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Specifically, 1) Do you take notes? 2) Do you compile/rewrite notes? 3) Does spaced repetition work for you? 4) Do you have a methodology for extracting common themes/patterns across topics?
Thanks!
- don't take rigorous notes because it ends up replicating a lot of the material that I'm consuming anyway
- still write some notes if something interesting stands out; it's usually related to some core idea/explanation, not to technical details
- don't obsess over having "complete" notes or worry too much about organizing them
- try to write some relevant code alongside whatever I'm learning
- spaced repetition is for memorization; I'm not trying to memorize
This is different from how I used to learn for exams at school/university where I would repeatedly re-synthesize notes to a shorter and shorter format until I can reproduce the material from a cue.
I think the distinction between the two modes is important; it seems very weird to me to see knowledge workers putting so much effort to memorize stuff that they can look up anyway.
But remember that it's just a scheduling mechanism to save you time, not to help remember, necessarily. I like the Harry Lorayne book on memory for various tricks and techniques to actually remember. It's not groundbreaking but goes over a lot of the standard and proven memory hacks.
As a working adult: - don't take rigorous notes because it ends up replicating a lot of the material that I'm consuming anyway - still write some notes if something interesting stands out; it's usually related to some core idea/explanation, not to technical details - don't obsess over having "complete" notes or worry too much about organizing them - try to write some relevant code alongside whatever I'm learning - sp…
Only if you use it as such. SRS is a scheduler to help you optimize your time, to not spend time on things you probably don't need to refresh. The actual memory/learning part is orthogonal.
I use SRS to plan different practices of things (in my case programming languages or concepts). If I consider that I did one of them well, I mark it as such and won't see it for a longer time, if not, I mark it badly and I'll see it again sooner.
As a working adult: - don't take rigorous notes because it ends up replicating a lot of the material that I'm consuming anyway - still write some notes if something interesting stands out; it's usually related to some core idea/explanation, not to technical details - don't obsess over having "complete" notes or worry too much about organizing them - try to write some relevant code alongside whatever I'm learning - sp…
I strongly agree. In the learning blogs (e.g. SuperMemo wiki) and forums I’ve read (r/Anki), there is a bias to solve every learning problem with space repetition (very roughly, flashcards on a computer program scheduled in an optimized way).
I’ve seen users try to make it work for math and physics, and though it may work for some users, the approach was ultimately a distraction in my experience, from doing lots of practice problems.
The best form of spaced repetition IMO is the application of the acquired knowledge in a big project over time. That way re-visiting the concepts comes naturally as you continue to develop something over time.
I copy/paste what I think are the "atoms" of the thing to learn. And i build a small graph of interconnected .md files in Obsidian.
To me, it is very important to break the medium that brings the information into a graph that suits you the most. (call that process my knowledge ETL, and the result .md files my personal knowledge graph :)
PS: the funny thing is that you indeed refactor your graph when you come back to it with more knowledge. You usually do not remove things, but reorganize it in a better way. Very interesting process...
Obsidian. I copy/paste what I think are the "atoms" of the thing to learn. And i build a small graph of interconnected .md files in Obsidian. To me, it is very important to break the medium that brings the information into a graph that suits you the most. (call that process my knowledge ETL, and the result .md files my personal knowledge graph :) PS: the funny thing is that you indeed refactor your graph when you com…
As a working adult: - don't take rigorous notes because it ends up replicating a lot of the material that I'm consuming anyway - still write some notes if something interesting stands out; it's usually related to some core idea/explanation, not to technical details - don't obsess over having "complete" notes or worry too much about organizing them - try to write some relevant code alongside whatever I'm learning - sp…
> spaced repetition is for memorization; I'm not trying to memorize Only if you use it as such. SRS is a scheduler to help you optimize your time, to not spend time on things you probably don't need to refresh. The actual memory/learning part is orthogonal. I use SRS to plan different practices of things (in my case programming languages or concepts). If I consider that I did one of them well, I mark it as such and w…
I’m curious. If you would be willing to share, could you demonstrate an example of a prompt? My learning items have almost always been questions and answers, and occasionally image occlusion (‘label this part of the diagram’) and cloze deletion (‘fill in the blank’).
[0] https://www.supermemo.wiki/en/learning/spaced-repetition
So my strategy is to work first and learn second. When I encounter a roadblock I try o learn something new, but in most cases I then quickly forget about it soon. This might happen several times over. Once I had to learn about unix file permissions, I knew all the commands and numbers and what they meant and it all made sense. But now I only remember `chmod +x` and that there is a command named `chown`. This satisfies for my day-to-day needs and is enough so that I can re-learn the thing if necessary.
And for the general context that are important to know in detail I found that teaching is a good way to remember and reinforce. I teach a course every year and every year I am surprised how much I've forgotten. But it quickly comes back after I start preparing materials for the class.
When I was young I used to think that you can learn a thing once and then remember. Now I know that, speaking strictly for myself, this is not the case.