Added Optimize learning article and updated css changes

Author: edwindoit

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+# Optimize Learning in 4 Steps
+Learning is the process of updating our knowledge. Updating means that the knowledge is different. Not necessarily that it is truer, better or an improvement in any other way. If we want it to be an improvement, then we have to work on it.
+
+In this article, we'll focus on strengthening our conscious knowledge. Not our intuitions or skills. Those can also be improved, but because we aren't entirely conscious of them, they follow a different process.
+
+To improve our conscious knowledge, we have to apply our willpower. This is always a focused and deliberate act. I suggest doing this by viewing learning as a 4 steps process:
+
+<img src="../images/articles/step1.png" alt="Step 1" style="width:100%; max-width:600px;">
+
+# Step 1: Deciding what to learn
+
+It's important to be clear and precise about what we want to learn. Firstly, because we don’t want to waste our time on the wrong thing. But, also because learning slightly the wrong thing is more difficult.
+
+We determine what we should learn by reflecting on what our intended outcomes are and what we would enjoy.
+
+However, it’s more than that. We tend to forget that willful ignorance has value as well. Something can lose its fun-factor if we learn the parts in the wrong order. For example, the suspense of figuring out what will happen next makes fiction more enjoyable. Willful ignorance can also be functional. Creative and innovative ideas often come from people *outside* the field. They are successful because they are not burdened by the knowledge of the common view. Choosing not to learn certain things may be an advantage to consider. (Especially if you are not interested in that thing in the first place!)
+
+<img src="../images/articles/step2.png" alt="Step 2" style="width:100%; max-width:600px;">
+
+# Step 2: Choosing which resources to study
+
+Next, we have to pick and choose the resources that we wish to study. We shouldn't dive head first into the first piece of information we come across. Instead, we gather and asses a bunch of resources and decide which ones are suitable.
+
+We aren't able to read everything in its entirety. Instead, we scan and filter the information. Summaries are a great way to be able to grasp the core ideas and reasoning quickly. I, personally, use and endorse the book guides of Shortform: https://shortform.com/edwindoit. *(You’ll receive 5 days of unlimited and unrestricted access and an additional 20% discount on the annual subscription.)*
+
+When we scan the resources, we are looking for good reasoning as well as particularly bad reasoning. To spot these errors, we check if it contradicts with the best explanations that we currently hold. When something blatantly conflicts with this worldview, we can discard it. It’s important to note that you are comparing the *quality of explanations*. You are not by default assuming that the knowledge you hold is correct. Our current knowledge always contains errors as well.
+
+One of the most important things we can do to improve our learning is to welcome being wrong. Every time we are wrong, it’s an opportunity to improve. It may also help to consider that you as an individual are not wrong, you just held incorrect knowledge. By extension, when you criticize someone else, see it as criticizing their ideas, not the person.
+
+<img src="../images/articles/step3.png" alt="Step 3" style="width:100%; max-width:600px;">
+
+# Step 3: Forming your own understanding
+
+Learning is often described with words like teaching, educating, raising or socializing. This implies there's a top-down process that happens where information can be "poured" into you. This is not how learning works at all. All learning is self-learning. It cannot be forced. We only learn if we choose to do so, and it's always a creative act of figuring things out. I'll illustrate how we can form this understanding in three practical steps:
+
+## 1) Forming the first draft in our minds
+
+First and foremost, we needn’t rush the process. It can take time to form an understanding of a topic. You might need to read it multiple times, find examples and listen to a podcast before you get it. LLM's such as [ChatGPT](http://chat.openai.com/) are revolutionary to learning. Instead of leafing through text to find what you're looking for, you can ask specific questions and receive detailed answers. Moreover, you can keep asking follow-up questions.
+
+If we are too quick to seek external feedback or do a test, then we’ve obstructed our own learning process. Especially in the early stages, it’s natural for our knowledge to contain many problems. We should continue the creative process and wrestle with the knowledge for a while before criticizing it and seeking feedback.
+
+## 2) Make it explicit
+
+Once we think we have understood the topic, it is time to test ourselves. A simple way to do it is to write it down. We often think we understand it. But, when we write it out, we see that we may have only partly got it. Once we’ve written it out to a satisfactory level, we can begin criticizing it.
+
+## 3) Self-criticize your understanding
+
+It’s common for us to skip this self-criticizing step. Once we think we’ve got it, we tend to apply or embrace it immediately. However, if the goal is to understand a topic well, it’s better to wrestle with the knowledge a bit longer. We should try to question our own understanding before we ultimately test it against reality. I suggest a couple of ways to do so:
+
+### The Feynman Technique: teach it (to a beginner)
+
+A great technique to check if you understood something is to teach it. This is often called the Feynman technique. The late [Richard Feynman](https://amzn.to/4clsNYx) was an enigmatic and brilliant physicist. One of his ideas is that you only truly understand something if you can explain it to a beginner or a child. Explaining something to an expert doesn’t say much because they already know what you’re trying to explain. Also, they won't ask questions because they don't want to look dumb. Especially if you use big words to hide behind. Instead, try to explain it to a beginner: a partner, family member or friend. They will ask plenty of questions because they are also trying to understand it. Explaining it will help you understand the nuances.
+
+### Apply it in different contexts
+
