How the Top 0.1% Learn in Lectures
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the strategies top learners employ to maximize their academic performance in lectures. It emphasizes the importance of natural intelligence and the potential for growth through training, rather than relying solely on IQ. The speaker highlights the significance of self-discipline over IQ and suggests that many students fail to reach their potential due to a lack of it. The script outlines techniques such as priming, asking non-obvious questions, and filtering information to manage cognitive load effectively. It stresses the need for learners to understand the principles of learning and to develop personalized methods that optimize their intellectual potential, rather than merely copying successful peers.
Takeaways
- 🧠 Intelligence and IQ: While IQ is associated with academic performance, it's not the only factor. Research shows that intelligence can be developed and is not fixed.
- 💪 Self-Discipline Over IQ: Self-discipline has a significant impact on academic success, often more so than IQ. Developing self-discipline can lead to improved performance.
- 📈 Potential for Growth: Everyone has the potential to improve academically. With the right training and techniques, significant improvements are possible.
- 📚 Effective Learning Techniques: Most people have not been trained on how to learn effectively. By adopting better learning techniques, one can become more effective.
- 🤔 Cognitive Load Management: Learning is about managing cognitive load — the mental effort required to process information. Keeping cognitive load optimal is crucial for effective learning.
- 🚫 Avoid Passive Learning: Passive learning, like rereading and rewriting notes, has a low cognitive load and is not effective. Active learning strategies are necessary for better retention.
- 🔍 Prime Yourself: Before attending a lecture, it's beneficial to prime your brain with basic knowledge to reduce confusion and cognitive overload during the lecture.
- 🤓 Ask Non-Obvious Questions: To deepen understanding, ask non-obvious questions that challenge you to explore and connect concepts in new ways.
- ⚖️ Filter Information: Top learners are selective about what they learn. Filtering information based on your current level of understanding can prevent cognitive overload.
- 🔄 Build on Fundamentals: Start with simpler concepts and gradually build up to more complex ones. This approach helps in solidifying knowledge and avoiding unnecessary repetition.
- 🕒 Time Management: If recording lectures, note the times of complex sections to revisit later, which can be more effective than speed-watching the entire lecture.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The video focuses on how top learners engage in lectures, the importance of natural intelligence, and strategies to make lectures more valuable.
What is the relationship between IQ and academic performance?
-IQ is strongly associated with academic performance, but research suggests that it can be trained and grown over time.
Why is self-discipline considered more influential than IQ in academic success?
-Self-discipline is a significant influencer because it drives consistent effort and improvement in learning methods, which is crucial for reaching one's intellectual potential.
What is the role of cognitive load in effective learning?
-Cognitive load refers to the mental effort required to process information. Managing cognitive load effectively is key to learning, as it helps maintain an optimal state for learning without being overwhelmed or under-challenged.
What does the video suggest about copying top students' techniques?
-The video suggests that simply copying top students' techniques is not advisable because what works for them may not work for others due to differences in individual learning levels and contexts.
What is the concept of 'priming' in the context of lectures?
-Priming is the process of preparing oneself before a lecture by familiarizing with key terms and concepts to reduce cognitive load and make the lecture less confusing.
Why is asking non-obvious questions beneficial for learning?
-Asking non-obvious questions forces the brain to explore various relationships and concepts, which enhances understanding, memory, and the ability to apply information.
What is the importance of filtering and screening information during learning?
-Filtering and screening information helps learners focus on concepts appropriate for their current level, avoiding cognitive overload and ensuring more efficient learning.
How does the video relate the concept of cognitive load to the strategies discussed?
-The video relates cognitive load to the strategies by explaining that managing cognitive load is central to effective learning, and the strategies discussed aim to optimize cognitive load for better learning outcomes.
What is the video's advice on how to handle information that is too detailed during a lecture?
-The video advises learners to recognize when information is too detailed and set it aside for later study, focusing instead on information at the right level of detail during the lecture.
