self-study

Workshop for improving your self-study skills.

• starting
  • motivation: Find your own motivations for learning something. Ideally, these motivations are aligned (to some degree) with your (perceived, felt, expressed) life purpose.
  • time: Set aside some time for learning and reflection. Be patient and relaxed throughout the learning process.
  • learning style: find your optimal learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Read-write, Kinesthetic (physical and emotional experiences). (VARK)

• research
  • breadth-then-depth: First research a topic broadly to get a clearer mental map, after that go deeper into specific areas of the topic.
  • notes: Make short notes of important facts and insights. This helps you build a mental map of complex structures.
  • reflection: Take time to absorb and reflect on the information.
  • association: Find interesting associations with your own expertise in other topics.
  • question: Ask critical, rhetorical questions (that come up while researching a topic) and try to find find good answers to those questions. If no good answers are found, make a note of that.
  • restructure: Correct any mental structures that are insufficient or flawed.

• produce: Be creative in your own way with the new insights.
  • apply: Apply what you know in new creative ways.
  • explain: Can you explain the nuances of the topic quickly and fluently to someone else now?
    • discuss: Talk to other people about your understanding and insights regarding the topic. Be open for other viewpoints.
    • teach: If you know a lot about a certain topic, can you teach it clearly to someone? What is the most interesting part of the topic for others?

• Japanese aesthetics
• human body language
• charismatic people
• emotional intelligence
• world population growth
• tree biology / cell biology
• video series: “the human brain” (neuroscience intro)
• human settlement structures and cultural ambiances around the world.
• study this article: “The Fever Effect”
• … choose your own topic!

• Tools:
  • Wikischool Explore app (more info)
  • …

• Online learning communities:
  • online educations
  • open educational resources

• mental model:
  • “How Mental Models Unlock Your Thinking”
  • Bloom's taxonomy
  • “top 12 mental models”
  • Four stages of competence
• video: “Be an Active Learner”
• video: “Unconscious programming”
• emotional learning (1)
• “Learning how to Learn” (Coursera course notes, see also: 1)
  • “Repeating something you already learnt or know very well is easy. It can bring the illusion of competence; that you’ve mastered the full material when you actually just know the easy stuff. Balance your studies and focus on the more difficult (deliberate practice). This sets the difference between a good student and a great student.”
• “Why you aren’t as productive as you want to be”
• 8 learning styles
• “A Legendary Scientist Sounds Off on the Trouble With STEM”: “There’s no question that we need all the ablest people that can be recruited to go into science and technology to keep this country strong. But STEM is an unnecessarily forbidding set of stairs. (…) The right way to create a young scientist who’s going to be on fire by the time they’re in college is to let them pick something, some subject, that has really excited them. If they dream of space exploration, if they dream of curing a cancer, if they dream of going to distant jungles and discovering new species — whatever their dream is, let them dream.”
• “list of links of learning
• "How to Read a Book"
• SQ3R (“a reading comprehension method named for its five steps: survey, question, read, recite, and review”)

• intro to the concept of ”natural learning“
  • “In vain we build the city if we do not also build the man.” - Edward Markham

• “Mind is all there is. It has no limitations as to shape, size or volume, for these qualities are but appearances and have no real existence. Mind is limited, however, in its power, its knowledge and its imagination, the last of which is its creative force. ” - Walter Russell

• “We take the traditional organization of colleges so much for granted that we must step back and view them with Martian eyes, innocent of their history, to appreciate fully how outrageous their operation is (…)” - 1, 2

• Why learn anything?
  • (future) job requirements
  • food / water / house / living requirements
    • healthy living
    • good relations
    • personal emotions and psyche
    • …
  • purpose fulfilment
    • art
    • social projects
    • travel
    • …

• How important is learning in each of these spheres?

• Why selfstudy instead of other forms of learning?
  • cheap(er)
  • potentially much faster
  • flexibility
  • …

• Why you aren’t as productive as you want to be?
  • desire
  • purpose
  • knowledge
  • creative focus
    • “Instead of scheduling meetings and then finding time to work, flip the script. Schedule formal, dedicated time to focus on your highest priority items in your calendar, and then find times to have meetings around your work.” - 1, 2
  • creative relaxation

• the self-study process

• ”you procrastinate because of emotions, not laziness“
• ”how to be great? just be good, repeatably“
• “Enthusiasm is Common. Endurance is Rare” - *
  • “zero acceleration, but non-zero velocity”

• TODO: 1