wh0cares1

Journey to the rabbit holes.

8 minute read

Research is simply a continuation of something we already naturally do: learning. Learning happens when you understand something that someone else already understands. Research happens when you understand something that nobody else understands yet. Kanjun Qiu

Introduction

Why Focus on Connections?

  • The brain’s ability to create, strengthen, and maintain neural connections is what makes learning effective.
  • Analogies, stories, and examples help solidify these connections by creating relatable pathways.

Working Memory vs. Long-Term Memory

  • Working Memory: Temporary, handles immediate tasks and information. Capacity: ~7 items (e.g., phone numbers).
  • Long-Term Memory: Stores information indefinitely; highly reliant on meaningful encoding and repetition.
  • Examples:
    • Good Encoding: Associating a historical date with a personal event.
    • Constant Retrieval: Quizzing yourself regularly to strengthen memory traces.

Higher Order Thinking

Why Bloom’s Taxonomy?

These skills encourage deeper understanding beyond memorization:

  • Analyzing: Dissect concepts to see interdependencies (e.g., how emotions affect decision-making).
  • Evaluating: Critique solutions to refine accuracy or logic (e.g., analyzing code for vulnerabilities).
  • Creating: Synthesize knowledge to innovate (e.g., building a unique project from scattered concepts).

Different Levels of Learning

Logic

  • The ‘backbone’ of information (big picture or ideas that hold everything together).
  • Relationship by its importance.
  • Techniques: Ask why and how repeatedly to uncover the structure.

Concepts

  • Detail from Level Logic by identifying dependent or subordinate ideas.
  • Use metaphors or diagrams to clarify abstract ideas.

Details

  • Usually information that you need to memorize.
  • Useful to comprehend the concepts.
  • Disconnected information but important.
  • Use mnemonic devices to recall granular data (e.g., ROYGBIV for colors of the rainbow).
  • Practice chunking small, disconnected details into manageable groups (e.g., breaking down medical terms by prefixes and suffixes).

How to Take Note

  • Use visuals: pictures, symbols, and doodles.
    • Use arrows to show cause-effect relationships.
    • Add icons or emojis for emotional cues (💡 for insights, ⚠️ for caution).
  • Make connections:
  • Use freehand.
  • Non-linear.
  • I use an app on my iPad called Freeform.

Emotional Intelligence

  • Self awareness: ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are as an individual.
  • Self reflection: ability to witness and evaluate one’s own cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes.

Practical Self-Awareness Activities

  • Journaling thoughts after learning sessions.
  • Asking: “What emotion is linked to my struggles or successes in learning?”

Techniques for Self-Reflection

  • Write down moments of confusion and revisit them later to find clarity.
  • Maintain a growth mindset journal with weekly entries on progress.

Set Goals

  • Goals must be realistic, you can set them by day, week, month and year.
  • For example:
    • Day: I want to understand Chrome Sandbox from a specific blog, slide, or paper.
    • Week: I can set up lab so I can do my own research.
    • Month: I can recreate old bugs.
    • Year: I can find my own bug in a specific component.
  • You can use SMART Goals Framework
    • Specific: Define the task.
    • Measurable: Quantify your progress (e.g., “Document three examples in my notebook”).
    • Achievable: Assess available resources (e.g., guides, labs, tools).
    • Relevant: Tie goals to long-term aspirations.
    • Time-Bound: Set deadlines.

Overcome Procrastination

Conditioning a Response

Classical Conditioning

  • A learning process where an initially neutral stimulus becomes associated with a positive or motivating experience.
    1. Pair learning with enjoyable activities:
      • Play your favorite instrumental music while studying.
      • Use scents (like a specific candle or essential oil) to create a positive association with your workspace.
    2. Reward system:
      • Reward yourself with a small treat (e.g., a piece of chocolate or a short break) after completing a study session.
      • Over time, your brain will associate the act of studying with positive outcomes.

Nudge theory

  • Small, indirect suggestions or changes to the environment that influence behavior in positive ways.
    1. Environment Setup:
      • Create a clean and organized workspace free of distractions.
    2. Default Options:
      • Keep your study materials readily available.
      • Place your device on “Do Not Disturb” mode during focus periods.
    3. Visual Cues:
      • Add motivational quotes or sticky notes with goals in your workspace.
      • Use timers or physical reminders to prompt you into action (e.g., a countdown clock).

Flowmodoro

  • Every focus session is not equal; maybe you can focus for 1 hour nonstop or 2 hours nonstop. But make sure to rest for 1/3 of the of the time you can focus.
  • Match session length to your mental stamina. For example: Focus (60 minutes) -> Rest (20 minutes) -> Focus (90 minutes) -> Rest (30 minutes)
  • Use five deep breaths to enter focus (the flow zone). This calms your nervous system and signals your brain to transition into a focused state.
  • When doing rest, you shouldn’t use it to scroll on social media mindlessly, but do positive activities like workouts, cooking, or taking a bath.

Chunking Keywords

  • Gather the most important keywords, usually in the heading, sub-heading, or repetitive words. You can do this by skimming for the first time, just to get a sense of the big picture.
  • Limit your keywords to 30-50.
  • Grouping those keywords into those with the same similarities and differences.

