Recreating is Learning but Better

When I’m learning stuff, I often find myself mugging things up to just remember things of value while not getting satisfactory understanding & depth of things.

It’s just learning things for the moment. Though this is immensely useful at the moment but doesn’t make a lot of sense in the long run. Connecting the dots gives far better learning experience.

You can learn it better if you create or recreate something.

There’s a concept in learning called Active Recall.

Active recall is a high-efficiency, evidence-based learning strategy that strengthens long-term memory by requiring learners to actively retrieve information from their brain rather than passively reviewing it.

When you look at a study material for a time long enough, you develop a familiarity. However this familiarity doesn’t guarantee the ability to recreate or apply the leanings from material when needed. So, passive looking / reviewing doesn’t help much.

Active Recall on the other hand, requires you to work your brain & fetch that information. Your brain only stores stuff that it thinks is important. Active Recall signals your brain that this particular information is important so you’re more likely to remember / store that piece of information.

The process of Active Recall is slow & painful but a very rewarding one. I would even argue that this is the most genuine form of learning.

I even found this true in programming. Say you want to learn something, try creating a project around it from scratch. Doesn’t matter how much back & forth you have to do in documentation, notes & articles. You’ll learn much more than you’ll ever learn in a theoretical skimming session.

To apply this, go through something in an easygoing way. Now, put it aside & take pen & paper and recreate what you read. That’s it!