like obsidian, flashcards, google docs, etc)
- Should happen as soon as you identify it
- Rehearse
- How to use/apply the info?
- Problem solving, teaching, answering, explaining, writing essays
- Can happen it later
- Similar to Reference
- Reference
- The nitty gritty specific into that don’t really change your conceptual understanding (not very important anyway)
- We might need to memorize this later
- Key: Store & rehearse
- Store
- Rehearse
- Direct fact recall, just memorize it with flashcards (maybe 30 mins everyday)