Outlines
🧠 The Role of Natural Intelligence and Self-Discipline in Learning
This paragraph discusses the importance of natural intelligence and self-discipline in academic success. It challenges the notion that top learners are inherently smarter, instead suggesting that their engagement and memory retention are due to effective learning strategies. The script highlights that while IQ is associated with academic performance, it's not fixed and can be developed. Furthermore, self-discipline is identified as a significant factor, with a lack of it being a common reason students do not reach their full potential. The speaker shares personal anecdotes and observations from working with students to illustrate the impact of discipline and consistency on learning outcomes.
📚 Effective Learning Techniques and Cognitive Load Management
The second paragraph delves into effective learning techniques, emphasizing the importance of understanding the principles of learning rather than merely copying top students' methods. It introduces the concept of cognitive load, which is the mental effort required to process information. The speaker explains that managing cognitive load is central to effective learning, and suggests strategies such as priming, which involves preparing the brain with foundational knowledge before a lecture to reduce the need for deep processing during the lecture. The paragraph also touches on the ineffectiveness of passive learning, like rereading notes, and encourages active engagement with the material to optimize cognitive load.
🤔 The Power of Asking Non-Obvious Questions for Deep Learning
This paragraph explores the concept of elaboration in learning, which involves deeply understanding a concept by exploring its edges, applications, and subtle relationships. The speaker suggests asking non-obvious questions as a method to trigger this type of thinking. By seeking connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, learners are forced to consider multiple hypotheses and pathways, which strengthens their understanding and memory. The process is likened to solving a maze, where the journey through various paths helps reinforce knowledge. The paragraph also relates this technique back to cognitive load, noting that focused thinking on specific questions can reduce the load and improve learning efficiency.
📉 Filtering Information to Manage Cognitive Load and Improve Learning
The fourth paragraph discusses the importance of filtering and screening information to manage cognitive load effectively. It emphasizes that top learners are selective about what and when they learn, avoiding the pitfall of studying everything in-depth from the start. The speaker advises learners to simplify information they encounter, ensuring it's appropriate for their current level of understanding. If information is too complex to simplify, it suggests learners should focus on foundational concepts first, building a strong base before tackling more complex details. This approach prevents unnecessary repetition and enhances the efficiency of learning, allowing for a gradual and structured increase in the level of detail as the learner's understanding grows.
🔍 Prioritizing Information During Lectures for Optimal Learning
The final paragraph continues the theme of information management but applies it specifically to the context of lectures. It advises learners to identify the level of detail that is appropriate for their current understanding and to defer more complex details for later study. The speaker suggests using lecture recordings to revisit skipped details efficiently. The paragraph also dispels the myth that faster playback speeds in lecture recordings lead to faster learning, emphasizing the importance of comprehension over speed. The speaker concludes by encouraging learners to apply the strategies discussed in the video to enhance their learning experience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Natural Intelligence
💡Self-Discipline
💡Cognitive Load
💡Deep Processing
💡Priming
💡Non-Obvious Questions
💡Filtering Information
💡Interleaving
💡Passive Learning
💡Academic Performance
Highlights
Natural intelligence and IQ are not the only determinants of academic success; self-discipline plays a more significant role.
Intelligence can be trained and improved contrary to beliefs from 50 years ago.
Research shows that self-discipline has a greater influence on academic performance than IQ.
Students often fail to reach their intellectual potential due to a lack of self-discipline.
A personal anecdote illustrates the transformative effect of self-discipline on academic performance.
Many students lack consistency in improving their learning methods and techniques.
Most students can significantly improve their academic performance with proper training.
People often use ineffective, haphazard learning techniques without proper training.
Learning is similar to learning a new sport; with training, most can improve their performance.
Copying top students' techniques may not be effective due to individual differences.
Understanding the principles of learning and self-evaluation is crucial for efficient learning.
Effective learning techniques often revolve around managing cognitive load.
Cognitive load is the mental effort required to process and understand information.
Maintaining an optimal cognitive load state is key to effective learning.
Passive learning, like rereading notes, has a low cognitive load and is less effective.
Priming oneself before a lecture by familiarizing with key terms and concepts reduces cognitive load.
Asking non-obvious questions about lecture material can enhance learning and memory.
Filtering and critically screening information is a hallmark of top learners.
Learning should be gradual, starting with simplified information and building up complexity.
During lectures, focus on information at the right level of detail and revisit more complex topics later.
