Learning to Learn

I had the opportunity to give this talk in a talk-show format, so I thought I’d share it here as well. Enjoy!

TL;DR

• Learning agility is not a talent, but something that can be nurtured with predictable characteristics
• Everybody can learn at their own pace with their own technique, but we have to practice it consistently

What is your definition of learning?

After reviewing my learning habit and practices, I think I can conclude that learning for me is a cycle, consisting of three equally important stages:

• Absorbing
• Persisting
• Reinforcing

To make it easy to remember, we can use the mnemonic: APPEAR

Absorbing

Absorbing is the stage where we try to absorb new information, such as reading books, watching video tutorials, etc. Everyone can have different preferences on this.

Persisting

Next, we have to continue by persisting those new information so that it is ingrained in our head, this stage is called persisting. We can try writing a summary of books that we have read or creating a mind map.

Reinforcing

Lastly, to make sure that those new knowledge don’t get lost over time and so that we can understand better the topic that we had just learn, we should reinforce by putting the new knowledge into practice or share and discuss it with our friends and colleagues.

At the start of the cycle it’s better if we create a learning plan and by the end of it we should review the completion of our plan.

Why are you so into learning?

External factor: In my industry, which is IT, innovation happens at a crazy rate and obsolescence is common. If I stopped learning, I will get left behind quickly.

Internal factor: I love tinkering. I’m going to be completely honest with you, I don’t actually love reading books. I mean, I can make myself read lots of books and become completely engrossed in some titles, but what I really like is tinkering. I love to tinker with new knowledge that I acquire after reading a book.

Can you share your “learning habit”?

Building off from my cycle of learning, during the Persisting phase, I like to build a mind map from knowledge that I just gained after reading a book or after participating in a group discussion.

Then, some moments later during the Reinforcing phase, I will revisit the mind maps to reinforce the knowledge in my brain. Sometimes I also voluntarily give talks at meetups or sharing sessions about my newfound knowledge.

I also like to create a learning plan and identify things that I should or shouldn’t learn (yet).

From your opinion, why do people don’t automatically learn even though they are surrounded by knowledge and wisdom?

I believe it’s because sometimes people are overwhelmed with their work and daily tasks. It is hard to make room for growth if we are overwhelmed by tasks, right?

It is also hard and costly doing context switching. For example, if we are given a hard task which must be completed next Monday and we haven’t finished it, of course it will be hard to concentrate on learning.

Remember, learning is a cycle. If we just do our daily tasks then it means we may only have done the first stage of learning, which is absorbing.

There are people who read books or watch videos, but they don’t necessarily “learn” - why do you think that is?

Reading books and watching videos are only the first stage in my cycle, which is “absorbing”. In this stage, I think we only store that new knowledge in a temporary memory in our brain—a RAM, if you may call it that. That knowledge will get lost quickly and cannot be utilized unless it is “persisted”.

I read an interesting story in a book, which was recommended by my mentor, entitled “Coders at Work”. In this book, there is a story about a physics institute in Europe where if you want to consult with the professors or if you want to give a presentation, you have to present your idea to a teddy bear first. This particular teddy bear sits at the edge of the professor’s room. Most staff will try to explain to the teddy bear and then realize by themselves that they haven’t understood enough. So after that, they will re-learn that particular topic and do many retries. I think this is funny but also a good example of why only “absorbing” things is not really enough to learn.

From your opinion, what is the characteristic of people with good learning agility?

First of all, I sincerely believe learning agility is not a talent. It can be nurtured. And everyone has different learning processes and paces; what works for me may not work for you.

Some people may learn very quickly but forget everything quickly. On the other hand, some people may learn very slowly but will remember it for the rest of their life.

Generally, based on my learning cycle, we can measure it by:

• People with good absorbing skill: Read fast with no penalty in comprehension, have good learning plans so that they learn effectively and not learning something that’s too far ahead or too similar to what they’ve learned before.

• People with good persisting skill: Able to write what they have just learned, utilize multiple methods to make their new knowledge stick.

• People with good reinforcing skill: Continuously review their learning process, willing and able to share their new knowledge with others.

How do you nurture it in your team?

Well, in a professional environment and in the communities that I participate in, the first and most important thing is that we can nurture it by giving an example A.K.A “walking the talk”.

Next, we can force reinforcement by encouraging everyone to share what they have learned. Of course, people cannot jump to the reinforcement phase right away; this will also force everyone to go through the absorbing and persisting phases.

If I want to know if my learning agility is “good enough”, what is a good measurement for it?

The simplest measurement is if someone asks us to summarize what we have learned in the past week/month, we can easily answer it without much deliberation. We can also compare learning that we accomplished each week or each month.

And if I want to get better at learning, how can I start?

• First and foremost: Self-awareness, identify your strengths and weaknesses in learning.
• Know your Circadian Rhythm.
• Make time for learning: Identify whether there are wasted time on your daily schedule, make a learning plan and stick to it by making time. Inform your boss or partners about your plan to hold you accountable.
• Do: Absorbing, Persisting, Reinforcing (APPEAR).
• Review and tune your learning activity.