Fun!! I will definitely try out your technique on myself as all the children are grown. I can substantiate "your mind taking over observation" already though.
Back in the day when presented with Algebra One, I could look at the problems and immediately know the answers. I was thrilled, my teacher was less than thrilled as I couldn't document the process on paper.
On to Algebra Two, same thing. Delighted with myself I plunged into Calculus....my mind registered a complete white blank. My mind literally showed me a white blank, its way perhaps of telling me we don't have the software for that. I had to learn Calculus and wasn't great at it.
But one last thing, the teachers insisted I do Algebra Two THEIR way, when I did the math consciously, I took much longer and failed from time to time. When I was on auto I never failed, but I could never tell you how I arrived at the answer.
I can totally relate. In general, I only keep on a task for a maximum of half an hour. Call me French. But after a small break where I do something else, (laundry, dishes, trombone playing....anything really) I came back to the task with much greater efficiency. Also, you reminded me about a college track coach here in Portland who found great success with his athletes when he decreased their training efforts as a competition approached. We do not improve in a linear fashion, but rather, a cyclical fashion, if we allow the cyclical to exist. Push push push results in exhaustion, in one way or another.
"If you do try it, I’ll be grateful if you let me know how it went"
Don't need to try it. Figured it out decades ago. Animal trainers know, too, intermittent training. Eg, Germans start a young horse under saddle typically in fall of 3rd year. Then turn out over winter. Pick up in spring after they've had time to absorb the lessons & form links in info.
Excellent interview with The Delingpod. Everyone needs to hear what both of you discussed. We have to do the opposite of what these predators want. What do they want? They want us to have no hope, feel resistance is futile and just hand over our children, our lives....all of it. They can go straight to hell. The movement is underway and they cannot stop it no matter how many psycho tavistock mind control tactics to frighten us they use. We're just not scared of them anymore. That frightens them to death.
Yup definitely! Experienced pretty much the same thing myself with an n64 game and with a friend too.
Loads of us used to play a game called fzero x me and one friend got good at the death race and got the time down to about 40 and we all stopped playing it. Then i got it out again with my friend and we got down to just over 14 seconds which we never thought we would beat until we stumbled across it a year or so later then we could both do it in about 3seconds i managed to do it in 1.8seconds and we stopped there and never found it again
I have observed the same phenomenon personally on the guitar. It always amazes me how much better I get from periods of not playing. I've mentioned this to several other guitarists - only a bare handful recognized what I was talking about. Enough so that I had wondered if it was just a "me" thing.
Pleased to hear the phenomenon confirmed independently in general terms.
One's mind does keeps working long after one has moved on to other things. I personally have struggled with a problem only to wake up in the middle of the night or early the next morning with a viable solution.
Yes this mirrors my experience of running. Although not difficult or detailed the body does adapt to intense interval training. After a break my running times were always best. Even after a long rest of several weeks the muscle memory (and perhaps fine tuning in the brain) was still there.
Alex I discovered the same thing in a different way! As an amateur guitar player in my younger days I wanted to master a certain lick in the worst way and spent hours practicing it.
Life got busy and I had to set the guitar down for a couple of months. When I picked it up later, I was able to play it perfectly (well my then standard of perfect).
Alex, what I enjoy most about your articles is the versatility of the subjects. Whether you discuss geopolitics, alcohol and human evolution, or your latest one about the brain and attaining mastery, they are always thoughtful, interesting, and well-written.
The relationship between practicing for a skill and giving the brain a break from conscious study for a few months is a fascinating discovery. I have some similar experience. I added EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to my teaching repertoire a few years ago. I had to learn several foreign languages in my teenage years and was very familiar with how boring, long, and ineffective studying languages can be. I wanted something better for my students and sought teaching methodologies to make language learning more efficient, effective, and entertaining. I found many answers in neuroscience, one being that the brain has two modes of functioning: the focused mode and the diffused mode. In the current body of science, these two modes function separately and never overlap.