Recording lectures and noting times of complex topics allows for targeted review later.
Watching lectures at faster speeds does not equate to faster learning.
Transcripts
how do top Learners actually learn in
lectures you probably know there's
people that are at every lecture they're
super engaged they're never falling
asleep in class they are remembering way
more than you do even though you both
attended the same lectures how is there
something that they're doing that you
just can't see or are they really just
that much smarter well in this video I
want to talk about how important natural
intelligence really is based on the
research and some strategies that you
can use to make lectures much more
valuable first things first how much
does your natural intelligence or IQ
really matter most people are not really
extremely excellent deep processors but
don't worry it doesn't mean it's the end
of the world for you 50 years ago that's
probably what someone would have said is
that your intelligence can't really be
trained but fortunately that's not the
case research over the last two three
decades especially in the last 10 11
years has show that yes although your IQ
is strongly associated with your ability
to perform academically in some cases in
the research this is called the IQ
achievement link there's a lot we can do
within our IQ and our IQ can actually
grow but interestingly some other
research on this finds that self
discipline is actually more of an
influencer than IQ and one of the
studies even concludes that a major
reason for students falling short of
their intellect actual potential is your
failure to exercise self discipline
which in my case my personal experience
is very very true if I think about
myself back in high school like I didn't
have really any self-discipline to speak
of honestly I just play games all the
time and then when I entered into
University I was like really really
really disciplined like I stopped
playing games I went C- turkey on pretty
much everything I went actually really
over the top but as a result my academic
performance was like massively improved
and for a lot of students that I work
with I see a very similar thing not in
that they necessarily are lacking
discipline on a day-to-day basis a lot
of students are studying really hard but
where I see a lack of discipline
sometimes is a lack of consistency with
improving their methods and learning new
skills like they'll have a certain set
of techniques or methods of note taking
or handling lectures that they're used
to and even though it's not really
working they're not really consistent or
disciplined in working on a new method
to replace that and so inevitably they
just continue to get the same result
that they've always been getting and one
of the things that I've observed is that
while it's true that not every student
can become like this once in a
generation genius most students can
relatively improve compared to their
Baseline and that Improvement is often
surprisingly significant like someone
that is normally achieving you know like
40 or 50% in a test in my experience
they can go up to 70 80 90% with a bit
of training and the reason is because
most people in the mainstream have never
really been trained on how to learn
effectively they're just using like a
haphazard combination of techniques and
habits that they've picked up over the
years and so when you actually start
training them they become much more
effective at using their intellectual
potential and I sort of think of it like
learning a new sport not everyone can
become a NBA basketball player but most
people can be relatively bitter at
playing basketball if they actually
train and learn the right techniques so
the next question is what are the right
skills to use for example in lectures
well the easiest way to figure that out
is to look at what some top students are
doing and then copy them if you agree
with that statement you'll be wrong okay
so to explain why that that would be a
terrible idea to just copy success let
me give you a example let's imagine that
you are a doctor haven't put this on in
a while let's say that a pharmaceutical
company comes up to you and says that
they've got a drug it's called treatment
tall and treatment tall is meant to be
effective for a disease caus disease
itis now you've got patients with
disease itis and the pharmaceutical
company tells you that
99% of the people that have recovered
from disease itis took treatment all do
you recommend it to your patients think
about this let's say that there are a
million people with disease
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a reason for their success it might just
be a common technique that a lot of
people use and they themselves might
have sufficient deep processing to allow
them to be successful regardless of the
technique that they use which is why I'm
always saying if you're wanting to
become a more efficient learner you have
to understand the principles of learning
and do your own evaluation what is your
level what are your weaknesses and your
strengths and create a method of
learning that is going to be optimized
for that not just taking what someone
else does in their own context with
their own brain and expecting to get the
same results yourself most of the time
it doesn't work like that now there's a
lot of research on what exactly is an
effective technique and a lot of
researchers have tried to isolate
exactly what works and what doesn't
research is very complicated here are a
few studies that I would recommend just
starting with if you're interested but
if you want to cut to the chase it's
really about managing what's called
cognitive load that's a central theme of
