How We Learn (Is it the same for you?) | Hacker News Reader

How We Learn (Is it the same for you?)

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9 pointsmattjaynes11 comments

I agree with the ordering, roughly, but these numbers are complete bullshit.

Why does that bother you so much? Most people (89.4%) expect and accept that 73.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

(I think all their percentages are too high.)

100% bullshit?

and 99% of what we program (from GJS or Knuth or someone like that)

link: http://www.oopsla.org/2005/ShowEvent.do?id=403

this google video is also cool: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2726904509434151616&q=gerald+sussman

anyone have any sussman stories they'll like to share?

"and 99% of what we program"

That seems consistent w/the "95% of what we teach" number. As Douglas Adams wrote, a computer "...was, on the other hand, very good at being a slow and dim-witted pupil. ... And the more slow, and dim-witted the pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that's really the essence of programming."

Here is then the ultimate learning method: Read something, then hear an audiobook version of it, make sure to look at the illustrations, then discuss it with others in a personalized environment, teaching to anyone who doesn't understand.

The result: 10+50+80+95 = 235 percent learning. Great!

I'm an auditory learner. I prefer to read at a conversational pace while hearing the words in my head. In an academic setting, I learn much more from listening than by note-taking. I go into some sort of zen-like state when taking notes that I don't get into while just listening. It's like my ears tell my hand what to write without my brain processing the information. If I put my pen down and listen (and participate when appropriate), I retain a high percentage and usually don't need to study later. I wish I knew this sooner about myself. It would have saved a lot of wasted effort.

You don't really know how well you know something until you try to explain it to someone. This is why at my startup we require that:

1) At least once a week you explain something you've learned in the past week to everyone else

2) To keep an internal/external blog/wiki going. Blogging/Wiki editing forces you to put your thoughts down on 'paper' and you can distill a lot of your ideas this way.

I would agree that teaching someone else is the best way to learn. The reason why is because when you teach someone else you are forced to understand how something works.

Learning why 2 + 2 = 4 is true is much more important than memorizing the multiplication table. Never been a big fan of rote learning for that reason.

I learned the most as an undergrad when TAing CS classes (a benefit of brown is the undergrad TA program). Not only do you learn the material at a deeper level, you have an opportunity to teach at that deeper level too.

There's nothing more satisfying than explaining something to someone and seeing the "aha!" moment.

Maybe, but I can read 10X faster than I can produce material to teach it.

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