Mentitation techniques are only useful if they help users with practical learning tasks. Unfortunately, learning how to crystallize certain mental activities as “techniques,” and how to synthesize them into an approach to learning that really does have practical relevance, took me years of blundering around. Other people do not, and should not, have that sort of patience and trust that there’s a reward at the end of all that effort.
So I need a strategy for articulating, teaching, and getting feedback on these methods. The time and energy costs need to be low enough for others that they’re willing to pay them in order to have a shot at increasing their learning abilities. The communication style needs to be concise, clear, and entertaining. If possible, I need to build “micro-rewards” into it, where users can at least see the inklings of how the ideas I’m presenting might plausibly come together to deliver a real lasting benefit.
I also need to explain why users ought to trust me. Some of that trust would be build through the writing style. I might be able to draw on my own personal accomplishments and experience. Insofar as literature exists that’s relevant to my claims, I can draw on that as well.
My argument can’t be something as crisp as “follow this 9-step plan, and your ability to learn will double.” I don’t think this will be amenable to such a clear plan of action, and I don’t know what effect it might have on people’s learning ability, except that I think it would be net positive.
Instead, I need to construct a series of writings or activities that are clear enough to be worthy of beta testing. The value proposition is something like “help me beta test these ideas, and not only might you gain some learning skills, you may be contributing to bolstering the learning ability of this community as well.” From that point, I envision an ongoing dialog with people who use these techniques to refine and improve the pedagogy.
Mentitation: the cost/reward proposition
Mentitation techniques are only useful if they help users with practical learning tasks. Unfortunately, learning how to crystallize certain mental activities as “techniques,” and how to synthesize them into an approach to learning that really does have practical relevance, took me years of blundering around. Other people do not, and should not, have that sort of patience and trust that there’s a reward at the end of all that effort.
So I need a strategy for articulating, teaching, and getting feedback on these methods. The time and energy costs need to be low enough for others that they’re willing to pay them in order to have a shot at increasing their learning abilities. The communication style needs to be concise, clear, and entertaining. If possible, I need to build “micro-rewards” into it, where users can at least see the inklings of how the ideas I’m presenting might plausibly come together to deliver a real lasting benefit.
I also need to explain why users ought to trust me. Some of that trust would be build through the writing style. I might be able to draw on my own personal accomplishments and experience. Insofar as literature exists that’s relevant to my claims, I can draw on that as well.
My argument can’t be something as crisp as “follow this 9-step plan, and your ability to learn will double.” I don’t think this will be amenable to such a clear plan of action, and I don’t know what effect it might have on people’s learning ability, except that I think it would be net positive.
Instead, I need to construct a series of writings or activities that are clear enough to be worthy of beta testing. The value proposition is something like “help me beta test these ideas, and not only might you gain some learning skills, you may be contributing to bolstering the learning ability of this community as well.” From that point, I envision an ongoing dialog with people who use these techniques to refine and improve the pedagogy.