A lot of these effective techniques so
cognitive load is basically your mental
effort it's how hard you have to think
and how hard you have to try to like
organize something or process something
or make sense of the information like if
I start speaking to you in some obscure
language that you've never heard of
before then you're going to be exerting
a lot of mental load trying to figure
out what I'm saying likewise if I'm
teaching something and I'm teaching it
in a way that is very very hard to
follow and extremely complicated you're
going to be using a lot more cognitive
load uh it's the same for when you're
you know like reading a book if it's in
very very technical dense language you
need to use a lot more cognitive load to
try to get through it and the trick to
learning effectively is about keeping
your cognitive load in an optimal State
I've talked about this in a lot of other
videos before and the summary of it is
that you basically don't want your
cognitive load to get too high cuz then
you'll be overloaded but you also don't
want to be too low because that means
that you're not really using your brain
and therefore you're not actually
learning and that's kind of like the
worst waste of time a great example of
that would be like just reading and
rereading and then rewriting notes
multiple times the cognitive load
involved in that is very very low and
that's something that we call passive
learning and remember kids passive
learning will kill you or at least it's
pretty bad for you anyway cognitive load
management is something that is not easy
to do Straight off the bat and this is
partly because cognitive load can happen
for multiple reasons for example if
you're trying to study but then the
neighbor's dog is barking constantly you
now have to exert cognitive load to
ignore the Barking Dog so in this case
your cognitive load may be kind of high
but it's not high for a good reason it's
not high cuz your brain's trying to make
sense of it it's not high because you're
processing it it's just High because
you're distracted so that's not good
increase in cognitive load whereas if
your cognitive load is high because as
you're reading you're trying to piece it
together think about it connected relate
compare and contrast ideas these are the
things that produce high quality
learning so this this case cognitive
load would be high for a good reason so
we want our cognitive load to be
reasonably high for good reasons and we
want anything that creates cognitive
load for a bad reason to be reduced or
removed that might have sounded a little
bit complicated hopefully you could
follow that so let me give you some
examples I have some lectures here I
just found a random lecture slide about
network security don't ask me why I'm
studying network security it just
randomly popped into my head and there
are some free slides that I found here
from I think it was in state school so
if this is a lecture and let's say I've
got my lecture slides available before
the lecture if not maybe I've got some
textbook chapters maybe I've got
previous students notes that I'm using
or a course guide or something it
doesn't really matter just to give me a
basic idea one of the really effective
things that you can do before going into
a lecture is to Prime yourself priming
basically just means that you give your
brain a little bit more to work with so
if you're introduced to something really
really Technical and detailed you don't
need to exert so much cognitive load to
make sense of it so for example if I was
going into the lecture and I'm reading
this for the first time you know for me
cuz I'm a total Noob I don't know what
any other this stuff really means so if
I you know if I look at Transport
Security I I I know what an IP address
is IP protocol stack I don't really know
what that is IP layer security protocol
like again I don't really know what that
is these acronyms I like know what they
are but I again don't really like
understand and that's like just the
intro and if I go in and start learning
this for the very first time at this
level of detail I'm going to be very
overloaded because I'm not going to
really know what's going on and I'm
going to be overwhelmed very quickly in
other words my cognitive load is going
to overload probably almost you know
immediately within the first few minutes
and then for the rest of the lecture I'm
sort of dead you know like my brain's
not really doing anything and I'm going
to leave the lecture feeling more
confused than when I came in and so
we've really lost to begin with and so
the idea with priming is we want to give
ourselves just enough knowledge so that
when we look at this it's not so
unfamiliar now there's lots of ways that
we can do this I've talked about how you
could do this with nonlinear note taking
if you want to check that video out you
can have a look over this one uh but
there's also much simpler ways that you
can do it if you're not really too
comfortable with nonlinear note taking
yet but it all comes down to isolating
down what are the keywords what are
pieces of terminology get a general
understanding of those keywords and
terminology and start thinking to
yourself how they all fit together you
can do this by writing out a list of
questions that you want to prompt
yourself with during the lecture so for
example if I have a word that says IPC
processing here and I've got another
word that's like IPC implementation then
I might ask the question how are IPC
implementation and processing related to
each other or dependent on each other
you take the keywords you think about
how they might be related to each other
if you can represent that on some
