I’ve noticed that there are two important failure modes in studying for my classes.
Too Fast: This is when learning breaks down because I’m trying to read, write, compute, or connect concepts too quickly.
Too Slow: This is when learning fails, or just proceeds too inefficiently, because I’m being too cautious, obsessing over words, trying to remember too many details, etc.
One hypothesis is that there’s some speed of activity that’s ideal for any given person, depending on the subject matter and their current level of comfort with it.
I seem to have some level of control over the speed and cavalier confidence I bring to answering questions. Do I put down the first response that comes into my head, or wrack my brains looking for some sort of tricky exception that might be relevant?
Deciding what that speed should be has always been intuitive. Is there some leverage here to enhance learning by sensitizing myself to the speed at which I ought to be practicing?
Thinking, Too Fast and Too Slow
I’ve noticed that there are two important failure modes in studying for my classes.
Too Fast: This is when learning breaks down because I’m trying to read, write, compute, or connect concepts too quickly.
Too Slow: This is when learning fails, or just proceeds too inefficiently, because I’m being too cautious, obsessing over words, trying to remember too many details, etc.
One hypothesis is that there’s some speed of activity that’s ideal for any given person, depending on the subject matter and their current level of comfort with it.
I seem to have some level of control over the speed and cavalier confidence I bring to answering questions. Do I put down the first response that comes into my head, or wrack my brains looking for some sort of tricky exception that might be relevant?
Deciding what that speed should be has always been intuitive. Is there some leverage here to enhance learning by sensitizing myself to the speed at which I ought to be practicing?