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Two modes of thinking are outlined in the book A Mind For Numbers, the attentive Focused Mode Thinking, and the relaxed Diffuse Mode Thinking. People may think that they cannot get better at math because they’re too old or they may not be “born with it”. We all have what it takes to excel in areas that don't seem to come naturally to us at first, and learning them does not have to be as painful as we might think.
Oakley lets us in on the secrets to effectively learning math and science—secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. The additional effort of speaking and writing allows you to more deeply encode (that is, convert into neural memory structures) what you are learning. She claims that we must not only learn how to use each mode, but also how and when to switch between them. In the book, Peak, Anders Ericsson (the human expertise psychologist behind the 10,000 hour “rule”) states that Doctors who have 20 years of experience aren’t always better than those who have 5 years.Provides a talk/type relay service for anyone who has difficulty hearing or being understood when speaking over the phone. She explains that when procrastination encroaches on your study time, you’re left with only enough time for superficial focused-mode thinking. Oakley’s goal is to show how the tactics she explains in prior chapters—particularly chunking and creating analogies—are mirrored in Cajal’s intellectual development and account for it. Another way to do this is to randomly flip through your book, pick out a problem, and see whether you can solve it cold.
For a listening ear or just someone to talk to the Samaritans are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For example, if you’ve never heard of logarithms, then you wouldn’t know to study them before taking a standardized mathematics test. When you first begin to learn something, you are making new neural patterns and connecting them with pre-existing neural patterns that are spread through many areas of your brain. Oakley presents a step-by-step guide to recognizing and avoiding addictive behaviors that sabotage learning.One of the first steps towards gaining expertise in math and science is to create conceptual chunks. To test your comprehension and recollection of a subject, wait at least a day after studying it, and then try to explain it in your own words. The first part is the unpleasant feeling that you get from anticipating an activity that makes you uncomfortable. Over the past decades, students who have blindly followed their passion, without rational analysis of whether their choice of career truly was wise, have been more unhappy with their job choices than those who coupled passion with rationality. Once we have created a chunk as a neural pattern, we can more easily pass that chunked pattern to others.
Staving off natural desires to react aggressively to emotional provocations allows time for the molecules of emotion to gradually dissipate. But if you are using highlighting as a memory tool, make sure that what you mark is also going into your brain. Now that you’ve formed a chunk, it means you now understand the “how’s” of those pieces of information. Focused attention can often help solve problems, but it can also create problems by blocking your ability to see new solutions. Paralleling Oakley’s warning that knowing how to look something up isn’t the same as actually knowing it, they also identify a “fluency illusion.Einstellung is what happens when you get really stuck into a problem because of the first solution that comes into your mind. Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a higher level of math competency, A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating but inescapable field. For example, you’ll remember a cow more clearly if you see, feel, hear and smell one (instead of merely seeing the word “cow”).
These guys memorize INSANE amounts of information (10k+ flashcards), and to give you guys a perspective, I was able to memorize only 3k flashcards over a 5-month period containing ALL the information I need for my Engineering Board Exams. Understanding often arises as a consequence of attempting to explain something to others, rather than the explanation arising out of your previous understanding. The act of organizing and re-writing your notes is essential to breaking down large amounts of information into smaller digestible chunks. To do a “golf swing” you must string together a series of steps from positioning yourself to moving your arms, torso, and hips.
The learning strategies in this book apply not only to math and science but to any subject in which we struggle.
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