I don’t have an exact algorithm, but a general framework for how to go about it:
Organize: Find patterns and associations in the information. For example, take the following complicated sentence from Molecular Biology of the Cell, 6th ed. (Alberts & Bruce):
Four main groups of GAGs [glycosaminoglycans] are distinguished by their sugars, the type of linkage between the sugars, and the number and location of sulfate groups: (1) hyaluronan, (2) chondroitin sulfate and dermatan sulfate, (3) heparan sulfate, and (4) keratan sulfate.
We might want to remember these four types of GAGs. To organize, I look for patterns and associations, and find the following:
There are 4 types, but 5 names.
4⁄5 names end in “sulfate,” so this is really about remembering “hyaluronan,” 4 prefix-words, and then remembering to attach the suffix-word “sulfate.”
Hyaluronan is a strange word, but it sounds kind of watery and mysterious. “Hy” is linked to “hydrate.” “Alur” sounds like “alluring.” “Onan” is linked to the word “onanistic,” pertaining to masturbation. It makes me think of a man who’s very attracted to a mermaid. I can think of hyaluronan as “mermaid” molecules. I can also associate it with a certain scene from The Lighthouse.
I notice that chondroitin, dermatan, heparan, and keratan all are based on Greek/Latin words for tissue types. Chondro = cartilage, derma = skin, hepa = liver, kera = fingernails. I can visualize those body parts in connection with the words, and reflect on how GAGs are important for defining the material properties of certain tissue types, and reflect on how these tissue types actually look and feel (skin is soft but tough, fingernails are hard, cartilage is elastic).
As a contrasting example, it can sometimes help to mentally “complain” about disorganization. For example, thymosin is a small protein that plays a role in the cytoskeleton. It’s called thymosin because it was originally isolated in the thymus, and was believed to function as a hormone, but it’s actually found all over the body and are not hormones. This is a very stupid name to have for this protein, and it helped me to remember it by complaining about it in my head.
When I’ve gone through this process, I can remember these four words much better. They’re not just a bunch of arbitrary-sounding names. I expect that as I read further in the textbook and encounter them again, accessing them from long-term memory will reinforce my memory of them, giving me the benefit of spaced repetition without the requirement of additional flashcard practice.
2. Cut: When you face a long list of items or pieces of data, ignore all but one or two of them. Practice holding just one item of information in your mind. Anchor it and get it crystal clear. Then you can employ “organize” and “elaborate” techniques to it.
If you’re holding two items in your head, the benefit is that you can practice building up a crisp distinction between them. This is often helpful when they’re similar ideas, or have similar-sounding names.
For example, “tropomodulin” and “tropomyosin” sound similar, and play similar but distinct roles. Tropomodulin caps one end of a cytoskeletan actin filament, while tropomyosin stabilizes it along the side, among other roles. Holding the two names in my head allows me to focus on their relationship and on what distinguishes them. This is especially helpful because they were introduced as part of a set of 14 cytoskeletal accessory proteins. With that much information, it’s hard to really install a distinction in your head to differentiate these two similar-sounding proteins.
While the “cut” technique may seem simple, it’s a very powerful complement to the other two. Learning how to drop information from your mind is what enables you to organize and elaborate on what remains.
3. Elaborate: As you accumulate information in your long-term memory, you’ll be able to find lots of links between the new information you’re learning and the old information you’ve already digested. Elaboration is the process of forming those links.
I find elaboration works best after you’ve organized the new information and cut your focus down to one single item. With this single item in your mind, you have space in your working memory to “upload” other relevant items from long-term memory and examine their associations with the single piece of new information. This boosts your ability to move that new information into long-term memory.
I personally find that elaboration works best when I don’t try to control it too much. I don’t know how to actively “search” my long-term memory for relevant data. Instead, I hold the single new piece of information in my head, and allow my subconscious mind to gradually find and report relevant items on its own. This is a gradual process, with a lot of scaffolding—“oh, this seems relevant to yesterday’s lecture. We covered the cytoskeleton, which had just three main structural elements. Here in the ECM, we have a large number of very diverse structural elements...” Eventually, this can get very specific, but the main point is to let your mind wander, while keeping the new information somewhat anchored in your conscious mind.
A way to visualize this is that you have 4 “slots” for information in memory. Instead of filling all 4 slots with new information, you fill just 1 slot. The other 3 slots then get filled with a rotating combination of old information from long-term memory. Examining the relationships between these shifting combinations forms links between the new and old information, and installs the new information in long-term memory while also giving you practice at retrieving the old information.
I think I do something like this or parts of it when I add things to my Anki deck.
It is less about individual words. I don’t try to remember these. I leave that up to Wikipedia or an appendix of my Anki note.
A note for your shortform may look like this
Tissues in the body have correspondence to....
… four proteins (GAGs/glycosaminoglycans) that code for these types of tissues:
Chondro = cartilage
derma = skin,
hepa = liver,
kera = fingernails
Thus cut means less splitting up and more cutting away. Elaboration mostly means googling the topic and adding relevant links. Öften when reviewing the note.