Main Brain

Mind Map

  • Focus on building logic and concepts by actively asking, “Why is it important?” and “How does it relate?” from the keywords we gathered before while rereading thoroughtly.
  • If you encounter keywords that you don’t understand, just use Google to grasp the meaning of the keyword for no longer than 30 seconds.
  • Chunking by importance.
  • Highlight different levels (Logic, Concepts, Details) for quick navigation
  • Directional/Flow use arrows to indicate cause-effect or sequential logic.
  • Relationship by your logic.
  • Intuitive and deeply connected.
  • Examples of good mind maps : Ultimate Guide

Second Brain

Zettelkasten

What is Zettelkasten?

  • A knowledge management system designed to organize ideas into interconnected, atomic notes.
  • Each note represents a single idea and is linked to others, creating a web of related concepts.
  • Purpose: To offload your brain’s storage needs and enhance recall through contextual connections.

How to Use Zettelkasten?

  • This is the simplest example of using Zettelkasten in Obsidian: Step-by-step guide
  • Remember, it’s called the second brain as it is used to store details. Your main brain still needs to process the logic and concepts.
  • Use bullet points to describe the main points from the textbox, paper, or slides. But don’t forget to include the source and the page number so you don’t waste time searching for those if you need the information in the future.

Memorization

Memory Palace

  • This technique is to remember the most important details that you must remember from your second brain.

Flash Cards

  • For rote memorization of key facts:
    • Definitions (e.g., What is polymorphism?).
    • Equations (e.g., E = mc²).
    • Key function names or API methods.

Revision

  • Interleaving (learn from multiple different angles) use this technique while constantly updating your mind map.
  • Constantly zoom out (see bigger picture) and zoom in to find gaps in the mind map.
  • Spaced retrieval: accurate recall of information over progressively longer periods of time.
    • Day 1: First recall session.
    • Day 3: Revisit content briefly.
    • Day 7: Focus on weak points.
    • Day 30: Comprehensive review.
  • Teach to others (Feynman technique); you can write blog posts and share it with the community.

Reflection

  • This part is about using emotional intelligence to reflect on whether you are close to your goals or not.
  • If you are not close to your goal, then you should answer, “What is the problem?”, “Why does it happen to you?” and “How can you overcome it?”
  • You should reflect every day, every week, every month, and every year.

Workflow

1. Define What You Want to Learn

Be specific

  • Instead of “learn programming,” try “understand JavaScript async internals.”

Write down what success looks like

  • Example: “By the end of this, I should know how Promises work and can debug async issues.”

2. Search for Available Resources

Check for Online Courses

  • Look for online platforms like Coursera, Udemy, or university websites.
  • Download or note the syllabus.
  • Extract keywords (chapter titles, module names).

No Course Available?

  • Use search engines, books, and tools like LLMs (ChatGPT) to gather information.
  • Skim blogs, whitepapers, or documentation.
  • Collect keywords, even if you’re unsure about their relevance (you’ll adjust later).

3. Keyword Management

Gather Keywords

  • Skim materials and highlight recurring themes, headings, and emphasized terms.
  • Limit initial keywords to 50 to avoid overwhelm.

Organize Keywords

  • Group similar terms.
  • Example: For JavaScript, group “async,” “Promises,” “event loop,” and “microtasks” together.

Refine Later

  • Eliminate or reorganize irrelevant keywords after deeper research.

4. Create the Mind Map

Logic Layer (Backbone)

  • Chunk keywords into broad topics that represent the big picture.
  • Example: “Async JavaScript” → Promises, Async/Await, Event Loop, Callback Hell.

Concept Layer

  • Compare each keyword:
    • How do they connect?
    • Why are they important?
  • Example: “Event Loop handles Promises in the microtask queue.”

Tool

  • Use Freeform (iPad).
  • Start messy; refine over time.

5. Add Details

Skimming

  • First pass: Skim your sources to locate where detailed information resides.
  • Focus on high-level understanding.

Thorough Reading

  • Add specific facts, examples, and nuances to the mind map.
  • Color-code:
    • Red for critical details.
    • Blue for supporting concepts.

6. Use Zettelkasten for Details

Create Notes

  • Write concise summaries of specific details in Obsidian or another note app.
  • Example:
    • Title: “Event Loop (JavaScript)”
    • Body: “Manages execution queues. Microtasks (e.g., Promises) are prioritized over macrotasks.”

Link Notes

  • Categorize notes to match the mind map structure.
  • Add links for related concepts.
    • Example: [[Event Loop]] → [[Promises]].

7. Revision

Interleaving

  • Study concepts from multiple angles and contexts.
  • Example: Review “Promises” alongside “Error Handling.”

Zoom Out

  • Regularly review the entire mind map to identify gaps.
  • Ask:
    • What’s missing?
    • Does this make sense as a whole?

Spaced Retrieval

  • Recall the material at increasing intervals:
    • Same day, 3 days later, 7 days later, 1 month later.

References

Updated:

You may also enjoy