+If you only apply your new knowledge in one instance, there’s a good chance you haven’t really understood it. Instead, you may have memorized a single ideal scenario, without much regard for how and why it works. There are many exceptions and different factors that you only learn about once you place it in different contexts. I’ve seen this with junior software engineers we interview. Some have just done a course and can build an app in one framework. But, they haven't understood the principles and reasoning behind that framework. Nor, how that will translate to a different technology and app.
+
+### Simulate it on a computer
+
+The ultimate test for understanding something is to program a realistic simulation of it. When you write a computer program that reflects how it works, you have to get every factor right. Flight simulators showcase how good we understand airplanes and the physics involved. In fact, we can simulate most of the physical and mechanical world by now. But, other things, such as evolution, creativity and learning, remain illusive to us. It is usually impractical to try and simulate everything you learn. But, it is the ultimate test of understanding. And therefore, it's a nice reminder of what it actually means to understand something.
+
+<img src="../images/articles/step4.png" alt="Step 4" style="width:100%; max-width:600px;">
+
+# Step 4: Use the knowledge
+
+After we are confident in our understanding of the knowledge, we can begin using it in the real world. This validates that the knowledge is correct and that it works. Many theoretical or philosophical ideas fail this test. We often find that once we try and apply the studied knowledge in practice, there are quite some problems and complications. You wouldn't say you know how to speak a language, fix a kitchen or do linear algebra if you've only read about them.
+
+There are several ways to use our knowledge optimally. Before we cover those, we need to distinguish two interpretations of "using knowledge".
+
+Firstly, there’s having the knowledge ready in your mind at any given moment. We call this memorization. It's what you do when you learn a language.
+
+The other interpretation is to quickly being able to figure it out and use it when we need it. Most of the knowledge we acquire is of this kind. We might forget the specific phrases or formulas. But, we can quickly read up on the concepts and remember how it works.
+
+Both have their own methods of optimization:
+
+## Optimizing for memorization
+
+We naturally memorize something when we often need and use it. That’s also the approach that I would suggest you take: if you want to remember it — make sure to use it. That can be in application, but it can also be that you frequently teach, explain or review the knowledge.
+
+A common reason to forcefully memorize information is to study for standardized tests. I try to stay away from these tests. That's because when you pass such a test, it says very little about our ability to apply it in practice. I prefer to skip that step and go straight to application and feedback. I recognize that we can't always do that, and that they are a part of life. For those instances, there are many great resources available. For instance, by reading the [Only Study Guide You'll Ever Need by Jade Bowler](https://amzn.to/4bZR1I6).
+
+It's also necessary to highlight the significance of sleep. Sleep is important for recovery in general, but especially for memorization. In fact, it’s more beneficial to maintain your 8 sleeping hours than to pull an all-nighter if the point is to memorize the information.
+
+## Optimizing for understanding
+
+Humans have the remarkable ability to resurface knowledge quickly. If we’ve learned it once, we may forget the details, but we still remember the outline. For example, once you’ve studied some biology, you might not remember exactly how the relevant biochemical processes work. But, you do know what to research and how to interpret and apply that information.
+
+This process has been made significantly easier by computers. When we learn something, we can document it in a text document or video, and store it for later. Computers also allow us to capture ideas on the fly and then convert them into knowledge later. All this knowledge can then be searched whenever we need it. Our computers are much better at storing and searching for information than us. So, if we wish to optimize our learning, we’re best off joining forces.
+
+To help with that, I have created a system that helps us store and recall explicit knowledge. It’s a database where we can document knowledge we learn and easily link it to insights that we have on the go. Those insights we can then process at a later moment when we want to engage in deliberate learning. The system, is described [here](https://medium.com/@edwindoit/theres-a-new-productivity-framework-in-town-the-kee-system-explained-notion-template-included-f30855683504) and it includes a free [Notion](https://notion.grsm.io/w2nmytt9w3h8) template.
+
+Sometimes we might not have the time to dive into our knowledge database. But, we'd still like to do more than just rely on raw intuition. In those situations, it’s common to apply knowledge in the form of *principles*. Principles are short rules that we can use to guide our actions. These rules are quite often counterintuitive. We wouldn’t naturally use them, and they therefore are difficult to recall. We could memorize these rules, as many people do, or we can have a fast cheat sheet available. I’ve created such a cheat sheet and I Call it the quick call tool. It's available [here](https://medium.com/@edwindoit/fast-choices-optimal-results-how-the-quick-call-method-powers-effective-actions-under-pressure-f8c875aac5d9). It includes over 60+ rules, most of which derived from my upcoming book:
+

Diff for: content/writing/Optimizelearning.md

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     const entries = [
-        { title: "Read better", file: "Betterreader.md", date: "11-13-2022", id: "Betterreader" },
+        { title: "Optimize learning", file: "Optimizelearning.md", date: "19-06-2024", id: "Betterreader" },
+        { title: "Read better", file: "Betterreader.md", date: "11-12-2022", id: "Betterreader" },
         { title: "How to introduce", file: "Introduction.md", date: "12-10-2022", id: "Introduction" },
         { title: "The KEE system", file: "KEEsystem.md", date: "10-11-2022", id: "Keesystem" },
         { title: "Killer apps 2022", file: "Killerapps2022.md", date: "03-09-2022", id: "Killerapps2022" },