nonlinear notes great it's going to be
more convenient for you alternatively if
you're not super comfortable with
nonlinear note taking yet you can just
write down some keywords write the
definition in the simplest terms that
you can possibly do you don't want to be
writing down definitions but then the
definitions are so complicated that
you're now exerting cognitive load to
just remember the definition if you're
going to write definitions you want to
make sure that is simple enough that
when you read it you're like yep I
pretty much understand what it means and
even if it's not at the technically best
level it's still better than not having
anything and it will be better than
having one that's really really
technical but so comp applicator that
you can't actually understand so write
down the key words write down some key
questions uh and then during the lecture
you can look at the questions and now
you've got certain Milestones of
thinking to help your brain sort of
process that information and because
you've already familiarized yourself
with some of that terminology the
lecture is less confusing and if you've
done well you've also thought about some
of the relationships between them so
when the lecturer talks about some of
the relationships again it's a little
bit more familiar so again this is all
about Prime yourself so now the second
thing that we can do is to take that
concept of asking questions and we can
actually extend on that a little bit
further there's a really effictive part
of learning that comes from having to
elaborate on something but elaborating
on something doesn't just mean
explaining it more or going in more
depth a big part of elaboration is about
figuring out how a concept is shaped
what are the edges where does it apply
where does it not apply and what are the
relationships that are less obvious and
so an easy way that we can try to
trigger this is by asking nonobvious
questions so an example if I use
information network security as an
example might be this term that says
authentication header so an obvious
question would be usually something like
what is authentication header or what is
the importance or significance of an
authentication hitter what is the
advantage of an authentication hitter
right so these are things that are
usually very factual and very discret
they may ask about how it relates to
other Concepts as well however the
answer is usually relatively simple and
it's something that most people will be
expected to know asking these questions
is valuable as well but most of the time
you're going to learn that anyway if we
are going to the effort of thinking of
questions to ask that are really going
to help us with our learning it's
worthwhile thinking about the questions
that people might not be asking and a
very quick and you know like kind of
reliable is way of doing this that I do
you know pretty often is I try to look
for the things that don't seem related
to each other at first glance for
example it could be something at the
beginning of the lecture like IPC
implementation and I might scroll all
the way down to something that seems a
little bit less relevant like Hub and
spoke VPN right so I might look at those
two things and again I don't actually
know if those two things are actually
Rel to each other but I might say well
how are those two things is related and
for most topics any concept is related
to any other concept even if that
concept relationship is indirect and
somewhat distant there's some kind of
relationship and forcing yourself to
think about that also forces you to
revise all the different relationships
and interactions along the way whereas
when you ask about questions that are
very very obvious and the relationships
between the ideas are like super super
apparent then it's so easy that it's not
really testing or challenging you
whereas if you ask about a relationship
between two concepts that are pretty far
apart then you have to go through
multiple different hypotheses to figure
out which path actually makes sense it's
kind of like solving a maze you know the
entrance is here you know the exit is
here but you're not really sure how to
go from the entrance to the exit so you
have to go through multiple paths in the
middle to try to figure it out and in
doing that it actually re enforces and
consolidates the knowledge and it also
allows you to whether it's before a
lecture during a lecture or after a
lecture hit that topic from multiple
different angles and all of these things
help to improve your memory and your
ability to apply that information this
is a really good one because it really
doesn't take very long you could think
of maybe four or five nonobvious
questions in just like one or 2 minutes
usually even if there's no real answer
to that question just the fact that
you're trying to answer the question is
valuable because it's making you explore
all these different options if you've
watched some of my other videos you
might see some similarities between this
and Inter leing and indeed this can also
be a method of interleaving if you
haven't checked out my inter leaving
video you can check that one out here
now I mentioned that all of these things
relate back to cognitive load the first
one priming it's obvious because that's
taking dense pieces of information
breaking it down
simplifying it and giving your brain a
little bit more to work with so that
it's not so overloaded during a lecture
and the second one reduces cognitive
load because when you ask these
non-obvious questions it helps your
brain think in a certain direction
instead of saying how does everything
fit together it gives it a little bit
more of a purpose a little bit more of a
