3 Ideas to Make Learning Fun and for Topics to Stick to Your Brain Forever

My Journey Towards Better Learning

(Here’s my video on the Feynman Technique)
Let me start with a story. Couple of month ago, I started to get really interested in learning. So, I went to ‘Coursera’ through their mobile app and enrolled in some courses that I thought I would like to attend. The initial ones were about Finance, Public Speaking, Presentation and Microsoft Excel.

I started a to take all of them in the same time.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve forgot what I learned in the public speaking course. I can barely remember more than 20% of the course. But contrast that to the other three courses where I can easily remember at least 80% of what I’ve learnt.

Can you bear with me for another little anecdote please? Alright. At the same time, I started to study the books assigned by my college. It was fun. The fun part was a big surprise, because I am not much of a student. It’s my 5th semester and this is the first one where I am sitting down everyday to study. I used to not study because it was hard and boring. But now I can learn anything new (even dry topics like Maths and cases related to NPV, WACC etc) and have fun! And also recall them after 2 months without revisions!

What changed? How was I able to do it?

Well, it all started with a lecture from Marty Lobdell as far as I remember. The title of the lecture was- Study less, study smart. “Kind of a click-baity title”- I thought when I first came across it in YouTube. But I was on a mission to learn new tactics about learning itself, so I clicked anyway. And boy did Marty deliver on his promise! These were some of the best advices I had come across in a long time.

Then I came across Barbara Oakley. I listened to her talk at TED and also at Google. Then I saw a lecture of Dr. Jordan Peterson where he explores the idea of more effective learning.

Psychology of Learning: The One Secret That Matters Most

This one tip was endorsed by all the 3 celebrity teachers above. But first all of them go on to create a contrast on recognition vs recollection. You have to understand the difference between them first to understand the secret I’m going to share.

We are naturally good at recognition but not recollection. We can see something today and recognize it after years later. Problem is, this function of our brain doesn’t really serve us. What does serve us is- ‘recollection’. It’s the ability to remember from within. And the way we usually learn makes us suck at it.

What’s worse is we would get to know something, comeback to it after a while and recognize it and be tricked into thinking that we truly know the topic. No. You haven’t truly mastered a topic or skill unless you can recreate it from scratch.

Practice Recollection: The Secret

Don’t use boring and tedious forms of learning anymore. Please. Having multiple skills or acing in all your exam sounds like a fun and worthwhile idea. Then why do we sabotage this by making the acquiring process boring and hard? It’s because we haven’t been taught any better. We know some really bad tricks that barely work and are obviously sub-optimal.

The Better Way

Let me introduce you to the better way. Please try the ideas I present to you for at least a week first. And then decide on their merit. I am telling you this because I’ve given the same suggestion to one of my students and he never tried it. That makes me sad. He keeps trying to memorize the hard way and he forgets often. Which is a pity because I, his teacher, have transcended these limitations that used to bother me so much. Now I can learn having fun and also remember stuff so much more. So don’t make the mistake my student is making. Please try the ideas:

Idea 1: For concepts-

This was also suggested by Nobel prize winner physicist Richard Feynman, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Marty Lobdel and many others.

Just after reading a certain paragraph or topic, shut the book and write what you read, without getting help from any external sources, in your own words. This part is important. you have to write this in your own words. Because that makes your existing thoughts to connect with the new knowledge you’re trying to acquire, and when we can successfully make new thoughts connected to old thoughts, they stick.

Idea 2: For Studying Differences

When studying differences between two topics- imagine in 3D two of your favorite villain and hero (or rivals or teams etc).

I imagine Goku and Vegeta vs Freiza . You must imagine them in 3D and then assign the topics you want to study to them. Then make the subsequent points into their minions, or friends.

For example, I memorized reformulated balance sheet (Balance sheet with a twist for finance students, it’s called reformulated statement of positions) using this technique. I imagined that Frieza was assets, Goku was common stockholders equity and Vegeta was liabilities.

Then I imagined Krillin and Gohan Behind vegeta and assigned Gohan with financial obligations and Krillin with operating liabilities.

Then, I imagined Zarbon and Dodoria as financial and operating assets just behind Freiza.

Goku was on the opposing side of Frieza (assets) and in the same team as Vegeta (liabilities) but Goku was alone and didn’t have any partners.

Remember, You must make them 3D and make the scene believable .. good luck! 🙂

Idea 3: Teach Your Table

Yeah literally. Just after learning a topic .. teach it to someone. If no one is available, teach it to the chair or table in front of you. Teaching makes you find the deficiencies in your understanding and also makes ideas stick.

So Use these 3 tricks next time you study. And let me know how they are working for you! Peace 🙂