Obsidian Zettelkasten

Knowledge management
168

167 - Example of a Book Deconstruction - if you think of a book as a sequence of ideas, then you want to create a “note sequence” of the most important ideas within the book. You also want each idea in the sequence to live as a standalone note such that you can remove it from the context of the book and have it stand on its own. This allows you to reference the note in other ones while still having it make sense when you revisit it in the far future.

A good resource for how to process books is Grad School Essentials by Zachary Shore.

The book I will be using is Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel.

Main Argument

Book Layout

  • Preface
  • Chapter 1 - Learning is Misunderstood - people tend to be pretty bad at learning because parts of good learning is counter intuitive and we have been duped by ideas that are not well supported.
  • Chapter 2 - To Learn, Retrieve - the backbone of successful learning is Retrieval Practice and [[Testing]]
  • Chapter 3 - Mix Up Your Practice - [[practice]], the application of our acquired knowledge is misunderstood. You want to avoid the commonly used [[massed practice]], while engaging in [[spaced]], [[interleaved]], and [[varied]] practice. These promote [[discrimination skills]].
  • Chapter 4 - Embrace Difficulties - embrace [[desirable difficulties]] such as [[spacing]] and [[interleaving]] because the effort involved leads to more robust learning and better [[encoded] memories.
  • Chapter 5 - Avoid Illusions of Knowing - we suffer from various [[illusions of knowing]] that make it hard for students to understand how well they’ve actually learned a concept, so it is important to learn how to [[calibrate your judgement]].
  • Chapter 6 - Get Beyond Learning Styles - using [[learning styles]] are a poor strategy with little supporting evidence. Instead adopt [[active learning strategies]]. Distill the underlying principles ([[rule learning]]) and build the structure ([[mental model]] & [[structure building]]). Then update those models through [[Dynamic Testing]].
  • Chapter 7 - Increase Your Abilities - the brain is very mutable ([[neuroplasticity]]). While [[brain training]] has no evidence, we know [[nutrition]] is good for the developing brain. Other ways to increase your [[intelligence]] include having a [[growth mindset]], doing [[deliberate practice]] and [[harness mnemonics]].
  • Chapter 8 - Make It Stick - gives learning tips and applications of the above ideas for different types of students.
  • Notes
  • Suggested Reading

Sequence of Ideas

  • Preface
  • 1 - Learning is Misunderstood
  • 2 - To Learn, Retrieve
    • Learning through Reflection
    • The Testing Effect / The Retrieval Practice Effect
    • Retrieval Practice
    • Effortful Retrieval
    • Testing
    • Spaced Retrieval
    • Delayed Feedback
  • 3 - Mix Up Your Practice
    • Massed Practice
    • Spaced Practice
    • Interleaved Practice
    • Varied Practice
    • Discrimination Skills
  • 4 - Embrace Difficulties
    • Desirable Difficulties
    • Memory Encoding
    • Memory Consolidation
    • Memory Retrieval
    • Retrieval Cues
    • Memory Reconsolidation
    • Mental Models
    • Conceptual Learning
    • Transfer of Learning
    • Priming
    • Elaboration
    • Generation
  • 5 - Avoid Illusions of Knowing
    • Metacognition
    • Illusions of Knowing
    • Curse of Knowledge
    • Dunning-Kruger Effect
    • Calibrating Judgment
  • 6 - Get Beyond Learning Styles
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  • 7 - Increase Your Abilities
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  • 8 - Make It Stick
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  • Notes
  • Suggested Reading
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