Make It Unstick: 8 Learning Antipatterns

Intro

Reading through Make It Stick, I keep coming across misconceptions I have about effective learning. Here are a couple of antipatterns I've fallen prey to.

Learning Antipattern: The Path of Least Resistance

...where I choose to learn things that are easy to avoid anything difficult, tedious or tiring.

The Path of Least Resistance: Problems

• Easy learning gets lost. Reading a book cover to cover might retain 1% of the information in the book. But if I slow down, pace my reading and make it more difficult on myself to progress, I will understand and more information.
• If something's easy to achieve, it probably means lots of people have achieved it. When lots of people have the same thing, it loses its value. Everyone has a bachelor's degree today, which is why it has lost so much of its unique value. Easy things are less valuable.
• Easy learning indicates unimportant learning. As a corollary, difficult learning indicates important learning. How much does the average person know about the Kardashian's versus Dostoevsky?

The Path of Least Resistance: Solutions

• Remove any low-value information intake like LinkedIn, Instagram, news + blog sites. If you struggle with this (as I do) start with acknowledging the moments that are wasteful. Look out for endless scrolling.
• Pick an area of interest and deep dive into that area. Read, write, watch, listen. Make it slow. Make it difficult.
• Don't fall into the trap of doing easy things all the time. Interleave your easy learnings with deeper, more difficult learnings. For example, after you finish your current book, write 3-5 paragraphs on what you remember and what you found interesting.

Learning Antipattern: Beating a Dead Book

...where I read, read and re-read to remember the information.

Beating a Dead Book: Problems

• Reading alone does not result in retention or understanding.
• Familiarity with words & sentences gives the illusion of mastery. If I showed you a €1 coin, I'm sure you would recognise it. But if I asked you to draw a €1 coin, could you do it?
• We default to reading easy things such as blog posts and articles, cycling through lots of low-quality information. We cannot gain deep understanding with shallow information.

Beating a Dead Book: Solutions

• High-quality learning is a constant cycle of input and output. If reading is the input, pair it with an output such as writing.
• Remove as much low-quality reading as possible. Cap how many blog posts you read before diving deeper into the topic. Otherwise, you may be trapped into thinking you have mastered the subject matter whereas you only recognise the subject matter.
• Increase the difficulty of your reading. Difficult material forces you to slow down and unpack the complexity with notes, drawings and scribbles. This helps with deep understanding and prevents shallow thinking.

Learning Antipattern: The False Gospel of Learning Styles

...where I avoid books and tests because I am a kinesthetic learner.

The False Gospel of Learning Styles: Problems

• Apart from anything else, learning styles are scientifically bogus.
• Belief that you learn best through one mode means you are less likely to look at other modes of learning. "I can't learn with tests because I'm a visual learner".
• It furthers the myth that because you don't enjoy something means you learn less from the experience. "I don't enjoy reading, so I'm going to watch videos instead because that's my learning style." See Path of Least Resistance above.

The False Gospel of Learning Styles: Solutions

• Don't be afraid of different modes of learning. The more experiences you have about a topic, the better it will stick!
• If engaging with other people who talk about learning styles, do so politely. "I'd be interested to hear what you think of my understanding of learning styles..."
• If you've fallen into this trap already, now is the time to build up your toolkit of learning strategies. So you're not a good writer? (My hand goes up here) Start to write!

Learning Antipattern: The Miserable Crammer

...where I treat learning as something to be rushed for an exam.

The Miserable Crammer: Problems

• Cramming information and retaining information require very different practices. Your brain is designed to forget about short term memory.
• Cramming for the purpose of an exam and then passing the exam gives the illusion of mastery of the content. Regurgitating information is not the same as being able to apply the information to solve problems.
• We often cram for high-stress exams and sacrifice sleep. Poor sleep patterns reduce our ability to consolidate memories and develop neural pathways.
• Many of us have foregone the joy of life-long study because of our terrible experiences in school. Curiosity is a muscle that requires time to nurture, and sadly it atrophied in many of us due to this antipattern.

The Miserable Crammer: Solutions

• Where deadlines are not an issue, slow down your intake of information. Write about what you understand of the chapter in your book before moving onto the next.
• Whenever possible, avoid "1 and done" learning. Repeated practice of the material helps to master it.
• Diversify your information intake. Read multiple authors about the same topic. Draw diagrams. Write. Look underneath the what to the why and how.