Mentitation Technique: Organize, Cut and Elaborate
Organize, Cut and Elaborate is a technique for tackling information overload.
People cope with overload by straining to fit as much as they can into their working memory. Some even do exercises try try and expand their memory.
With Organize, Cut and Elaborate, we instead try to link small amounts of new information with what we already have stored in long-term memory. After you’ve scanned through this post, I invite you to try it out on the post itself.
I don’t have an exact algorithm, but a general framework for how to go about it:
Organize: Find patterns and associations in the information. For example, take the following complicated sentence from Molecular Biology of the Cell, 6th ed. (Alberts & Bruce):
We might want to remember these four types of GAGs. To organize, I look for patterns and associations, and find the following:
There are 4 types, but 5 names.
4⁄5 names end in “sulfate,” so this is really about remembering “hyaluronan,” 4 prefix-words, and then remembering to attach the suffix-word “sulfate.”
Hyaluronan is a strange word, but it sounds kind of watery and mysterious. “Hy” is linked to “hydrate.” “Alur” sounds like “alluring.” “Onan” is linked to the word “onanistic,” pertaining to masturbation. It makes me think of a man who’s very attracted to a mermaid. I can think of hyaluronan as “mermaid” molecules. I can also associate it with a certain scene from The Lighthouse.
I notice that chondroitin, dermatan, heparan, and keratan all are based on Greek/Latin words for tissue types. Chondro = cartilage, derma = skin, hepa = liver, kera = fingernails. I can visualize those body parts in connection with the words, and reflect on how GAGs are important for defining the material properties of certain tissue types, and reflect on how these tissue types actually look and feel (skin is soft but tough, fingernails are hard, cartilage is elastic).
As a contrasting example, it can sometimes help to mentally “complain” about disorganization. For example, thymosin is a small protein that plays a role in the cytoskeleton. It’s called thymosin because it was originally isolated in the thymus, and was believed to function as a hormone, but it’s actually found all over the body and are not hormones. This is a very stupid name to have for this protein, and it helped me to remember it by complaining about it in my head.
When I’ve gone through this process, I can remember these four words much better. They’re not just a bunch of arbitrary-sounding names. I expect that as I read further in the textbook and encounter them again, accessing them from long-term memory will reinforce my memory of them, giving me the benefit of spaced repetition without the requirement of additional flashcard practice.
2. Cut: When you face a long list of items or pieces of data, ignore all but one or two of them. Practice holding just one item of information in your mind. Anchor it and get it crystal clear. Then you can employ “organize” and “elaborate” techniques to it.
If you’re holding two items in your head, the benefit is that you can practice building up a crisp distinction between them. This is often helpful when they’re similar ideas, or have similar-sounding names.
For example, “tropomodulin” and “tropomyosin” sound similar, and play similar but distinct roles. Tropomodulin caps one end of a cytoskeletan actin filament, while tropomyosin stabilizes it along the side, among other roles. Holding the two names in my head allows me to focus on their relationship and on what distinguishes them. This is especially helpful because they were introduced as part of a set of 14 cytoskeletal accessory proteins. With that much information, it’s hard to really install a distinction in your head to differentiate these two similar-sounding proteins.
While the “cut” technique may seem simple, it’s a very powerful complement to the other two. Learning how to drop information from your mind is what enables you to organize and elaborate on what remains.
3. Elaborate: As you accumulate information in your long-term memory, you’ll be able to find lots of links between the new information you’re learning and the old information you’ve already digested. Elaboration is the process of forming those links.
I find elaboration works best after you’ve organized the new information and cut your focus down to one single item. With this single item in your mind, you have space in your working memory to “upload” other relevant items from long-term memory and examine their associations with the single piece of new information. This boosts your ability to move that new information into long-term memory.
I personally find that elaboration works best when I don’t try to control it too much. I don’t know how to actively “search” my long-term memory for relevant data. Instead, I hold the single new piece of information in my head, and allow my subconscious mind to gradually find and report relevant items on its own. This is a gradual process, with a lot of scaffolding—“oh, this seems relevant to yesterday’s lecture. We covered the cytoskeleton, which had just three main structural elements. Here in the ECM, we have a large number of very diverse structural elements...” Eventually, this can get very specific, but the main point is to let your mind wander, while keeping the new information somewhat anchored in your conscious mind.
A way to visualize this is that you have 4 “slots” for information in memory. Instead of filling all 4 slots with new information, you fill just 1 slot. The other 3 slots then get filled with a rotating combination of old information from long-term memory. Examining the relationships between these shifting combinations forms links between the new and old information, and installs the new information in long-term memory while also giving you practice at retrieving the old information.
I think I do something like this or parts of it when I add things to my Anki deck.
It is less about individual words. I don’t try to remember these. I leave that up to Wikipedia or an appendix of my Anki note.
A note for your shortform may look like this
Tissues in the body have correspondence to....
… four proteins (GAGs/glycosaminoglycans) that code for these types of tissues:
Chondro = cartilage
derma = skin,
hepa = liver,
kera = fingernails
Thus cut means less splitting up and more cutting away. Elaboration mostly means googling the topic and adding relevant links. Öften when reviewing the note.