focus your brain likes having a narrow
Focus so that also helps reduce
cognitive load because it means that you
can do productive relational thinking
which is good for building knowledge
without as much of the confusion of just
kind of mindlessly looking for
relationships but there's probably
nothing that helps quite as much as this
third thing which is to filter and
Screen information much more critically
so most top Learners are pretty
selective about what they're going to
learn and when they're going to learn it
well most top Learners are not going to
study absolutely everything at the
maximum level of depth from the very
beginning and if they are and that's how
they're able to be suc successful their
natural deep processing level is
probably completely off the chart and I
can guarantee you that that's just not
going to work for the vast majority of
people what we mean by filtering out
information is that when you read
through something there are certain
pieces of information that are going to
be more suitable for your current level
uh and what makes sense to you right now
and there going to be some things that
are so detailed that you're just not
ready to learn it yet and the way that
you can tell is very very simple which
is you simply ask yourself
do I know enough about this to make it
simpler so when you read it if you read
something and you don't understand it
enough to even make it simple you
probably don't have enough knowledge
about it to really consolidate it into
your memory and organize it so you're
probably going to then study it and that
knowledge is going to fade away and
you're going to wonder where all that
knowledge went so for me a complete Noob
knowing nothing about this when I read
this slide actually I can probably
simplify that but if I read uh if I read
this slide it's complicated enough for
me and I know so little that I don't
really feel like I can simplify this uh
and and make it easier to understand
while keeping it accurate and so as a
result it means that the information on
this slide for my current level is not
appropriate it's too detailed what I
need to do is I need to find an easier
version of the same concept or I mean in
this case cuz I've literally not studied
this before it would be maybe to go back
to some of these fundamental ones and
make sure that I understand some of the
more fundamental concepts but the way
that it works is that knowledge is like
building blocks they build on each other
so when you start with a building block
that is right at the very top at the top
level of detail there's nothing for it
to stack onto and then you're going to
have to spend more time rebuilding it
again and again but it doesn't matter
how many times you put the block at the
Top If there's no Foundation it's going
to fall every single time and that's
what causes a a lot of unnecessary
repetition and learning if you know that
as soon as you try to put it there you
don't even understand it well enough to
simplify it then you may as well just
dial it back to the version of that
information that is simple enough for
you to make sense of it and once you
have locked that in you can go up one
level of detail and up one level of
detail and so on a single slide there
might be multiple different layers of
detail some things are easy to
understand some things are difficult to
understand and your job is to filter out
what is easy enough for me to learn now
and what is harder so I will come back
to it later you can keep a list on the
side you can use Post-it notes to remind
you of the things that you have skipped
so that you do come back to them but
it's very very important that the first
time you learn something you do not
learn everything the first go because
some of that detail is going to be too
much for you to handle right now and it
is much more efficient for you to come
back to it later when your foundation
are stronger and the reason this is so
good for lectures is because if you've
been doing the other methods I told you
about just now and you've primed
yourself that means that during the
lecture you already have some
foundations there is a mid level that
you know is going to be appropriate for
you and then there is a extra level of
detail that the lecturer might talk
about that you know straight off the bat
is too much for you to hold on to and so
instead of exerting your precious
cognitive load and trying to understand
that you say okay that's the stuff that
I can come back to later when I'm
studying this later and you can direct
your focus on the stuff that you think
is at the right level of detail for you
at that time and you can come back to it
instead by looking at lecture recordings
or like lecture notes or slides or
whatever it is that you've got available
uh one thing that can help you is if you
are recording the lecture you can look
at your watch to see what time it is
when you decide that something is too
detailed and you can make a long of all
the time so that when you're going
through the lecture you can actually go
back to the particular moments that you
skipped which is probably a lot more
effective than just like watching a
lecture at triple the speed uh because
again just because you can listen to
someone three times as fast doesn't mean
that you can learn three times as fast
in fact most people probably can't learn
fast enough to catch up to one times
speed so you know again that's kind of a
misnomer uh watching a lecture faster
does not actually make you learn faster
yeah there a little bonus tip for you so
next time you're on lecture give these a
go thanks for watching and I'll see you
next
time
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