During the focused mode, the brain takes in, stores, and retrieves new information, i.e., learning and forming strong neural pathways. The brain must get time to process the latest information in the diffused or relaxed mode. In the context of language learning, study times should be short and followed by brief periods of activities that have nothing to do with the study subject. In other words, it is a complete distraction. This practice not only speeds up the learning process but also increases creativity. I have experimented with consciously switching between the diffused and focused modes, and it never ceases to surprise me how easily I can solve problems or come up with creative ideas after a diffused mode period.
Your story stands out because you took months-long breaks from the skills you practiced and then improved dramatically after returning to your game. Moreover, you conducted and recorded several home science experiments and came to a remarkable conclusion: When the breaks between focused and diffused modes of thinking are several months, mastery results!
I have read your article and am writing my response in a diffused mode. I was helping an ESL student create and prepare for a TED Talk and intensely focused on researching and studying what it takes to “spread an idea worth sharing.” I learned in the TED philosophy that “the only thing that truly matters in public speaking is “having something worth saying.” Your remarkable discovery meets that criterion and would be worth a TED Talk. Neuroscience in learning is a hot topic these days.
Two pioneers in Learning How to Learn are Dr. Barbara Oakley, an Engineering, Industrial, and Systems Engineering Professor at Oakland University, and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, the computational neurobiology director at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. They are likely to be interested in your home science experiment. Their free MOOC course, Learning How to Learn, has had 2.7 million enrollments.
What if we lived in a world where empathy and emotions were a disadvantage?
What if we lived in a world where only the most evil psychopaths made it to the top?
What if we lived in a world where all the politicians were corrupt?
What if the psychopaths owned all the newspapers and television stations?
What if the psychopaths run the Federal Reserve and all the worlds central banks?
What if the psychopaths took over the UN, NATO, the WHO and the CIA?
What if the psychopaths run the military industrial complex?
What if the psychopaths took over the biological weapons industry?
What if the psychopaths had diplomatic immunity from prosecution by any court in the world?
What if the psychopaths decide there are too many poor people in the world?
You would have the biggest and most deadly terrorist organisation in the world.
Fun!! I will definitely try out your technique on myself as all the children are grown. I can substantiate "your mind taking over observation" already though.
Back in the day when presented with Algebra One, I could look at the problems and immediately know the answers. I was thrilled, my teacher was less than thrilled as I couldn't document the process on paper.
On to Algebra Two, same thing. Delighted with myself I plunged into Calculus....my mind registered a complete white blank. My mind literally showed me a white blank, its way perhaps of telling me we don't have the software for that. I had to learn Calculus and wasn't great at it.
But one last thing, the teachers insisted I do Algebra Two THEIR way, when I did the math consciously, I took much longer and failed from time to time. When I was on auto I never failed, but I could never tell you how I arrived at the answer.
I can totally relate. In general, I only keep on a task for a maximum of half an hour. Call me French. But after a small break where I do something else, (laundry, dishes, trombone playing....anything really) I came back to the task with much greater efficiency. Also, you reminded me about a college track coach here in Portland who found great success with his athletes when he decreased their training efforts as a competition approached. We do not improve in a linear fashion, but rather, a cyclical fashion, if we allow the cyclical to exist. Push push push results in exhaustion, in one way or another.
"If you do try it, I’ll be grateful if you let me know how it went"
Don't need to try it. Figured it out decades ago. Animal trainers know, too, intermittent training. Eg, Germans start a young horse under saddle typically in fall of 3rd year. Then turn out over winter. Pick up in spring after they've had time to absorb the lessons & form links in info.
Yeah, the time off from the activity allowed you to process and optimize your new knowledge.
I've had similar experiences which helped me realize that a little bit of pressure gets more gains than too much or none.
