Description
A Double Entry Journal is a reading tool designed to help you write about what you have read. There are two steps for using a double entry journal: 1: Collect direct quotations in the left-hand column. These could be complete sentences, phrases, or words. These sentences, phrases, and words will be copied exactly from the text you are reading. Since these are someone else’s words and ideas, be sure to put “quotation marks” around them and be sure to include a page number so you can find the quote later.Step 2: Place your response to the direct quotation in the right-hand column. This could be many things. For instance, you could state that you agree (or disagree) and say why. Or you could write down something that the quote makes you think of. For instance, you might note that the quote reminds you of something else you have read or that the quote reminds you of something you have experienced in your own life. In other words, put your own thinking about the quote in the “My Response” column.
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Advance Praise for LEARNING HOW TO
LEARN
“The authors’ neuroscience-grounded, yet real-life, approach will be of
value to learners of any age.”
— Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, Professor in Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the
University of California, San Francisco
“In this highly readable and lively book, the authors illustrate how the brain
and behavioral dynamics underlie effective learning—and they do so in a
way that young learners will find understandable and even entertaining.”
— Robert A. Bjork, Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at the University of
California, Los Angeles
“Learning How to Learn shows kids and teens that a little knowledge of
how their brain works goes a long way in helping them improve their
learning and studying success. This unique book is full of fun learning
strategies—I highly recommend it!”
— Paula Tallal, PhD, Board of Governors Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Rutgers
University and cofounder of Scientific Learning Corporation
“I devoured Learning How to Learn in three sittings (I needed time for
diffuse thinking, active recall, and sleep). A terrific book!”
—Jeff Sandefer, cofounder of Acton School of Business
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2018 by Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free
speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for
complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any
form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish
books for every reader.
This page constitute an extension of this copyright page.
TarcherPerigee with tp colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Oakley, Barbara A., 1955- author. | Sejnowski, Terrence J. (Terrence Joseph), author. |
McConville, Alistair, author.
Title: Learning How to Learn : How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying
/ Barbara Oakley, PhD, and Terrence Sejnowski, PhD ; With Alistair McConville ; With illustrations
by Oliver Young.
Description: New York : TarcherPerigee, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018018495 (print) | LCCN 2018024504 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525504467 | ISBN
9780143132547 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Learning strategies—Problems, exercises, etc. | Study skills—Study and teaching. |
Students—Time management. | BISAC: JUVENILE NONFICTION / School & Education. |
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Study Aids / General. | JUVENILE NONFICTION / Science & Nature /
Biology.
Classification: LCC LB1066 (ebook) | LCC LB1066 .O35 2018 (print) | DDC 370.15/23—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018495
p. cm.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, internet addresses,
and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes
any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does
not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or
their content.
Version_2
CONTENTS
Advance Praise for Learning How To Learn
Title Page
Copyright
A Note to Parents and Teachers
CHAPTER 1: The Problem with Passion
CHAPTER 2: Easy Does It: Why Trying Too
Hard Can Sometimes Be Part of the Problem
CHAPTER 3: I’ll Do It Later, Honest! Using a
Tomato to Beat Procrastination
CHAPTER 4: Brain-Links and Fun with Space
Aliens
CHAPTER 5: The Other Side of the Teacher’s
Desk
CHAPTER 6: Learning While You Sleep: How to
Wake Up Smarter
CHAPTER 7: School Bags, Lockers, and Your
Attentional Octopus
CHAPTER 8: Slick Tricks to Build Your Memory
CHAPTER 9: Why Brain-Links Are Important
(and How Not to Back a Car into a Ditch)
CHAPTER 10: Learning with Clubs and Groups,
Finding Your Mission, and How Terry Nearly Burned
Down the School
CHAPTER 11: How to Pump Up Your Brain
CHAPTER 12: Making Brain-Links: How Not to
Learn from a Comic Book
CHAPTER 13: Asking Yourself Important
Questions: Should You Listen to Music While You’re
Studying?
