Last month, I stumbled on a thread by Sahil Bloom on Twitter. It is not dramatic to say it changed my perspective on my method of digesting information.
To be smarter than the present day is my new ideal of life. I do not believe in mottos. I find them to be pretentious, so I settled for a slightly subtle term, ideal. The past one-and-half-year at home with the internet being my sole medium of escape, imposter syndrome and the feeling of inferiority were at their highest level. The only solution I could foresee to conquer these emotions was to work on myself every day, without fail.
This article by a fellow law student beautifully captures my thoughts regarding intellect, smartness and self-improvement. He explains that smartness is never static, the bar of being considered smart changes every day. However, my main problem was my poor retention, not my lack of effort to be smart-er. I used to read widely, but when I was unable to recall or implement whatever I had learned, it became a big problem. Frankly, what was the point of spending numerous hours gaining information if it would just seep out of my brain the next day?
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Voilà here emerged this wonderful, invaluable thread. Sahil outlined six steps to cement a new topic in your brain. The crux of it lies in making your foundational basics stronger at each step. This vaguely reminded me of the Feynman technique of learning. Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who devised this method to supercharge your learning capabilities and distil the toughest concepts into simple analogies. If you can explain your idea to a sixth-grader clearly, you have fully understood the concept. That is it. The magical technique. Some recommend explaining to an inanimate object like a toy, but I have the luxury of having a personal guinea pig, my sister.
She is not eleven years old, nevertheless still substantially young for me to dumb things down (if I am being crude). I ramble to her snippets of the books I am currently reading while we brush our teeth at 5 am. She listens to me and provides her inputs on the breakfast table. From cultural essays to my analysis of everything, I can remember and even extrapolate on the tirade of material I tell her. It is a win-win situation as she benefits too, without putting in an ounce of effort. Lately, I have found myself underlining interesting paragraphs and lines with the sole purpose of discussing them with my sister the next day.
Somehow, I am unable to repeat this experiment with my friends. First, not everyone is interested in listening to me talk for unspecified periods. Most of what I say is also extremely unorganized and this is my method of arranging my thoughts and further gaining clarity on an issue. It is a different matter altogether to listen to a structured monologue. Second, there is a residue of awkwardness and fear of judgement, which remains even in the best of friends. In some areas, it is impossible to beat the comfort provided by a person for whom the definition of personal space doesn’t exist.
This subtle method of active recall has done wonders for me and I lament I found it so late in my life. Since my classes started yesterday, I doubt it will be long before she becomes my note-taking system for the numerous case briefs I’ll make in the next three years of my life. (Obviously contingent on her going to college, which will be unfortunate in my case 🤓)
Brain Food for this Week
(Here I plug in whatever I am consuming. Someday I would love to write a collection of essays like Briallen Hopper talking about all the things I love in literature, pop culture and music, but that is for the future)
Reading 📖 : Atomic Habits by James Clear and She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey
Watching 🍿 : GLOW on Netflix
Thank you for reading! Feedback is always welcomed.
Warm Wishes.