Excellent interview with The Delingpod. Everyone needs to hear what both of you discussed. We have to do the opposite of what these predators want. What do they want? They want us to have no hope, feel resistance is futile and just hand over our children, our lives....all of it. They can go straight to hell. The movement is underway and they cannot stop it no matter how many psycho tavistock mind control tactics to frighten us they use. We're just not scared of them anymore. That frightens them to death.
Yup definitely! Experienced pretty much the same thing myself with an n64 game and with a friend too.
Loads of us used to play a game called fzero x me and one friend got good at the death race and got the time down to about 40 and we all stopped playing it. Then i got it out again with my friend and we got down to just over 14 seconds which we never thought we would beat until we stumbled across it a year or so later then we could both do it in about 3seconds i managed to do it in 1.8seconds and we stopped there and never found it again
I have observed the same phenomenon personally on the guitar. It always amazes me how much better I get from periods of not playing. I've mentioned this to several other guitarists - only a bare handful recognized what I was talking about. Enough so that I had wondered if it was just a "me" thing.
Pleased to hear the phenomenon confirmed independently in general terms.
One's mind does keeps working long after one has moved on to other things. I personally have struggled with a problem only to wake up in the middle of the night or early the next morning with a viable solution.
Intriguing, I will most definitely try this, thank you!
Yes this mirrors my experience of running. Although not difficult or detailed the body does adapt to intense interval training. After a break my running times were always best. Even after a long rest of several weeks the muscle memory (and perhaps fine tuning in the brain) was still there.
Noticed that phenom as well. Absorbing the lesson .
How little they know !
Alex I discovered the same thing in a different way! As an amateur guitar player in my younger days I wanted to master a certain lick in the worst way and spent hours practicing it.
Life got busy and I had to set the guitar down for a couple of months. When I picked it up later, I was able to play it perfectly (well my then standard of perfect).
It was a life changing revalation.
Alex, what I enjoy most about your articles is the versatility of the subjects. Whether you discuss geopolitics, alcohol and human evolution, or your latest one about the brain and attaining mastery, they are always thoughtful, interesting, and well-written.
The relationship between practicing for a skill and giving the brain a break from conscious study for a few months is a fascinating discovery. I have some similar experience. I added EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to my teaching repertoire a few years ago. I had to learn several foreign languages in my teenage years and was very familiar with how boring, long, and ineffective studying languages can be. I wanted something better for my students and sought teaching methodologies to make language learning more efficient, effective, and entertaining. I found many answers in neuroscience, one being that the brain has two modes of functioning: the focused mode and the diffused mode. In the current body of science, these two modes function separately and never overlap.
During the focused mode, the brain takes in, stores, and retrieves new information, i.e., learning and forming strong neural pathways. The brain must get time to process the latest information in the diffused or relaxed mode. In the context of language learning, study times should be short and followed by brief periods of activities that have nothing to do with the study subject. In other words, it is a complete distraction. This practice not only speeds up the learning process but also increases creativity. I have experimented with consciously switching between the diffused and focused modes, and it never ceases to surprise me how easily I can solve problems or come up with creative ideas after a diffused mode period.
Your story stands out because you took months-long breaks from the skills you practiced and then improved dramatically after returning to your game. Moreover, you conducted and recorded several home science experiments and came to a remarkable conclusion: When the breaks between focused and diffused modes of thinking are several months, mastery results!
I have read your article and am writing my response in a diffused mode. I was helping an ESL student create and prepare for a TED Talk and intensely focused on researching and studying what it takes to “spread an idea worth sharing.” I learned in the TED philosophy that “the only thing that truly matters in public speaking is “having something worth saying.” Your remarkable discovery meets that criterion and would be worth a TED Talk. Neuroscience in learning is a hot topic these days.
Two pioneers in Learning How to Learn are Dr. Barbara Oakley, an Engineering, Industrial, and Systems Engineering Professor at Oakland University, and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, the computational neurobiology director at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. They are likely to be interested in your home science experiment. Their free MOOC course, Learning How to Learn, has had 2.7 million enrollments.