Learning Antipattern: Back of the Book

...where I go straight to the solution before attempting to solve the problem.

Back of the Book: Problems

• Seeking the solution too early gives the impression of success but results in no learning at all.
• Learners avoid the struggle of figuring out the problem. When there is no option but to figure it out yourself or with others, we make significantly more breakthroughs. This is partly due to the mental phenomenon called (insert link that explains the thing where you continuously think back over the problem)

Back of the Book: Solutions

• If figuring out a problem for the sake of your own learning, don't ever look up the answer. Your struggle with the problem will solidify it in your long-term memory. Only look up the answer to confirm your own.
• If you are completely stuck on a problem that has the answer available, seek someone's help to help you understand the method or process behind finding the answer.

Learning antipattern: Act first, learn later

...where I avoid study because I learn best by doing.

Act first, learn later: Problems

• Contrary to popular belief "learning by doing" is not the best form of learning. Popularised by Edgar Dale, his Cone of Experience has been consistently misused to give the impression that learning can be nicely split into categories of varying "effectiveness", where learning by doing is the most effective method of learning. Here is his original cone.
• Ignoring sources of information in favour of "doing" handicaps the person who is trying to learn.
• Learning by doing can be downright dangerous. I once met a person who's favourite way to learn was to log into the production system and fiddle around. I don't want him on my team.

Act first, learn later: Solutions

• Doing is a key part of learning, but don't ignore other sources of information such as books, videos or a teacher's wisdom. A combination of input (eg. books) and output (eg. doing) is best.
• Be critical of theories like the "Cone of Experience" which has taken grains of truth and created false teachings. Just because things appear in a pretty picture does not make them true!

Learning Antipattern: Testing is the devil

...where I avoid tests of any kind because they make me uncomfortable.

Testing is the devil: Problems

• Testing is a powerful tool for retrieval practice. Apart from using it to score someone's performance (most common form), tests enhance individuals retrieval of information to improve long-term retention.
• Avoiding stressful testing practices such as flashcards or multiple choice quizzes because they are difficult results in the giving the learner a false sense of mastery. Without the ability to recall information, the learner has not mastered the content.
• Cynicism of testing is often accompanied by a cynicism of recalling the little things. "Why does it matter if I remember the little things as long as I can do the big things?" people ask. They can just google it, right? However, the brain surgeon who cannot recall how to stitch a bleeding artery is a dangerous brain surgeon.

Testing is the devil: Solutions

• Flashcards are one of the best ways of testing yourself and improving your long-term retention. Here's a tutorial.
• Combine flashcards with other efforts such as concept mapping, videos, lectures, podcasts and other multi-media to engage your understanding as well as retention.
• Another way of testing yourself is by writing what you understand about the concept. Close the book or the video and write in a notepad (full sentences) what you understand.

Learning Antipattern: Topic Tunnel Vision

...where I study one thing at a time before moving onto the next one.

Topic Tunnel Vision: Problems

• We have been taught that knowledge is divided into neat categories. Maths is over here. Biology is over there. Philosophy is somewhere else. But great breakthroughs and understandings occur when a theory from one category is applied to another category.
• Your unique perspective gets lost if you treat knowledge as straight forward and silo'd. You have a unique perspective from your background in social studies or software or teaching that can give you a unique new insight into your study. Any unique opinions about a topic helps you understand the knowledge better.
• Putting learning into neat categories can stem unique learning opportunities. What happens if I take this mathematical theory and use it to write a piece of music?

Topic Tunnel Vision: Solutions

• Add colour to your study mediums. If you're reading a book about Plato, supplement it with some videos and podcasts. Each person will explain the concept in their own words and overlap with another person's understanding. This overlap is called "interleaving" and help improve your understanding.
• Read multiple books in conjunction about the same topic. Your learning will be slower, but you will pick out many more insights.
• Opinions are good things, despite what we've been taught in school to learn only the "facts". As you write about a concept, think about the why as well as the what. What are people's motivations? Why does the machine work like this? What is your opinion on the matter? Opinions create a 3D model out of a set of 2D facts.