CHAPTER 14: Learning Surprises: Pssst . . .
Your Worst Traits Can Be Your Best Traits!
CHAPTER 15: How to Do Well on Tests
CHAPTER 16: Going from “Have to” to “Get to”
Solutions to End-of-Chapter Problems
Suggested Resources
Illustration Credits
Acknowledgments
References
Notes
Index
About the Authors and Illustrator
A NOTE TO PARENTS AND
TEACHERS
Welcome to our book. You’re helping a younger person to learn
more effectively, which means we’re already on the same team!
Some of the ideas in this book were discussed in Barb’s bestselling A
Mind for Numbers. Many readers felt that the ideas were so simple, and so
practically useful, that they should be shared with younger audiences. And
we have heard from thousands of people that these ideas are useful for
learning all subjects, not just math.
So this book is intended for tweens and teens—although adults will
also find a treasure trove of new and practical ideas here. Understanding
just a little bit about how the brain works can make learning more fun and
less frustrating.
There are several ways to use this book. Some young adults may wish
to read it on their own. They can talk with their friends about the key ideas
to help cement them in their minds. Some young adults (and adults!) may
be tempted to skim through the book, thinking they’ll get everything if they
just read from cover to cover. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Active involvement is key—the exercises are helpful only if they are
completed. The book is best read with a notebook at the side, to take notes,
answer questions, and make doodles with key insights. With young
“skimmers,” the more an adult can dip in, question, and interact, the more
will be gained.
If you are a parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle, we suggest that your
young person might read the book out loud to you. Generally, a half hour of
reading at a stretch is a good length. (Younger children may read for a
shorter time.) Reading aloud is a fun adventure where you can learn
together, as a family.
If you are a teacher, you may wish to read the book together with your
students. Or you may have a silent reading period, followed by a shared
discussion. You will find that this book gives you a shared vocabulary to
help you teach other subjects.
Younger is better when it comes to learning about learning, as it allows
for more years to use the tools. It also opens doors for the great new careers
that are emerging with modern-day changes.
Thanks for joining us on this learning adventure. Let’s dive in!
—Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and Al McConville
CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM WITH
PASSION
Hi, my name’s Barb. Great to meet you!
I have a secret. When I was growing up, I was sometimes a terrible
student. Sure, I was fine in subjects I liked. But otherwise, forget it.
Everybody told me to follow my passion. I figured that meant, Do what
you like, not what you don’t like. That sounded like good advice to me. I
hated math and science, so I avoided those subjects as if they were poison.
When I had to take those courses, I did badly, or I just plain failed.
I’m now a professor of engineering. Surprised? Engineers need a deep
knowledge of math and science. I’m now really good at math and science,
and I love them. How did I do it? I discovered the secrets of learning well.
This is a picture of me—Barb Oakley. I learned that I could learn
much more than I’d ever thought I could.
This is a book about how to become a successful learner. It’s written
for tweens and teens, but the lessons in it apply to everyone. And they relate
to all kinds of learning. Whether you are interested in soccer (better known
as football around the world!), math, dance, chemistry, riding a unicycle,
learning another language, getting better at video games, or understanding
the physics of how a ball bounces, this book is for you.
Brains are amazing. They’re the most sophisticated gadgets in the
universe. They change their structure depending on what you do with them.
Pretty much anyone can do well in any subject if they know more about
learning. Your brain is more powerful than you think. You just need to
know how to turn on that power. There are simple tricks that can improve
your learning whether you’re already a good student—or not so good.
These tricks can also make your learning more fun. (For example, you’re
going to meet a few zombies in this book, but don’t worry, they’re mostly
friendly ones who want to help you learn!)
I wrote this book with Professor Terry Sejnowski. Terry knows a lot
about brain science—that is, “neuroscience.”* Terry’s an expert when it
comes to learning. He works with other neuroscientists who are helping us
to learn better. Professors from other areas like psychology* and education
are also discovering a lot about how we learn.
