Practical Applications

Most of the things you read fly in one ear and out the other unless you have a photographic memory. You're going to forget more than you remember, so why do we lose track of so much information? Why can't we memorize everything we learn? Most of what we learn is abstract. We learn ideas, concepts, and theories. We listen to arguments for and against our beliefs. These things are incredibly interesting, but many of them lack any kind of practical application.

Okay, let's say you're learning how to build a birdhouse. You practice what you learn by building an actual birdhouse, right? Well, that practical application ingrains those lessons deeper in your brain because a practiced application turns an idea or a lesson into something concrete. If you want to learn anything faster, make it practical. Put your knowledge to good use. Create something physical and repeatable. Make it something you can show, tell, or read to other people.

Okay, let's say you take a class in public speaking. You could learn about public speaking all your life, but if you never actually speak, then you won't really understand what you're learning. So put your knowledge into practice, succeed, fail, and learn, then do it all over again because practice makes perfect. Each repetition, you'll improve and make new connections. You'll discover innovative applications for the knowledge you've gained, and those discoveries are priceless.

Pareto's Law

Many learners believe the same self-destructive myth. That myth goes something like this: In order to learn something new, you must understand everything about it. You pursue a sense of perfection in every subject you learn. You want to know everything, but eventually, you reach a breaking point. You realize how much you don't know. You realize how difficult and confusing that subject really is. Your lack of knowledge becomes an insurmountable obstacle, and you just give up.

If you can't know everything, you'd rather know nothing. Ah, but this is the wrong way to learn. Perfection is and always will be a myth. No one, not even the leading experts, know everything. Every subject, from metaphysics to history, is far too complicated to master, especially in a short amount of time. So let's change our perspective. Instead of learning one hundred percent of a subject, just focus on the first twenty percent. Build a healthy foundation and then stop.

This comes from a civil engineer and economist named Wilfredo Pareto. Pareto discovered that eighty percent of the consequences come from twenty percent of the causes. In other words, input and output are not equal. Pareto's principle has a wide range of applications, and learning new information is a big one. The first 20% of the information you learn will yield a larger percentage of knowledge than the next 80%. You'll understand the vast majority of any given subject, even if you don't know the tiny individual nuances. So don't worry about mastering every subject you encounter. If you want to build a wide breadth of knowledge, then just learn the first twenty percent of as many subjects as you can, and with just twenty percent of a subject mastered, you'll know enough to understand and change your perspective on the world around you.

Burst Learning

How long should you study? Many people study for hours on end. They stare at the pages of a book until they fall asleep at their desks. But is that the best way to study? Are you learning as much as you can? Researchers at Louisiana State University discovered that shorter sessions are much more effective.

Ideally, you should study between 30 and 50 minutes at a time. Anything less than 30 minutes is too short. You won't get deep enough in your studies to absorb any information. But anything more than 50 minutes is too long. You'll pack your brain with too much information, so you end up forgetting a larger percentage of what you learned. If you want to learn something new, stop grinding for hours and hours.

You may feel pressured to study until you can't study anymore, but that isn't the best use of your time or your brainpower. Keep your study sessions productive and concise, and then take a break. Use that time to review what you learned or put that knowledge into practice, and that way, everything you learn becomes cemented in your memory.

Key Concepts Table