We are strong proponents of pre-reading, yet the issue is only briefly mentioned in our course. There is a good reason for it. There is no one good prereading strategy, but several recommended strategies for various scenarios. Instead of discussing various pros and cons I will describe “a day in my life”. My days are …
Retention vs analysis
When we measure retention we measure the amount of details we remember after reading an article. There has been a really great article explaining some strategies to actually learn from an article. Usually learning from what we read is a subject of advanced course, but I think it makes sense to put some of the …
High level visualization: Gaming and mental templates
I am using my own version of loci method I call “high-level visualization”, which is more of a game than a house. I have wrote several articles about this before. Here I address this method from a different angle. The loci method enables accurate memorization of huge amount of information. Most of memory champions use …
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Visualizing numbers
Many of our students go blank when viewing numbers, tables and formulas. Some they have necessary skills to understand the math, but cannot make it vivid enough. Here I address this and additional reasons. Short numbers. The simplest sort of a problem with numbers is a lack of interest. For me it is hard to remember …
Superlearner story: Marina
The stories of various people we teach may prove interesting to you. While we change the names, most of other facts are true. Probably some of you will recognize some of the people behind the stories. We ask you not to disclose their identity. The first superlearner whom we can tell about we will call …
Adapting reading style to material
Recently I was asked a strange question “How do you read something you are not interested in remembering?”. Originally I dismissed the question as unreasonable, but after some analysis I decided that the question is very good and deserves a proper response. When constructed this course we focus on people reading the material in order …
10 tips for speedreading
Jonathan is planning to publish several speedreading tips in lifehacker.uk. While we are waiting patiently for approval, here are alternative tips by yours truly. Knowledge is intoxicating. Knowledge feeds our imagination, give us mental strength and resilience, fuels modern technology and economy – it is a key component of making us truly human (and possibly …
Innovation vs persistence
There is a trade-off between innovation and persistence that I see in my recent work. The innovation comes in form of new exciting opportunities. Out of the blue [there is actually a lot of work and planning around it, I will describe in separate posts] I generate interesting ideas, or I am approached by exciting …
Elite performers practice wisely: monitor yourself
Today I was approached by a student who did not use pomodoro technique. He practices too intensely, without breaks, more than 2 hours a day. As a result he suffered eye strain and could not read for a couple of months. Now he feels great, and he makes sure to follow the proposed methodology. His …
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Good and bad multitasking when reading
Some of our students point to Eyal Ophir’s work to demonstrate that multitasking is bad. While we do not argue with dangers of bad multitasking, we provide several concepts and training exercises that reduce the damage caused my multitasking. There is a big difference between true multitasking (e.g. dealing with several issues at the same …