Here’s my coauthor Terrence Sejnowski. He’s an expert on the
brain.
Terry and I want to share lessons from all of these areas. We want to
help improve your ability to learn. The lessons backed by science in this
book are coming from both Terry and me. Alistair McConville is also an
important part of our author team. He has many years of experience
teaching young people, so he helped us make our writing less formal and
easier to understand.
Here’s our other coauthor, Alistair McConville. Al has worked with
teens for years!
Terry and I know it’s possible to improve your learning abilities. How
do we know? We teach the largest “massive open online course”
(“MOOC”) in the world. It’s called Learning How to Learn. We have had
millions of students. Through this course, we have seen all sorts of people
make big improvements in their learning skills. It’s not a surprise that the
course helps. It’s based on the best of what we know from research about
how we learn. So we know it works!
Even great students can improve their ability to learn. So can those who
are not there yet. The techniques and lessons we’re going to teach you
won’t necessarily make learning super easy. But they will leave you with
more time to do the things you like, whether it’s video games, soccer,
watching YouTube, or just hanging out with friends. In fact, you can use
these ideas to improve your ability to play soccer and video games!
Learning how to learn will make your years in school more fun and less
frustrating. We’ll give you powerful tools to improve your memory, to get
your work done more quickly, and to help you become an expert at
whatever subjects you choose. You’ll discover fantastic and inspiring
insights. For example, if learning is slow and hard for you, you actually
have special advantages in the creativity department.
Learning how to learn does something more, though. It opens whole
horizons for your future. The working world of the future needs creative
people who have many different talents. We’re here to help you develop the
many talents, and the creativity, that lie within you!
Jump Ahead If You’d Like!
If you want to get straight to the tips on how best to learn, jump
now to the “Now You Try!” section at the end of this chapter. But
if you’d like to learn more about Barb’s past, and how she
changed her brain to learn better, keep reading. (You’ll get to go
with her to the South Pole in Antarctica.)
Later, you’ll have a chance to hear Terry’s and Al’s stories—
you’ll see how different we all are.
How I Changed My Brain
When I was young, I loved animals and handicrafts, but not numbers. I
hated them. For example, I was confused by old-fashioned clocks. Why was
the hour hand smaller than the minute hand? Weren’t hours more important
than minutes? So why wasn’t the hour hand the biggest? Why were clocks
so confusing?
Me at age ten with Earl the lamb. I loved critters, reading, and
dreaming. Math and science weren’t on my playlist.
Technology was not my friend, either. I couldn’t figure out all the
buttons on the TV (this was in the days before remote controls). This meant
I only watched TV shows when my brother or sister handled the “technical”
side of things. So I didn’t feel too good about my chances in subjects like
math and science.
Some bad luck at home made things worse. When I was thirteen, my
father lost his job because of a back injury, and we had to move. In fact, I
moved a lot while I was growing up. By the time I was fifteen years old I
had lived in ten different places. Each time I started a new school, I had
missed a different piece of math. I felt lost. It was like picking up a book
and discovering that the chapters were all out of order. It made no sense to
me.
I lost all interest in math. I almost took pride in being terrible at it. It
was just “who I was.” I thought of numbers and equations as deadly
diseases—to be avoided at all costs.
I didn’t like science, either. In my first chemistry experiment, my
teacher gave my partner and me a different substance from the rest of the
class. He made fun of us when we tried to make our results match everyone
else’s.
Luckily, I was better at other subjects. I liked history, social studies,
and anything cultural. My grades in these classes helped me to graduate
from high school.
Since I didn’t get along with numbers, I decided to learn a foreign
language. I had grown up around people who spoke only English. It seemed
so exotic to be able to speak two languages. But I couldn’t afford to go to
college. What could I do?
I found out that the military would pay me to learn a new language. So,
right out of high school, I joined the army to learn Russian. Why Russian?
No particular reason. It just looked interesting.
