Want to learn? Solve it!

First, think: what to learn and why

Having trouble studying a subject or topic? Perhaps the solution lies in how you approach the content you'll use in your study.

A change of focus

We propose a reflection here: instead of starting your study with the traditional content sequence, free yourself.

Start with a need, such as simply your curiosity.

Before learning anything, you need to know why to learn it. A need is what prepares the mind to seek information.

The clearer the need, the easier it is to organize and retain what is learned.

If you read chapter 1, but your brain doesn't care about chapter 1 yet, by the time you read chapter 2, chapter 1 is already forgotten.

When a reading is not justified, the information tends to go unnoticed. It enters, but finds no reason to stay.

It's like putting data into a bottomless chest: you open the lid, throw content in, close the lid, and the information falls into oblivion. Learning is not about following an order, it's about building meaning.

After all, your brain really cares about problems.

Problems are the engine of learning

Before reading the chapters of a book, understand what each one is about and define reasons to read them. If you don't find a reason, create one.

Ask yourself: how does this add to my knowledge on this subject?

Formulate questions. Set challenges. Invent bottlenecks. Subvert the standard order. Find inspiration.

Learning begins when something needs to be solved, and perhaps you prefer to read chapter 5 before chapter 1 to change perspectives, connect information in different ways, or simply because it's the most interesting to you.

Incidentally, in this example, you'll probably read chapter 5 again, after going through the previous ones. But with a new perspective and new questions.

Without an associated problem, the brain has no reason to store new information.

And it is effective at discarding what it doesn't find useful.

Absorb only what's necessary, then reformulate, apply, and only then expand

This process is based on an exploratory freedom that needs to be directed so as not to lose focus. Define parameters for what you are looking for.

If the goal is to understand the proportions between the planets of the solar system, focus only on these data.

Don't delve into other details.

Use your time and energy to check numbers about the diameters of the planets carefully in two or three reliable sources and then search for images that represent these proportions.

With only the numbers related to the size of the planets in mind, it becomes easier to intuitively compare images that represent them.

And this comparison is already a way to consolidate knowledge, because it's a problem for your brain to solve.

Cognitive effort should be directed towards the objective, not dispersed among secondary details.

Reusable knowledge

When a problem is solved, knowledge becomes denser, more applicable, and principle-based.

Imagine that after realizing Jupiter is the largest planet and Mercury is the smallest, you challenge yourself to remember two fruits with a similar size difference.

Your brain immediately associates Jupiter with a large fruit, the watermelon, and embraces the problem of finding another much smaller one.

Since you only checked numbers on diameters, ignoring redundant data, it's easier to visualize a fruit with a diameter approximately 20 times smaller than that of a watermelon.

And your brain remembers the grape for Mercury. Problem solved, proportion between Jupiter and Mercury reinforced as relevant information.

This exercise involved identifying patterns, association, and imagination to answer the simple question of which fruit corresponds to which planet.

And more associations will give the brain more reasons to store this information.

Or rather, structure. Because, at this point, we can already talk about how information has become part of a knowledge structure.

After comparing numbers and associating planets with fruits, the brain begins to use this information as principles in other contexts.

The more recent the use of the structure, the more irresistible it is for your mind to apply the structure to new groups of items.

If last week you sought to associate fruits with planets, today, upon entering a bakery, a cake might remind you of Jupiter and a candy of Mercury. And the structure is reinforced once again.

This is not memorization of facts. It is the construction of a network of patterns in which different circles are mentally filled by different items of a category of circular entities.

Your brain created mental structures that will be strengthened by association, at least as long as your gaze is attracted by groups of circular items, a tendency that should concentrate on the moment of your life when the study of planets is important.

Later, when other subjects become more important than planets, this structure will be less activated.

It tends to give way to new structures, more relevant to new studies and moments in your life.

Encoding and retrieval

Encoding happens when you synthesize.
You consume information and extract a general principle.
You don't store loose details: you create connections.

Retrieval happens when you reuse knowledge without consulting external sources, solving real problems, in real time.

Knowledge that accumulates is knowledge that takes action. And with each use, knowledge becomes stronger.

A simple learning cycle

1 — Summarize information in your own words.

Example:
After reading about the dimensions of planets, synthesize information such as:

Rocky planets are much smaller than gas planets.

2 — Identify or create problems for this information.

Example:
What is the biggest size difference between them?

3 — Find the answer and consolidate it through patterns. Ignore secondary details.

Example:
Jupiter is the largest. Mercury is the smallest. If they were fruits, Jupiter would be roughly like a watermelon while Mercury would be roughly like a grape.

4 — Mentally construct a structure with these patterns.

Example: Jupiter is the largest circle and Mercury is the smallest.

5 — Immediately use this structure, even without precision.

Example:
Immediately associate each planet with a fruit, based on the general perception of the fruits' diameters, even if imprecise.

6 — Observe, adjust, try again.

Reflect on the suitability of each association. Redefine associations if other fruits seem more appropriate.

It is through elaboration and continuous use of structures that learning is consolidated.

If this way of thinking about learning makes sense to you, it's worth observing how you study, plan, or consume information in your daily life.

What problems are guiding your attention?

Have you thought about what structures you use every day, even without realizing it?