Comment by maverickJ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by maverickJ | Hacker News Reader

Sleep is incredibly important for forming new connections in the brain. I just want to add another aspect of learning; The importance of focus.

I will start by saying: "Do not engage the mind in the intense pursuit of too many things at once; especially things that have no relation to one another"

A couple of questions that can help for solve the above issue are:

1.How many subjects am I currently learning intensely?

2.Do these subjects have any relation to each other?

3.Why am I currently learning the subjects?

4.Have I truly made progress in any of the subjects?

By following the four questions above, you get a sense of what you really need to learn at a particular time.

This article https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/do-not-engage-the-mi... goes in-depth into the why and how of learning.

There are other tools that can contribute to a good life. Some of these tools are 1. Journalling. 2. Daily self reflection. 3. Some form of physical activity.

You can find out more on how to improve the mind in https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/three-actionable-ins...

> "Do not engage the mind in the intense pursuit of too many things at once; especially things that have no relation to one another"

The author "incremental reading" technique directly contradicts this. I don't know who's right though.

Here is a YT video of him watching a couple seconds of dozens of YT videos to extract knowledge : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOJyO7QDEX4

I'll admit it seems absolutely counter intuitive!

I would say, op is right when learning by hand. Managing more than say 3 books at once or more than 1-3 subjects is impossible. Tackling too many things at once is easy recipe for madness. (these numbers are vague estimates and not from experience; I have near 0 non-supermemo decent learning experience)

When it comes to SuperMemo though, you're not managing learning. You more put in what you want to learn, push a lever or two (priority/intervals) and supermemo takes care of the rest. SuperMemo is way less stressful than normal learning because when you use it and are doing reps, you can focus as much as you want on what's in front of you and move on when you want to. The costs of switching between things are near 0 since you'll always see the thing again (unless you decide not to).

For working on more than 1 project at once, I think that's pushing it though with incremental writing (https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Incremental_writing) it becomes more feasible to work on multiple things in parallel incrementally (also enjoyably).

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