I studied at the Defense Language Institute in California. They knew
the best techniques for teaching a language. Learning a new language didn’t
come easily for me. I didn’t have a good memory, so I had to practice a lot.
But gradually, I got better.
I ended up doing well enough that I earned a scholarship (free money
for school) to go to a regular, full-scale university. There, I continued to
study Russian. I was so excited! I’d followed my passion for learning a new
language, and it was paying off for me.
Except.
Disaster Strikes
The military made me an officer in a group called the Signal Corps. This
meant I would be working with my old enemy, technology. Radios, cables,
and telephones . . . I went from being a language expert to feeling like I was
back in my high school chemistry class. I was lost.
Then I was sent to Germany to manage a group of fifty soldiers
specializing in communications. More technology. I turned out to be terrible
at my job. If I couldn’t set up the communications gear, how could I tell the
soldiers how to do it?
The officers working around me with their own groups were very
successful. They were engineers, so they were comfortable with technology,
math, and science.
At twenty-six, I left the military. Few people wanted to hire me. My
language skills were great, but I didn’t have any other skills that would help
me get a job. I realized that by only following my passion, I didn’t have
many choices.
Language and culture will always be important. But today, science,
math, and technology are also important. I wanted some of the exciting new
opportunities these areas offered! But I’d have to retrain my brain to learn
math and science to have a chance. Was that even possible for someone like
me?
I decided to try.
Rebuilding My Career
I headed back to university to study engineering. I started at the lowest
possible level of math—algebra for people who had failed it in high school.
At first, I felt like I was blindfolded. Other students found solutions to
problems easily when I didn’t. During those first months, I wondered if I’d
made the right decision.
If only I’d known then what I know now, it would have been so much
easier. Of course, that’s what this book is about. We want to share the best
mental learning tools, so you don’t struggle like I did.
After a few years of college, my career chances improved. I still used
my language skills. For example, I worked as a translator on a Russian
fishing boat. But I also began to use my new technical skills. I even ended
up working as a radio operator at the South Pole Station.
My husband, Phil Oakley, in Antarctica after 10 minutes outside at
-70° Fahrenheit. He’s my hero!
By the way, the South Pole Station is where I met my husband, Phil.
Here he is after just ten minutes at minus seventy degrees in a wild wind. I
had to go to the end of the earth to meet that man! If I hadn’t learned how to
learn math and science, I never would have met him. We’ve now been
married for nearly thirty-five years. (You’ll meet one of our children later.)
Eventually, I graduated with a new degree in electrical engineering.
After working for four years as an engineer, I went back to school to get a
master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. Then, with several
more years of study, I got a degree called a “doctorate” in systems
engineering. That’s why people sometimes call me “Doctor” Oakley. (But I
still prefer “Barb.”) I became an expert at complex mathematical equations
and scientific concepts. All this from the girl who couldn’t work the TV.
I had “rewired” my brain so that I could overcome my weaknesses.
As a professor, I’m now really interested in how people learn. That’s
how I got to know my coauthor, Terry Sejnowski. We talked a lot with each
other about how people learn. And that’s how I got to meet our other
coauthor, Alistair (“Al”) McConville. He has learned how to learn in an
unusual way.
We want to share lessons about how your brain learns best. These
techniques are simple. Lots of talented adults have told us they wish they’d
had these easy-to-understand tools when they were younger—it would have
made their learning so much easier. It would even have changed the
direction of their learning. They didn’t realize the power they had within
them.
You have a special gift for learning. When you unleash it while you are
still young, you will enjoy its effects throughout your life.
It’s easy to believe that you should only concentrate on subjects that
come easily for you. But my story reveals that you can do well in subjects
you don’t even like. The truth is, it’s okay to follow your passions. But I
also found that broadening my passions opened many wonderful
opportunities. Learning new subjects I didn’t think I could do turned out to
be an adventure!
