Learning How to Learn

If everyone has access to every tool (book, internet, AI) to find the same answer to anything, the question is...

"So what makes one go further than others?"

Everyone can imagine if we and our friends drove the same car, used the same road, drove during the day, and what made that car?

The answer is "ourselves."

And if we want to learn to be better, the next question is, "How to learn?"

When you think about it, you think of a post that Adtoy DataRockie wrote on his page, "Summary of 8 Effective Learning Techniques by Barbara Oakley."

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So on Oct. 22, I invited Adtoy to live to share this story, and here are 18 summaries from that day's live.

1.This post has written a summary after entering the Learning How to Learn course of

Barbara Oakley on Coursera.

Dear about 2021, currently (2025) this post, search google, home page, find it. Very brutal.

2. Barbara Oakley was originally a linguist in Russian, went to Electrical & Computer Engineering until Ph.D System Engineering.

He is now a professor at Oakland University in Michigan, USA. He started as a linguist. He is now a professor of engineering. He knows many aspects.

3. I just learned from this live address that Barbara also spoke in Thailand. Let's go google and find that there are 2023 (SCB Academy) and 2024 (Chula MOOC Global).

Who knows if the teacher will come to Thailand again? Tell each other, haha.

4.This LHTL course Barbara teaches together with Terrence Sejnowski who is a Prof. Computational Neuroscience.

And this Terrence was one of the pioneers, along with Gen. Geoffrey Hinton, to give everyone the Neural Network model used today.

Geoffrey Hinton was called "The Godfather of AI" and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024.

5. Our brain is constantly changing. Even if we are sleeping, the brain still collects the information we receive to modify the brain to suit our use.

Our brain is constantly trying to balance. Which things we do often, we will be better at. Which things do not do, the brain is trying to erase them.

(Technically, the Dendrite is a branch of the smallest unit in the brain, or Neuron extends, connected to another Neuron Dendrite, a traffic synapse)

6. From the fifth, you can briefly summarize yourself like this:

- Learn (practice) what we will be "good at" about that. [Learn what helps our lives "get better"]

- Stop learning, we'll "forget" about that.

7. Our brain has two working modes: Focus mode and Diffuse mode.

[1] Focus mode: It's a mode where our thoughts go to a certain point.

[Suitable for tasks, needs resolution, emergence and familiarity]

[2] Diffuse mode: It's a mode that looks like we're sitting and looking around, helping us to see a big picture.

[Suitable for Creative and jobs we are not familiar with]

8. Being in the Diffuse mode allows us to imagine what we might "overlook" or "inconceivable" in the Focus mode.

9. How do we get into the Diffuse mode?

We can enter the Diffuse mode by "resting" (sleeping, exercising, strolling,...) so that our brains don't focus on anything.

"Let your mind run free" - Barbara Oakley

Question... if we relax by taking a mobile phone to play social, does everyone say we'll get into Diffuse mode?

10.Fucus mode and Diffuse mode are both important for us to use "both modes" when we study or work difficult.

11. One of the techniques that brings Focus mode and Diffuse mode to stop "Procrastination" when we have to do difficult things is "Pomodoro."

"Procrastination = temporary happiness, despair of sadness" - the sound of the adtoy in the live float, haha +

12.Promodoro is a time division technology to switch between Focus mode and Diffuse mode.

[1] Focus 25 Minutes [Focus mode] > 5 Minute Rest [Diffuse mode] > Focus 25 Minutes > Repeat

[2] Do this alternately for 3 rounds and rest for 30 minutes. [Diffuse mode]

The key is focus, really focus, rest, really rest.

13. The focus is not to do many things at once (Multitasking) because two of us, the shift focus is "cost" (energy, time).

Like if we turn the computer on and off, it will have to boot it before it works.

14. Adtoy suggests that we don't need exactly 25 minutes. Let's start with a little first and gradually increase it to suit us.

15. Sleep is very important. When we sleep, the brain will Consolidate information and "eliminate toxins" that residue during our wake, making when we wake up thinking, making decisions "better."

16. There are two types of memory:

[1] Working Memory: Short-term Memory, Use at Work, Study

This type of memory has a limited area. We can get about four chunks (4 parts). For example, the mobile number is divided into parts with a "-" to remember more easily.

[2] Long term memory: We can change short-term, long-term memory by practicing, or repeating it continuously.

17. We create long term memory by using the "Spaced Repetition" or "Spaced Repetition (Practice)" technique.

Building long-term memory is like going into muscle training fitness. Muscles we can't build in "one day."

The same necessity

"Read 10 times in one day, not as good as read 10 days."

18. Summary of ideas from this life

[1] Our brains change constantly, even when we sleep.

[2] Use Focus mode and Diffuse mode to suit the job.

[3] Use the two modes in Article 2 together in a task or a difficult subject (Pomodoro).

[4] Sleeping (adequately) improves memory.

[5] Practice, review for long term memory.

We actually know what we should do to make us better, but learning is what makes us more "far" than others.

We just need to know that we have to "Learn How to Learn."

There are many more stories that are not shared in this post. Anyone who reads here can listen in full in this link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8yyjE9iGN4&t=2942s

Read and get any ideas. Can comment together.

Thank you to Add Toy for coming to Moi Moi in this life too. Get a lot of good ideas to use.

# learninghowtolearn