Procrastination

• Caused because brain perceives it as pain.
• Need to turn it to pleasure.

Pomodoro technique

• Work intensely for 25 minutes with no distractions.
• Reward yourself after.

Practice

• Math is hard as the ideas are abstract and not present in physical world.
• Practice helps with making neural connections stronger.
• So practice everyday and for brief time. Give your brain to strengthen those connections.

Memory

• Long term memory - hard disc
  • Can store large number of information
  • to add things to your long term memory used spaced repetition
  • Practice/repeat things over a number of days.
• Working memory - RAM, prefrontal cortex
  • 7 items, or now we think it only holds 4 items
  • Repetition is required to keep the items in memory

Role of Sleep

• Metabolic toxins produce when you are awake, cleaned up when you sleep.
• Sleep strengthens important neural pathways by traversing them during sleep.
• Removes less important pathways.
• Going over your study just before a nap helps in retaining the material

Interview of Terry Sejnowski

• Learning by doing and learning by osmosis.
• Keep interested in a lecture by asking a question.
• You learn by active engagement.
• Finds it easier to come up with new ideas while exercising.
• New discovery - hippocampus does produce new neurones in adulthood.
  • Surrounding yourself with other people in enriched environment helps creating them.
  • Exercise also helps in creating new neurones.
• Techniques for learning
  • Talking to other people
  • Explaining to other people

“Most important quality is being passionate and persistent and not letting go - Terry Sejnowski”

Interview with Benny, the language hacker

• Learn language because you like the culture and want to embrace it.
• You don’t need to speak fully formed sentences to begin with.
• Be ready to make lots of mistakes, that is how you learn.
• Whether you think you can, or you can not, you are right - Henry Ford
• Don’t make excuses.
• Persistence
• Tools for language learning
  • memrise
  • ankisrs
• His book and website - https://www.fluentin3months.com/

Interview with Dr Rober Bilder

• Openness to new experience drives creativity.
• Agreeableness has negative correlation to creativity.
• Zooming in and zooming out of a problem helps gain different perspective.

  “Leadership is ability to disguise panic.”

Interview with Daphne Gary-Grant, writing coach

• Don’t write with your focused brain.
• Use mind mapping to actively engage diffused mode.
  • Important to have a paper in landscape when doing mind mapping.
• Memorisation can sometimes be very useful.
• Don’t edit while writing.
  • Don’t mix diffused mode activity with focused mode.
• writeordie.com - app for writing. Pomodoro for writing.
• Don’t worry if what you are writing in not great. Get it out on the paper. Fix it during editing.
  • (My thought) Same can be used a lot while coding. Getting something working, then refactor.