People find it hard to believe they can be successful learners if they
have trouble with a subject. But neuroscience (that’s “brain science”) shows
that they’re wrong. Your brain is like an incredible tool kit. Your job is to
learn when, and how, to use those tools. After all, you wouldn’t use a
hammer to turn a screw.
Anyway, that’s enough about me and why Terry, Al, and I have written
this book. In the next chapter, I’ll show you what’s happening when your
learning becomes frustrating. There is a simple trick to make your learning
easier and happier.
Now You Try! Do a Picture Walk!
I used to go through my textbook page by page. I was trying to
make sure I understood all the ideas before I turned the page.
Sounds sensible, right?
Don’t do this! It was a big mistake.
Instead, when you start a new chapter, go on a “picture
walk”* through it. Scan it. Look briefly at all the pictures,
captions, and diagrams, but also at the section headings, bold
words, and summary, and even questions at the end of the
chapter, if the book has them.
It’s important to do a “picture walk” through the book to see the
pictures and the section headings before you begin reading.
This might seem crazy. You haven’t read the chapter
properly yet. But you’re giving your brain an idea of what’s
coming. It’s a little like watching a preview of a movie, or
checking a map before you set off on a journey. You’ll be
surprised at how spending a minute or two glancing ahead before
you read in depth will allow you to organize your thoughts. This
works even if you read on an electronic device. Just bookmark
the beginning of the chapter so you can easily return to it.
It’s a little like a closet. The picture walk gives you
“hangers” where you can organize the information you’re
reading. Without hangers, the clothes just fall on the floor in a
jumble.
Important! Get out a notebook
or a piece of paper—as you
read the next chapter, take
notes, answer questions, and
make doodles with key
insights. This will help you
avoid mindless reading and
help glue the new ideas into
your brain. Of course, before
you begin to read the chapter,
be sure to do a picture walk.
And try to answer some of the
end-of-chapter questions so
you have a sense of what
you’re aiming at in your
learning.
If you make a habit of this for
each chapter, you will find the
book’s ideas will be much
more powerful in helping you!
CHAPTER 2
EASY DOES IT
Why Trying Too Hard Can
Sometimes Be Part of the Problem
Has your teacher, or your mom or dad, ever told you to pay
attention? Or to focus? You’ve probably told yourself to do it! That’s
because it’s easy to become distracted. Sometimes whatever is going on
outside the window seems more interesting than what’s right in front of
you. You can’t help but think ahead to things like friends, or lunch.
Getting distracted is always bad. Right?
Maybe not. Let’s see.
Take a look at the chess game in the following picture. Look at the boy
on the left. He’s playing against the guy on the right. The boy’s rude, isn’t
he? Typical thirteen-year-old. No concentration. (Ever heard adults say
things like that? They usually blame it on smartphones.)
Thirteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen (left) and legendary chess
genius Garry Kasparov playing speed chess at the “Reykjavik
Rapid” in 2004. Kasparov was surprised that Magnus wandered
off, looking at other games. Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest
chess players of all time. Magnus is not concentrating, so he must
have no chance of winning. Right?
Amazingly, Kasparov didn’t win the chess match. It was a tie. The
world’s best chess player couldn’t defeat what appeared to be a hopelessly
distracted thirteen-year-old.
Surprise! Sometimes we need to lose concentration so we can think
more clearly. Zoning out occasionally (not all the time) can be useful when
you’re learning or problem solving.
Soon after this photo was taken, Magnus returned to the table and
focused on the game again. He had taken a little break so he could focus
better when he returned.
The message of this chapter is that sometimes you need to be less
focused in order to become a better learner. How can that be?
You’ve Got Two Ways of Thinking!
In the last chapter, I mentioned the word “neuroscience”—the science of the
brain. Neuroscientists use new brain-scanning technology to look inside the
brain and understand it better.
On the left, brain-scanning workers are looking through the
scanner. People lie on a special bed that slides into the scanner. The
scanner is then able to take a picture of the inside of their brain,
like the one on the right. Pretty neat!
