Daniel Caraway

Daniel Caraway

I put the fun in functions.

Learning How to Learn

Procrastination

Habits have four parts:

  1. The cue
  2. The routine
  3. The reward
  4. The belief

PLANNERS AND JOURNALS:

  • Planning a quitting time is just as important as planning working time
  • Take notes on what works and what doesn’t work

WILLPOWER:

  • Because willpower is a limited resource, use it wisely. In the same way you can use willpower ONCE at the store to not buy those cookies (instead of using willpower every time you want a cookie at home), you can use willpower once, and that is at your reaction to a procrastination cue
  • Negative feelings at the beginning (or before) a learning session are very normal. It is totally OK to not look forward to a study/learning session. It’s what you do with those feelings (PUSH THROUGH, FOCUS ON PUTTING THE TIME IN) that matters.

PROCESS VS PRODUCT:

  • Focus on the PROCESS, not the PRODUCT. Focusing on the PRODUCT is what triggers pain, which in turn, triggers procrastination.
  • PROCESS is relating to the time you’re spending working. E.g. “I’m going to spend 25 minutes on this study block”
  • PRODUCT is focusing on the end result of something. This can lead to pain, which can lead to procrastination. Thinking about COMPLETING A PRODUCT is frequently what triggers the pain that leads to the procrastination.

REDUCING THE EFFECTS OF PROCRASTINATION CUES:

  • Don’t let the distraction annoy you or get you down – like meditation, simply let the distraction drift by
  • Use noise-cancelling headphones or other physical interventions that might help!

MEMORY

Diving Deeper into Memory

What is a concept you’re trying to learn in class, or a concept or series of ideas you’ve always simply wanted to be able to remember? Can you think of an image that could help you to encapsulate the concept or ideas in memory so that you can more readily call them to mind? Write your thoughts in the box below.

RECURSION!! I seem to always forget how necessary it is to have a base-case, so I will try to recall the Original Recursion Dragon who will only multiply one number at a time. I will try to remember how no Dragon wants zero treasure and having recursion without a base case is like coming to the Recursion Dragon with an empty treasure chest?

  • Memories are not fixed – they are living, breathing parts of you that can change over time
  • Revisiting a memory (recalling it) changes the memory, a process called reconsolodation
  • ASTROCYTES!! Einstein’s brain had many more ASTROCYTES than the average human.
  • Neurons aren’t the only cells that support the brain! The brain also has glial cells. Of the glial cells, the astrocyte is the most abundant!
  • Astrocytes provide nutrients to neurons, they maintain extra cellular ion balance and help with repairs

THE MEMORY PALACE

Q: Think of someplace you are very familiar with that you would like to use as your memory palace. Gradually start placing items in it that you want to remember for the next time you go to the store. Write a brief, one or two sentence description of your memory palace below?

Bonus question: How could you use the memory palace technique in relation to what you are currently learning?

A: So I think I’m going to try to use an ex-boyfriend’s house as a palace and I’m going to try to commit lm(y~x) to memory – this is the simple equation for linear regression in R and I always forget the syntax. So first, what can make me think of linear regression?????? or should I just try for lm(y~x)?? Could I do that phonetically? ell emm paren y squiggle ex?? What could I use to mentally model parentheses? I think I will use the function as the thing – and whatever is getting passed to the function (whatever is inside the parens) as a new visual INSIDE a BOWL. So a Lin Manuel holding a bowl – scratch that. A diorama of YoYoMa and Xan and between them there is a jump rope to denote that squiggly line

SUMMING UP MEMORY

Long term memory is like a storage warehouse

Short term memory is like a chalkboard

We’re only able to hold about four items in our working memory

Mastery in a subject helps to compact these items and save space!

INTERVIEW WITH KEITH DEVLIN (the NPR “Math Guy”):

What should students do when they get to a math problem they can’t solve?

  1. DON’T PANIC

  2. Ask yourself:

  • What are you trying to do?
  • What do you want to achieve?
  • What information do you have?

Begin by understanding the numbers Maybe try drawing it out

SOLVING A PROBLEM IS A JOURNEY!! BASH AWAY AT IT… If nothing happens, go walk away for 3-4 hours of exercise :) BASH AWAY AT IT… If nothing happens, go walk away for 3-4 hours of exercise :) etc. etc.

Math is a SLOW process. You’re taking a STONE AGE BRAIN to a domain that is just a 1000 years old and modern mathematics is just a few decades old!. Very new!! Not enough time for our brain to catch up with development!!

The key is to become so familiar with the math problem (or general problem) that it is like a family member – and we are good at solving social problems!! Because evolution set us up for that!! Social problems!!

SOLVING the problem isn’t the hard part – getting the problem inside your brain, getting familiar with the problem. living INSIDE the problem – that’s the hard part.

The only REAL difference with math problems vs. other problems is that mathematics deals almost exclusively with abstraction

“Yes, in many ways, mathematic’s problems are not fundamentally different from other problems except in one respect, they are about totally abstract things. So someone solving a math problem has an initial problem that someone doesn’t have if they’re solving a problem in real life, or a coaching problem in sort of football. Most of the time, and I used to spend a lot of time rock-climbing. Rock-climbing is partly physical, but it’s also a lot of problem solving, because you’re having to look for these moves, you’re having to move your body in the right way. So there’s an awful lot of problem solving that we do all of the time and that’s what the brain evolved to do. In the case of mathematics however, the world in which you are solving those problems isn’t one we’re familiar with. You initially have to create that world inside of you. This I think, is why it’s essential to knock away at the problem for 10-15 minutes, a day, two days before you let the brain do it’s own thing. My guess and my perception of what’s going on is that that process is making my mind familiar with that domain, with that problem, to such an extent that that problem is just like a problem I’d have with my family or my workplace or whatever. I’ve got all of this apparatus for solving real-world problems and social problems. Once that math problem is inside my mind, it’s another problem just like that. So, solving the math problem usually isn’t the hard part. The hard part is getting that problem familiar inside your mind. The only way to do that is just keep living in the problem, get inside the problem, really live inside that problem for 10 minutes, half an hour, maybe even a few days.”