Ultralearning Principle N7: Retention

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Welcome to my seventh article in this series!

As a Psychologist, I've been always interested in how people study and learn.

So in this series, I aim to explain in detail all the principles of ultralearning proposed by Scott Young in his book "Ultralearning"!

I shared with you how anyone can learn any topic with the power of ultralearning (learn intensively about any topic).

So far, our list of principles is as follows:

• Principle N1: Meta-Learning
• Principle N2: Focus
• Principle N3: Directness
• Principle N4: Drill
• Principle N5: Retrieval
• Principle N6: Feedback

Today we will learn about N7: Retention and how to retain what you are learning.

First, Our Brain is a Forgetting Machine

When learning, it is common to feel that we can't retain what we already studied.

Although this is frustrating, it is normal.

Why?

Because our brain didn't evolve to retain all the information in detail.

Our memory serves mainly to predict the future, not to remember the past.

Also, for correct functioning, our brain NEEDS to forget.

But although forgetting is normal, how can you maximize your learning?

Methods to Retain Information

Scott argues that there are 2 problems when trying to retain what you studied:

1. While doing your ultralearning project.
2. The longevity of the skills learned after the project has been completed.

The perfect system will accomplish both your goals and be simple enough to stick to.

For this, 4 mechanisms can be useful:

1. Spacing
2. Proceduralization
3. Overlearning
4. Mnemonics

1. Spacing: Repeat to Remember

Spaced repetition is a useful and effective tool to retain information with the least effort.

In previous articles, I talked about how you can use the Anki App for this.

However, even if they are simple and effective, they tend to have focused applications:

• Vocabulary
• Learning facts
• Definitions

In other words, spaced repetition can be great but not in all the learning contexts.

2. Proceduralization: Automate It

You may know that feeling when you're learning to ride a bicycle or how to play an instrument.

In the beginning, it takes some time to master it, but after some weeks it becomes automatic.

This kind of learning also lasts longer!

The idea here is the following:

Instead of learning tons of knowledge or skills, focus on a core set of information more frequently.

Do this and your learning will become more procedural and last longer.

3. Overlearning: Beyond Perfection

The idea is simple: practice and learn until you reach perfection, and more.

If you keep learning a topic, you will get to a point where you perfect it, just like video games!

For example, I use overlearning when studying math, as I need to work on problems until I perfect it.

4. Mnemonics

This technique tends to be hyperspecific and involves translating information into vivid pictures.

Sometimes, a picture can retain more than a thousand words!

Although they are very effective, mnemonics also have limited applications.

Also, most impressive mnemonics require a significant amount of time to build them up.

Use them wisely in the right learning context :)

Conclusion

That's it for the principle N7.

Note that it is hard not to forget, as it is natural.

Only one technique will not make you win the war to forgetting, but many.

And most of those techniques will be useful in different learning contexts.

But retaining information is not everything, we also need to create an intuition for what we learned so far.

So in the next principle, we will learn how you can dig before building up with the intuition principle.

🤓R I#39m writing an article summarizing each of the 9 principles, so follow me, subscribe, and stay tuned.

• Principle N1: Meta-Learning
• Principle N2: Focus
• Principle N3: Directness
• Principle N4: Drill
• Principle N5: Retrieval
• Principle N6: Feedback

See you in the next article!

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Thanks for reading!