Neuroscientists have discovered that your brain works in two different
ways. We’ll call these two ways of working the focused mode and the
diffuse mode.* Both modes are important in helping you to learn.
Focused Mode
When you’re using your focused mode, it means that you’re paying
attention. For example, you might be trying to figure out a math problem.
Or you might be looking at and listening to your teacher. You focus when
you’re playing a video game, putting together a puzzle, or learning words
from a different language.
When you’re focusing, you’re putting specific parts of the brain to
work. Which parts are working depends on what you’re doing. For
example, when you’re doing multiplication problems, focusing will use
different parts of the brain than when you’re speaking.*1 When you are
trying to learn something new, you must first focus intently on it in
order to “turn on” those parts of the brain and get the learning process
started.
When you’re in focused mode, you’re paying close attention.
Diffuse Mode
If that’s focused mode, what is diffuse mode?
Diffuse mode is when your mind is relaxed and free. You’re thinking
about nothing in particular. You’re in diffuse mode when you’re
daydreaming or doodling just for fun. If your teacher tells you to
concentrate, you have probably slipped into diffuse mode.
In diffuse mode, you’re not thinking about anything in particular.
When you’re in diffuse mode, you’re gently using other parts of the
brain that are mostly different from the parts you use when you are
focusing. The diffuse mode helps you make imaginative connections
between ideas. Creativity often seems to pop out of using the diffuse mode.
It turns out that your brain has to go back and forth between focused
and diffuse modes in order to learn effectively.
Let’s Play Pinball
To better understand focused and diffuse modes, let’s turn to a game called
pinball. It’s easy to play. You just pull back on a plunger. Once you let the
plunger go, it hits a ball up onto a table. You score points as the ball
bounces around on the rubber bumpers. Meanwhile, flashing lights and
wacky sounds go off. You use the flippers on the lower portion of the table
to keep the ball up and bouncing as long as possible.
Pinball tables are kind of like your brain. Their bumpers can be closer
or farther apart depending on the table. When the bumpers are close
together, it’s like your brain in focused mode. The ball bounces around
rapidly in one small area before running out of energy and falling down.
Imagine that your mental ball leaves a trail when it travels. That’s like
your focused mode—you make trails in your brain when you’re focused.
These trails are laid when you first learn something and begin to practice
using it. For example, let’s say you already know multiplication. If I asked
you to work a multiplication problem, your thoughts would move along the
same “multiplication trails” that had already been laid in your brain. To see
what I mean, take a look at these pictures.
On the left is the pinball version of the brain in focused mode. See
how close together the rubber bumpers are? The ball moves in a
tight pattern. Your thoughts can’t go very far! The ball is following
a fuzzy pattern that has already been laid because you’ve had the
thought before. On the right is a pinball version of the brain in
diffuse mode. Notice how widely your thoughts can range in your
brain!
The diffuse mode is different. In this mode, the table’s bumpers are
much farther apart. The thought-ball travels much more broadly around the
table, hitting fewer bumpers.
Our brains act like both kinds of pinball machine. If we want to shift
from thinking about the details to thinking freely about the bigger picture,
we have to shift from focused to diffuse mode. You need two tables. (But
importantly, your brain can be in only one mode at a time. The zombie can’t
play with two machines at once!)
Here’s a fun way to get a sense of the difference between the two
modes:
The focused mode—Eyes on the prize!
The diffuse mode—Eyes on the flies!2
Switching Between Focused and Diffuse Modes
If switching between modes is so important, how do we do it?
Well, if we want to focus on something, it’s easy. As soon as we make
ourselves turn our attention to it, the focused mode is on. Your thought-ball
goes swooshing around on that table. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to keep our
attention on something for long periods of time. That’s why we can
sometimes fall into diffuse mode and begin daydreaming. As you can see in
the picture below, if you let go of the flipper, your thought-ball falls down
onto your diffuse table, underneath the focused table.
Your mind stays in focused mode as long as you keep using
the flippers. But when you let go of the flippers, your mind
goes free! The ball drops down onto the diffuse table.
Diffuse mode is when we’re not focusing on anything in particular. You
can enter diffuse mode by just letting go and not concentrating on anything.
Going for a walk helps. Or looking out a window from a bus. Or taking a
shower. Or falling asleep. (Many famous people have had great insights
when the events of the day were sloshing around during sleep.3)
It also seems that focusing on something else can take us temporarily
into diffuse mode related to what we’re not focusing on. When we focus on
cuddling our dog, we’re not focusing on the math problem. When we’re
focusing on someone else’s chess game, we’re not focused on our own
chess game. This is why, when you’re stuck on a math problem, you can
instead switch your focus to studying geography for a while. Then you can
make a breakthrough when you return to the math. But it seems that the best
ways to give your diffuse mode a chance to work out a difficult problem are
through activities like sleeping, exercising, or going for a ride in a vehicle.
Kids with ADHD* sometimes like to imagine that their focused pinball
table has a few extra “holes” in it. These holes offer a hidden advantage—
they boost creativity! If you have ADHD, the “extra holes” also mean you
need to work your mental flippers a little more often than other kids to keep
your thought-ball on the focused table.
How do you work the flippers more? Participate as much as you can by
asking questions, writing on the chalkboard, distributing activities among
your partners, and working with them whenever you have an exercise
together.
Kids who have problems paying attention like to imagine
that their focused mode has a few extra holes in it. This may
mean they have to work their mental paddles harder to get
the ball back up into focused mode whenever it might fall
out—but it also means they can naturally be very creative.
Not a bad trade off!
Now You Try! Shifting Modes
Here’s an example to help you feel the shift from focused to
diffuse mode.
Use all the same coins to make a new triangle that points
down. You can move only three coins. (You may want to try this
by laying real coins in front of you to see if you can work it out.)
Clue: When you relax your mind and focus on nothing in
particular, the solution comes most easily.
Some kids get this exercise instantly, while some professors
just give up because they’re focusing too hard.
The solution for this challenge is in the notes section at the
back of the book.4
Getting Stuck
There are two ways you can get stuck when you’re trying to solve a math or
science problem. Or when you’re trying to learn something new, like how to
play a chord on the guitar or perform a specific move in soccer. The first
way you can get stuck happens when you don’t catch the initial explanation.
Unfortunately, with this kind of “stuck,” going into diffuse mode won’t be
much use. You haven’t “loaded” anything into your focused mode. Your
best bet is to go back and look at the examples and explanations in your
notes or the book. Or ask the teacher to explain again. Or look on YouTube
for an additional explanation. (But don’t let yourself get distracted by other
videos.)
The second way you can get stuck is when you’ve studied or focused
carefully—you’ve loaded the explanation into your focused mode. But as
you begin to work the problem, play the chord, or make the move, you still
find yourself stuck. You grow more and more frustrated. Why can’t you get
it?
It can be easy to get frustrated with your studies.
The reason you get stuck is that you haven’t given your brain’s diffuse
mode a chance to help out! The diffuse mode can’t get going until you take
your attention off what it’s focused on. Like Magnus Carlsen, the chess
player in the picture a few pages back, sometimes you need to take a break
in order to coax your brain’s diffuse mode to come to the rescue. Get your
mind away from the situation for a while. It opens up your access to the
brain’s diffuse mode.
Alternatively, focus on something different. For example, if you’re
working on algebra, you could switch to studying geography. But keep in
mind that your brain also needs a little rest sometimes.
If there’s something you tend to get stuck at, start with this subject
when you are studying. That way you can go back and forth to your other
class work over the course of the afternoon and evening when you might
find yourself getting stuck. You don’t want to leave your hardest subject to
the end when you are tired and have no time for diffuse learning.
When you’re in diffuse mode, your brain is working on the problem
quietly in the background, although you’re often not aware of it. The
thou
